The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Rebuild or Repower?

May as well hear what experience has to say. Obviously my 283 is toast.

Option 1. Rebuild, bore and give it max safe cubes. I have an access to a iron 4B period correct intake. Comp 260 cam and sniper FI. I will need to replace WP, Starter, Dist, Alt, etc on this engine.

Option 2. Buy a long block and still need to buy all the accessories.

Option 3. Buy a turn key engine. I figure I would do pre 1985.

Seems to me the cost of all three will be fairly close. I will know more in the AM when I go talk to local builder.

Any thoughts?

The 283 is a sweet little engine I love them. However, if I was going to spend the money, the 350 is more bang for the buck. With the modern fuel supply and a small cam and probably a better intake manifold, you'll be way ahead in the long run. Just my opinion.

Had a 283 (67 Chevelle) in high school. Rebuilt it back then and after finally wrecking the Chevelle I had it in two different Chevy trucks a '68 short box and later a '63 short box. I even put it in a demo derby car for one event. Great engine. I picked up a 283 a few years back that I hope to rebuild and install in my '59 Apache 32 someday. If you're looking for economical hp, upgrade to a 350. If you want something a little extra cool stick with a 283 or find yourself a 327.

It's your truck, just my opinion.

John

If you look up restoration in the dictionary it says, "bringing something back to it's original condition".
Traditionally original trucks hold their resale value better, over time, than upgraded ones.

If you are restoring, then you have your answer, rebuild the 283 to original.

If your goal is not restoration but cost, and many choose this, then compare the cost of a rebuilt 283 against a rebuilt 350.
A local machine shop in my area offers specials on rebuilding 350 engines mainly because they do so many that the shop gets a cost break on parts.
People like the 350 for it's power and reliability whether street rod, cruiser or work trucks. You can find a good used 350 and have it rebuilt.

In the commercial industry/business, long block crate engines are a cost effective way to return a truck or taxi cab or ambulance back into service quicker.

Turn key in my opinion are for people want new parts and are willing to pay for it. They usually want to add specific custom options (heads, cams, intake, EFI or carb etc.).

A 350 won't be a drop-in swap, but pretty close to it. It will build more torque than a 283, due to the 1/2" longer stroke. Feeding those extra 70 cubic inches will be painful at today's gas prices, even with some sort of Rube Goldberg squirter system instead of a carburetor. The next small block V8 I'm planning to build will be a destroked 305 with about 250 cubic inches, and enough valve train modifications to live pretty happily at 9K RPM. In your situation, I'd choose to build the 283, with a minimum of modifications, but I don't have to pay a machinist- - - -I've accumulated a bunch of tooling and a fair amount of experience over the past 50-something years. I just don't pick up big engine blocks and walk around the shop with them any more!
Jerry

If it comes down to dollars do the math, the 283 won't be that much more to rebuild. You can have a lot done to the engine to increase is power and reliability and still stay within your budget if you shop around for parts and machining. I personally would keep the 283, it's the original engine to the truck and it's cool besides.

I value all of your knowledge, experience, and wisdom. I'll be crunching numbers over the next few weeks.

Its no wonder the turn key places don't state prices with their engines. 10-14K for one and that is the low end of things.

I like the bump in HP and TQ from the 350, but wanting to stay true to the truck is a conundrum I tell ya.

Another thought, if you find a good deal on another and choose not to use the 283 you can always keep it to avoid later regrets. Or to keep with the truck if you decide to sell it in the future. For the purist's that desire total original.

John

Agreed John,

I doubt I will be able to use mine as core although it is a SB.

I guess there is always the option to LS it. Really don't know the pains of installing one, but I have a complete 6.0 with nv4500 close to me.

I purchased several new 350 crate engines from Jegs over the last number of years delivered for about $1400. That deal no longer exists, the lowest price engine they have now is a rebuilt later block with the one piece seal for about $1800 plus they want a core exchange. I believe the new early design GM crate engines start at about $3200. A friend recently got a quote from a local rebuilder here to do
a 327 for about $2600.
Fred

Interesting: "GM has been slowly phasing out its Gen III LS crate engines since 2019 to make room for crate versions of the newer Gen IV LS".

Searching GM's website for the basic 350 crate engine requires you to select a local business which happens to be a Chevrolet dealership.
So my guess is GM only has a limited supply and is reserving them for the dealerships.
You also have to factor in the virus and labor shortages hitting GM.
The crate well is running dry.

The only new (long block) 350 JEGS engine is the heavy duty L31 made for trucks. $4,068.99 w/ free shipping (also on eBAY).

So I have been looking all over for replacement engines while local builder builds up a estimate to compare. He knows I am considering a complete replacement as well.

I am so confused as to what I am looking at to purchase and no places are calling me back to confirm. I have been told I need to find a pre 86 block so everything bolts up to it.

