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?
You've obviously got higher standards than i do. This is how i do it... buy running engines (preferably original... so no bad mechanics work hiding inside), and dump 'em in cars. Its easy to tell if they're good. Never dropped in a good one yet and had a bad surprise. This 383 came from a nice car who's owner i knew, and i'm not cracking a gasket on it. That ALLLLLLLLWAYS leads to more work and more money. Its amazing how far you can go on 'i'd rather not know'... heh heh...
I'm sure it will burn some oil after time, the Mopars always do. Buying used is always a gamble, even in this case, but from what i've read here so is spending thousands on a big fancy build. This way if it goes bad i'm out a free 383 and just have to feed the crop-duster while i look for another drop-in. My budget for this is about $300-500 tops.
