I decided to move forward on a "beater" motor for my '68 Bee and stash the original 383. I had another '68 383 block laying around so I dropped it off at my not-so-local anymore machine shop back in the high desert. Another moparts member made me a great deal on some .030 1.320 CH Diamond pistons, I picked up some BBC 6.700 K-1 H-beam rods on clearance from Wiseco, and ordered a 3.915 B-Motor crank from 440 source. I plan to run Eddy heads so this setup will yield 451 cubes at about 10.5 compression. I want to keep a somewhat stock appearance so I plan to run the factory HP exhaust manifolds and 2.5" factory style 440 exhaust. The 383 had a Performer RPM and an 800 Edelbrock AFB so I'll be swapping that setup onto the 451. A fresh coat of turquoise paint and a 383 pie-tin will go a long way to hide the true nature of this motor.

Question is, is there a better "manifold" cam out there than the old .528 MP solid? I know Andy's "manifold" 471 ran best with that cam & this motor is really just a smaller version of his 471. That was a few years ago, has anyone actually run something that works better?

FWIW Gears are 3.73 & I plan to drop the 3000 converter to about a 2500 converter