Found a set of these in the shed hear at work the other day...are these worth monking with...could prolly gettem for next to nothing
The 305 CI 416 heads are a very good head for the type of engine you're building. The chambers are around 58cc or so. You can put larger valves in them - just depends on what you want to spend. They'll need to be rebuilt like any other head and you should put screw-in rocker studs and machine the guides for good quality seals. I'd surely consider putting hard seats in the exhausts. If it was mine, I'd probably go to 1.94/1.6 stainless valves, match the ports to the intake gasket, maybe do a bit of clean up in the bowls and be done with it. You're not building a race engine, so there is no reason to go nuts on porting or other expensive head work. If you want to spend a bit of money, consider a hydraulic roller cam . . .
Why are you so obsessed with swapping the heads????????????? Unless your power pack heads are cracked ,they are already good enough for your engine. From experience with a flow bench , just do a decent 3 angle valve job [and radius the face of the exhaust valves] only go up to 1.84" intake valves if this is needed during the rebuild [and get them "back cut"] The cheapest way to up the compression on a 283 is install a 327 crank and 307 pistons [during your rebuild] This is assuming you are buying new 283 pistons anyway. A 327 crank would be cheaper than milling the heads/decking the block AND match facing the intake manifold. A 9.0:1 compression 283 engine will jump to 9.76:1 compression just from increasing the swept volume to 307 [std bore] Power pack heads are good for 270 hp in stock form, and 300 hp with a bit of valve work . You would need to build the rest of the engine to support this. 300hp from a 283 is achievable , but more liveable from a 307 stroker [but the reality is ...... 250hp is more realistic]
If it was mine I’d have thePP heads freshened up, ridge ream and dingle ball the cylinders, install new bearings rod and crank, a 500 or 600 cfm 4bbl on a matching manifold maybe headers or least dual exhaust 2 or 2 -1/4 pipes mild cam something on the order of the comp cam 260 h and drive the snot out of it. While freshening up the bottom end if anything is found out of allowable tolerance have machine shop repair as necessary. With 3.50 ish gears it should drive anywhere well. Dan
We all are guilty of being "Romanticized" with hotrod parts and bling . It starts with dreaming over car magazines, then we fall foul of "product placement" on channels like motor trend. I've grown up around road racers where modifications were restricted to Homologated parts etc [minimum production numbers] Because of this , I've learned to blow the doors off cars with far superior engines. And sometimes my engines looked like something found in a dumpster [this goes back to my street racing / hustling days] Sometimes this was simply good engineering and sometimes it was blatant cheating @bryan boswell If you set your sites on 1hp per cubic inch it would be a good useable street engine. And stay with that .............. If you want more power, then go bigger [eg:383sbc with 380hp] over 1.15 hp per cubic inch and it is stretching the usability for an all-rounder 300hp would be a reasonable ask from a 307 Chevy [283 with 327 crank] Your existing heads with valve work would flow that. A set of 307 flat tops, a 327 crank, mild cam , dual plane intake with 500 cfm carb, and Corvette Rams Horn 2-1/2" outlet manifolds. With some thought [and repro decals] you could build a nice engine to keep the provenance of your family heirloom.
Well . . . after all the ideas and debates . . . seems you're basically doing what you planned in the beginning. Lots of different build options were discussed by all of us (and proposed by you and others). Did any of the input actually influence your plans? It seems that you're pretty much back where you started. Maybe that is good . . . Just do you . . .
Yes all good info learning a lot about what I can do and what's worth it or not. I'm considering the roller cam conversion. Lot more expensive but seems like money well spent the machine shop said its not a bad idea either
I'm working on developing the mentality of converting any engine I rebuild or cam swap to roller. Just gotta find a company that makes good parts that isn't $5k all in for a roller conversion lol
Posted the other day https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...p-in-my-non-roller-350.1324798/#post-15388501
RE: Hydraulic Roller Cam Setup Talk to Chris Straub at Straub Technologies - he made a hydraulic roller for my 383. Engine makes 520 HP - exactly what he said it would (knew all the rest of my parts): Straub Technologies
Didn't post the whole message, but I agree with what 1biggun is saying. You can go for bragging about how your engine has this or that numbers matching things in a parking lot or you can build it to be more driveable and still pretty fast.....certanly faster than a 283 no matter what cam and heads you put on it. My current formula for building is to get more displacement and less compression ratio and hook it to an overdrive transmission. Then I can drive it a lot more and not pay an extra $0.50-$1.00 a gallon more for gas. We all like to talk HP, but when you build for HP, it mostly occurs at higher rpms and the low to mid range suffers. Build a larger engine with 9:1 compression and you will be faster and probably still get decent gas mileage. The biggest reason why many people don't drive their cars regularly is because they are expensive to fuel and the engine is run at too high an rpm due to poor choices in transmissions and rear end gears. Two Lane Blacktop was a great movie for us when we were kids, but there are more and better roads and you need to cruise at 75 not 55 these days. Build an enjoyable driver and you will drive it a lot more.......