When I am looking at Jegs site I can find a listing for a pre 86, but then in the details it says 87 to 95. I have been looking at the valve covers in the pictures. I think pre 83 has bolts around the perimeter and post 87 has them across the top.

When I am looking at HP and TQ pre 86 seems to be lacking significantly.

Looking at Gandrud, GM performance, west coast engines, etc, they list small block, but everything seems to be post 87. I am using these sites to gather information for sites that have less information.

I have found a couple turn keys that really offer good bang for the buck once you factor in all bolt on accessories including a dist intake ps and ac pump, starter, and serpentine belt system etc, but they all seem to be post 87?

So will my rams horn exhaust manifolds, sm420, alt, etc bolt up to a post 87 block? If not can I adapt it easy enough?

If I repower I am not looking to go radical. I just want a 350 with 350ish hp / 400tq ish.

The short answer is yes, all of your accessories will bolt up. The transmission is a direct bolt up. The 87 and up SBC used a reverse flow water pump, your original would have been a short style and used brackets that bolted to the block not the heads. You may need to change your water pump to a long style along with the brackets.

Ok. This is sounding better. Trans no issue. Would love onto be able to use the 66 valve covers, but unless I can get 86 and older that would not be able to happen. Another reason to keep the 283.

Probably the best way to end confusion is to decide what you really truly want at the end of the project and set yourself in that direction. If you want a high performance engine in a 56 year old pickup, that's one thing. It may not be cheap.

On the other hand, if you want a really nice rebuilt 283, all you need is a machinist with the sort of passion for excellence in his work that Jerry (and others like him) have. That 283 has a chance to be resurrected as a terrific engine in the right hands. I've owned/rebuilt 3 of these and I was not impressed with the ones from 1957 and 1958 when compared with the one from 1967...not certain what but something was changed that made the later 283 much nicer. Nearly an ideal engine, in fact. Good luck.

In 57 and 58 the GM train drivers who introduced the 283 a couple of years too soon were on the uphill slope of a steep learning curve. The biggest gripe the owners of new 57's had was the fact that the 55's with the 265 engines were outrunning them on a regular basis. By about 59 most of the demons had been exorcized, and the 283 got a lot better- - - -performance and reliability-wise.

That being said, there's nothing particularly magical about 283 cubic inches. Virtually all of the small block V8's from the 265 to the late 1980's 350 have a huge amount of parts interchangeability, so making up cubic inch displacements the factory never introduced is just a matter of picking out the right parts list and making sure all the pieces play nice with each other. I like to do that stuff myself, while others just bite the bullet and whip out the old checkbook. The engine that I'm able to build for $1k from pieces lying around in my scrap heap will cost somebody else five or six times that amount if he pays somebody else to do it for him. My junkyard engine will still outrun the high dollar one, at least most of the time, mostly because all the parts and pieces are singing from the same page of the hymnal, and they've been massaged sufficiently to be able to harmonize.
Jerry

Some food for thought. Your 283 is complete and was running, it should be an easy rebuild. Parts are not that rare or expensive, with a quality Machine Shop it would be money well spent.

As an example the machine work on my 327 was about $1500.00 which includes extensive head work and balancing. I did all of the assembly so I can't speak too the cost of that. I have just over$3000.00 in the entire build and that includes high performance parts.

Agreed on most opinions. Local machinest has decades of experience and called the probability of my engine being wore out based on what I had told him.

I just want options and want to make best choice for myself, the truck and my kids who will be driving in a few years.

I don't mind the assembly, but I don't want problems on my shoulders. I have enough going on right now and this engine taking a nosedive was not what I needed right now. Haven't decided if I am simply writing a check as I am doing everything else on this thing and I am not a engine guy if you noticed all my dumb questions.

Jerry. PM Sent

Summit Racing ATK Crate engines starting at $2496 to $4153. 2 year unlimited mileage warranty.

Any listing for an engine that indicates that it has a one piece rear seal has a different flywheel bolt pattern. So your early flywheel will not bolt up. There are also some other differences. Some of the later blocks are designed to use a block mounted fuel pump others do not. Some (as indicated in Jegs specs) use the early heads with the perimeter bolt pattern on the newer engines.
Others use the center bolt heads which require a completely different intake manifold from the early engines.
It's very confusing even for those of us that have been around this stuff for some time. The good thing about Chevy engines is that parts interchange but finding the right combination has been made more difficult lately.
Fred

If kids will be driving it then I definitely would go with the 283. Just me, but I've been to that party and a small V8, a V6 or even a decent 4 is a good choice. I had a 283 in a 1958 Bel-Air when I was younger and while I wasn't hog wild about the engine I drove it all over the place playing piano in bars and clubs all up and down the Mexican border over as far as San Antonio and up as far north as Hobbs. No earthly idea how many miles I drove, but it only let me down once...when a timing chain broke. Fortunately that happened in the street next to my house. The only other problem was oil leaks. The early 283s had a real problem with the rear main seal. Good luck.