just re built my 5.0 to put back in my 1987 lt camaro but have been holding off after getting a phone call from a friend that told me he had a 350 i could have off of his air boat..
he just got him self a 383 to put on his boat.after driving 600 miles to fl and 600 miles back to pick it up i just looked up the gm part # 12499101 and the dam thing is a 383 hate to make this phone call in the morning..

OK what I'm reading this thing is built for trucks makes a lot of torque i love going fast and burning the tires off but will this thing work well in my light car its a daily driver with a 305 pushing 280 hp with a 373 gear and a 700r4 id love more but is this the right engine for my car??

So you took his new 383, and left him his old 350? And you're gonna keep it?
This engine is a cam away from 400+ HP, but even so, you'd like it better with 3.42:1 gears.

I agree in that it needs a camshaft for power. Also check to see if it has Vortec heads. You might have a problem hooking up your intake manifold if it has the Vortec heads.

no he had no idea that the engine he just took off and i drove 1200 miles to pick up was a 383 he told me it was a 350 he just got a new 383 built for it and put it on a few days ago.. yeah i like the 342 just have to put it back in was just trying out the 373.. so what do you think about puting this thing in my camro?

yes it has vortec heads my 305 has them too i have headers on the 305 im sure they will fit right onto them

Unless your 305 was rebuilt at some point, or is a truck motor or has a truck intake, you don't have Vortec heads on it. Externally...Vortecs look no different from standard SBC center bolt valve cover heads.

But if you have his 383? Put that in your car. No reason to put a 305 in when you already have a 305. The headers for your 305 are probably too small for a 383. Yes they'll fit & bolt up, but that doesn't mean they'll flow the larger air real well.

And you'll wanna put in larger injectors....Do some PROM tuning, etc. But it'll all be work it.

yeah the 305 has been built the guy that had it b4 me for some reason spent a lot of $ on it it was not till i just tore it down to do main bearings that i seen it had after market crank and cam. heads have been worked.. nice intake and headers..i just re done the hole thing and this 383 just fell into my lap. the pic is of the 305 that just got done no need for injectors im old school cant stand FI cars have to work on them all day

I was teasing about "stealing the new engine"
Yes, put the 383 in the car, it'll be a lot more fun.

l pulled the heads today on the 383 everything looks good did not have time to take the pan off to look at the bearings.. looks like i may just do head gaskets and let her eat need to see if my headers will work and need to see what fly wheel i need since it did not come with one

GMPP's online catalog should have your answer. Let me know if you can't find it in there.

well looks like my fly wheel from my 305 will work but what do you think about my Edelbrock Shorty Headers??

The headers will be on the smallish side, but unless/until you upgrade the cam, they should be okay.

(Looks like your car is surrounded by paint-traders.)

cool trying to keep this on the low$ after just rebuilding the 305

yes thats my 75 and 76 monte carlos

OK just got the time to pull the pan on this thing and pulled the first 2 main bearings furthest from the pump the first one was worn very good showing lots of copper the second one was not so bad and pulled a few rod bearings and they are perfect not a mark on them the pic is of the first bearing the 2 bolt main cap think everything is ok and can just do main bearings with the rod bearings looking as good as they do what do you all think?

You'll want to ask your local machine shop if they have an open box of 0.001" main bearings. bearings are available 1 thou loose, and 1 thou tight. The safe thing is to go 1 loose for the badly worn position.

are you saying just replace the one that is showing copper real bad or replace all of them and go 1 1000s lose on that one?

If the others look good, just go loose on the one that was bad. It's relatively cheap, and it'll give you a little peace of mind.

so got my new main bearings 65$ for my 383 got to the 3rd cap and the dam thing was in half. i have never seen this b4 have you? what can make it do that? the bearing still looked good and the journal looked good you could not even tell it was cracked till it came off. what do i have to do now can i just get a new cap line hone the mains and be done and will the std bearings i got still work?
not havin a good day and the fresh 305 is looking better sitting on the stand

Yikes! That is not good. Just money to fix it.

I have NEVER seen that happen before. Suddenly I'd feel that that block suddenly could not be trusted. I think you should stop with it, and settle for the 305 for the near future.

I'd def ask my machine shop about that busted maincap. That's insane.

I dunno if I'd scrap the block, but I would if I could. I'd rebuild the 383 with a new block, personally. you got a lot of good parts on it. Are the heads any good? I'd just hate to put a 305 in it. It's just a waste unless you've got nothing better.

to keep that block would require trying a bunch of caps, then getting it align-honed with whichever one fits best. Not bad, but what if the block left GM with tweaked machining that causes the replacement cap to break?
Alternately, finding another block should run around $100, plus at a minimum getting the cylinders re-honed.

going to call my machine shop on Monday..BUT after doing a lot of reading this happens a lot on high torque motors. and most of the time its from over torquing the caps..I think it being a 4 bolt main saved it the bearing looked just as good as the others dont think it was moveing around at all. i may just put the 305 back in just untill i get this thing right need my car back

yes just got the heads back from the machine shop all is good

well was feeling some what good till i just made a call to a Friend that builds late model cars and he told me that sometimes if a main cap does that the webbing in the block may be cracked 2. but he did tell me that it being a GM create motor the possibility of the cap just being over torqued is very good