The other thing guys are not mentioning is more torque / bigger engine will allow the same acceleration with a taller gear and thus also means a higher more comfortable cruzing top speed. A 350 or even a 383 is going to pull a 2.73 or 308 gear and whole lot better of the line than a 283 and let you run 70 with no OD. I rode in a C1 Corvette recently that had 413" SBC ( 400 .060 OVER) with a turbo 350 and 256 gears . The car pulled pretty damn hard still even with those gears. At 60 mph it was spinning like 1900 RPM. AT 75 IT was in the sweet spot . It's not a super high performance build hyd flat tappet lifters but does have aluminum heads . Makes 400 hp on regular gas so I'm told . It will smoke my 57 vette with a high compression 307 ( 327 crank in a 283) with a big cam and 461 heads with 1.94 valves well ported and 350 gears i can't really run at 75 well . That car with the 413 with a say 3.73 gears and OD would be really fast/ quick and still drivable all day on regular fuel. I'm very tempted to yank my 307 out and use it in the much lighter 27 roadster 4.11 geared hot rod build and build a simple 383 on Later block with factory hyd roller lifters . Here premium is about $1.00 more a gallon and I drive the Vette a lot Likely pay for the new engine in fuel cost savings alone. Other than a different dampner and a road draft tube I dont use anyway 99% won't know or care . It's not as easy as one thinks to get 283 HP out of a 283 on today's pump gas . It's going to take some serious cam and heads . The 57 fuel injected Vette made 283 HP and was a pretty hot little engine . It certainly can be matched with today's better cams and intake and heads but it's not a mild build and won't have a lot down low for a heavy car. I have a set of 12-1 .060 over 283 pistons and a 30-30 cam new in a box . I want to put the Hilborn injection in my avatar picture on it eventually with a set of worked 461's i bet it don't make 330 HP done on race gas.
SB Chevy 283 engines use a small Hub, it's not a full size 6 1/4" or 8" Harmonic Balancer like the 302's 327's 350's & 400 use, but you can buy a new full size Harmonic Balancer for your 283 and have it balanced with the Crank, Rod's Pistons and your 4sp Standard Trans part's.
Hey guys...so the rear end is a 3.36..seem a little to high? I'm guessing it's original. I wish I new what it was turning last time I had it on the highway but tach wasn't working. Machine shop wants to know for cam choices but I'm thinking I may wind up changing them anyway?
One of 283’s factory gears would be 3:36’s. Most likely a PowerGlide trans from factory. What do you mean by “to high”? Other factory gears are 3:08 3:55 3:73 4:10 and 4:56. There are shorter gears available but not ever offered by Chevrolet.
what is the main thing this car will get used for? My 61 Has 3.36's and they are great for freeway driving. If you are going to drag race your car you may want to change them to a deeper gear
Mostly just cruising but would like it decent off the line. It's 4 spd muncie..I think an m21..Def not an m22. It seemed to wind out at 60 to 65 and that's the fastest I ever took it but unfortunately the tach wasn't working so can't say for sure. Really like to able to cruise at around 70 comfortably
your car will be doing about 3000 rpm's at 70. My Impala has a 4 speed also. I have driven my car all over the country with 3.36's at 70 mph plus with no problems. The thing is that people are used to their late model cars that cruise at 1800 rpm's and they think their old cars need to be the same. Believe me that the car does not care. The tallest gear you could put in your car is a 3.08 and it would really be a slug off the line with those gears
Keep in mind a vehicle with a Muncie 4 speed manual will roll out much quicker than a PowerGlide will.
Given that you have a 4-speed, you have a bit to "play with" as compared to a PowerGlide. I'd keep those gears if you want to go on the highway for any length of time. If it was my car and I wanted the best of both worlds (and could spend the $$$), I'd put 3.73 gears in it and a 5-speed transmission with overdrive.
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