Quote: keep the trans in mind...all things equal unless this is a hypothetical situation if you have a big block and are thinking of changing to a small block...everythings different...that can get expensive. as for power id go with the 383 they make gobs of torque, rev to the moon, you could find a set of closed chamber heads put bigger valves in them some mild porting and make a low budget screamer. I had a 440 with 67 lopo closed chamber with a valve job and bigger valves, stock short block a used fireball cam and iron sixpack and it put 400hp and 550 ft lbs to the pavement with a real conservative tune had 2500 into the whole deal with the sixpack 1200 into the engine and most of that was the headwork
All i'd be missing is mounts (cheap) and a SB bellhousing (just sold one, dammit!). I think the only real expense would be a set ov GOOD headers for a small block... but for now it'd be manifolds or shorties if need be.
Oh, and my 383 already has 516's, and i have another really nice set ov 516's kicking around as well. Was thinking down the road a bit having them shaved pretty hard and doing some minor porting with some 1.81" exhaust valves.
