Quote: Talking unrebuilt short blocks here, the 360 magnum wins hands down. A 40 year old cast ringed 383 that lived under a carb all its life versus a moly ringed 360 that lived under a clean running efi system. If you've ever taken apart a high miles carb engine versus a high miles efi engine, it's a night and day difference. The 360 will have better ring seal, cleaner pistons and valves and be easier to get a decent compression ratio out of on a budget. As much as I like big blocks, you almost can't find a good running good condition unrebuilt stocker anymore.
I DO have a nice 383... got lucky. But now you're making the new stuff sound even better to me. Didn't know all that stuff. Hmmm...
Just HOW good is that 383? I built a 440 before, an unrebuilt engine, I threw a new set of rings in it, 440source heads, lunati cam, headers. It ran great during normal driving but just didn't make the upper (4000+) rpm power it should have. Upper rpm is where sub-par ring seal really shows itself. Since you already have the 383 and all those parts it's really hard to say sell but we don't know the true condition of the engine. Did you ever pull a head off it? If so, how much ridge was there?
