SB Chev 355 or 406

[carl hinkson]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Build a 383....best bang for the buck in a street engine.

Stock 350 block...none of the 400 block problems...

I built lots of them....and with all the piles of inexpensive rotating assemblies out there now it's a no brainer and easy to do. You don't have to use a Stock GM 400 crank or the short GM 400 rods...

Only minor issue is rod to block and cam clearance and it's not much of a problem with any stroker type h beam rod.....

Stroker type rods usually clear a small cam with no problems.....

Easy to check during a preassembly...Only 2 pair of rods ever get close to the cam lobes anyway...




A decent stock block with little or no core shift just needs a little grinding at the bottom of the cylinders for the added stroke..

The cam to rod clearance is real easy to check.
I used strips of cardboard, or clay and a mirror....

A 383 has great torque and a perfect street strip engine...




400 blocks are nothing but problems...

Don't ever go by core shift its a poor indicator compared to actual cylinder placement when the mold is put together.

I have seen block with zero core shift fail a sonic test and I have seen many blocks with very poor cores shift pass a sonic test.

The only real advice is sonic test for true results.