so i got this 350 4 bolt main for free. i tore it down yesterday to the bare block and am going to have it hot tanked. this will eventually go into my 89 vert and be a weekend driver. I want power. what is the best route to go for a weekend/ maybe daily driver? 355? 383 stroker? Please give me any suggestions. I plan on making it a carb b/c i am sick of TBI already. I was told 383 would be better b/c it would wear less since they dont rev as high. not too sure about that... i am going to order some vortec heads for it sometime in the future also. what are the best style pistons to use?

 

a couple more pics

 

If you want something as a daily driver then stay with the 350 as is. Use a stock style Flat top piston. That way you don't run into clearance issues with valves. Run a TPI for a daily driver too because of fuel consumtion will be better. If you want a drag car, then go all out. Bored out and stroked, Big Valves, Big Carb, etc. But watch your gas gauge go downhill fast.

 

build whatever you like. Using a carb will not effect your fuel mileage that much. big cams with single plane intakes, and poorly tuned carbs will give crap fuel mileage.
I have a vortec 383 with a carb and love the power. This is a street car also.
As far as your motor wearing out quicker with a 350 you would have to assume that person is refering to valve train wear. 350ci will need to spin higher to produce similar h.p. of a bigger engine size. The faster you spin the valvetrain the shorter the life spain.

by the way my fuel mileage from my 305 tpi to 383 carb was not that different while driving down the highway.

 

the reason i wasn't going to keep it a 350 was b/c it needs to be bored. the walls aren't as bad as i originally thought though, could i get away with just honing them? the stock pistons were dished, not flat top.
thanks for the info guys. i appreciate it

 

I think you can assume it'll need to be bored. 383 will cost around $300-400 more than a rebuild to get the crank and weighted damper & flexplate/flywheel.

383 will certainly have more grunt. Piston speed is higher than a 350 at any given RPM, so wear isn't a freebe.

Not sure what you mean by piston style. Do you mean flattop, dished, or domed; or cast, forged, or hypereutectic?

 

ill probly just make it a 355, im sure i would be happy with that if it had a decent cam and heads on it.
yes thats what i meant about the piston style. techno101 said for economy to stick with the stock flat top pistons, but it has dished pistons..

 

Which pistons you use - dished, flat top, or domed - is dependant upon the chamber size of heads you put on it. You want to keep a reasonable compression ratio, and you do that by working the deck height (the distance the pistons are down in the bore), head gasket thickness (volume), and head chamber volume as a whole. For the typical 64cc 350 head, you'd want about 12cc dish & valve relief pistons with about .040" total deck height and head gasket thickness for around 9.5:1 static compression ratio.

For the record: If you bore the cylinders, you need new pistons. If you don't bore the cylinders, you may be able to reuse the current pistons. Whether they would be okay depends, again, on the heads, etc.

 

thanks for explaining that. i am probly going to stick with a 355 and just make it a decent street engine b/c i will need to pass emmisions.

 

cranks are stored standing up and down, not on their side. furthermore, I hope you kept those main caps in order or marked them