I was thinking about dropping someting else under the hood of this thing. But I don't really know which way to go. 350 or 383? If I do decide on one of them, how much horse power can be put through the factory Auto trans, and rear, without destroying them? I had the trans rebuilt b/c my reverse went, so the trans is running strong and smooth. I'm trying to do this without spending a ton of money. I just want some horses to show off.


Any Imput?

 

Moved. Not a FAQ.

 

There are virtually an infinate amount of combos that can make a 350 and 383 perform relatively the same. It boils down to what you want to do with the car and what type of power levels/goals you want to achieve.

 

Basically... it's all about what amout of $ coin you're wanting to put into the engine/trans/rear end.
You've stated that you don't want to ruin your newly-rebuilt transmission and rear end.

You can probably run 300hp through your stock setup w/out worrying about ruining it w/ constant abuse over a period of time.

That leads me to believe that you're better off w/ a mildly built 350cid engine, with an aggressive cam/4bbl manifold/aftermarket header combination.

In the '70 Camaro, I have a 388 Stroker w/ a Weiand 142 Supercharger, Bowtie Phase II 2.02/1.60 heads, Reed solid cam, Crower roller lifters, Crane 1.6 roller rockers, Holley 750 DP, MSD Boost Retard Kit, Hooker Super Comps, 3" Flowmasters (true duals), and that's running through a Muncie M-21... and a GM 12-bolt posi 3.73:1 rear end.

I'm making 500 HP and close to 550ft. lbs. w/ that setup... however, I've got thousands into it.

It's all about how much money you're looking to throw at it... in a nutshell.

 

I guess if Im going to do this Im going to do it right, and change the trans and rear. 400 horses would be plenty for me. I guess 300 is respectable. But not enough for me.

The stock engine I have now smokes on start up, smells strong when I floor it, doesnt respond great. It has it's days where its "out". Seriously, I put a quart of oil in the thing like every 2-3 months. I dont want to put a lot of money into rebuilding a stock engine, with no horse power.

 

It doesn'treally matter how much power you have if you can't put it down. Its easy just don't run slicks. Most of the breakage problems occur during the initial shock during launch. If you don't have slicks you can't launch hard and stuff won't break.