Featured Hot Rods Heavy Duty truck 283 differences?

If anyone thinks a freshly rebuilt 283 is going to have all stock internals, they deserve to lose to a low-performance truck engine!

 

It’s a 1. April 18 1959

 

Isn't that all 283's?

 

I think they changed later (early 60s) to a small damper.

 

I’ve got one with a hub and another with a small dampener
Internet rumor says the dampener showed up with cast cranks

mine had a forged crank and small dampener

I don’t know

 

I looked a bit and saw that too (cast = damper, Forged = hub). However, everything was experience and hearsay, not solid facts.
Seems the same for the point where it went from no bolt to the bolt.
I didn't go through Jim's photos to see if it's do***ented there, either. My fault there.
I'm sure the info is out there, but being many decades from the starting point and that darn near every single one has been played with by now, it is going to be tougher to get exact time frames and exact info. Couple that with high volume manufacturing where it was bolt it together and get it out the door and there probably isn't a single exact changeover for all the plants and products.

 

Maybe I'm remembering wrong; thought the earlier lower crank hubs, you know, the ones with the riveted on pulley and only two holes for puller, had some rubber built into them. Sorta like dampers have.

 

Dont think it matters which one you run

I drilled my crank while it was out.
Just because I could

 

Funny reading the specs and seeing the 8.0-1 compression engine having more horsepower than the 8.5-1 engine. Also the rating was at 200 more rpm for the 15 hp difference. I wonder what the 8.5 at 4400 would have been.
GM did things like this with many engines. Fords also at the end of the flathead V8 era the available 6’s were out performing them.

 

Well I guess im the kid in question lol. Thanks for all the info on this motor, its good to see that I lucked out on finding a good one. Ill have to post more on what I find and do to it. For those wondering its going in a 31 Model A coupe.

 

Got two in the garage, both forged cranks, one with damper, one without. The without is a 58, the with is a 62.

 

^^^^^ I’m going to guess Chevy started using dampers on 283’s that were used on base 327’s. A 2 for 1 kind of production mentality if you will.

 

I don't think so, they were thicker on the 327 as I recall. pictures are hard to find, but the damper that came on the 250 hp 327 in my Corvette is almost 350 sized, while the 283 was noticeably different, I think the outer ring was about 1" thick.

Here's the 61 283 that was the first engine I overhauled in 1977. This might be the hub/stamped ring type?

 

In 1965 a friend and I went behind the local GMC dealership and spotted a 283 shortblock that had been put in the dumpster after it had been warrantied. We put it in the trunk of my '55 Belair and took it home. It was out of a brand new truck of some kind and I got a brand new crank, seven rods and pistons and timing gear set (roller) for the engine I was building. A great help to my project as I was working for $1.25 an hour.

 

Welcome Cole. Looking forward to seeing this project develop.

 

I thought every 283 was a Corvette engine, at least that's what their owners tell you at the car show.

 

A friend of mine was a big block Chevy guy, said "all small block Chevys are Vega engines".

 

^^^^^ @lumpy 63

 

I like Vegas

 

Well played ^

 

It might be a truck engine, but it's got all of the factory heavy duty components. That's a high note.

 

@anthony myrick , I like Vegas with small blocks.

 

I like Vegas with big blocks.

 

I like em with 4cyls on Astro supremes and skinny WWs

 

Oil pan capacity and full roller rather than Silent link timing chain jump out, too.

 

KCTA Chris, Cole:
It's great to see fellow C*** Countians cooking up another Model A with a surprise under the hood. I'm with the "paint it green" folks. Sheep on the outside, snarling wolf internally. Can't wait to see how this one develops.

 

Thanks, the more I think on it the more im leaning toward painting it green. I keep picturing a chopped coupe with a quick change and wide 5’s, the green would look different but cool along side of it with the history to back it up.

 

What color will the Hot Rod be painted ? It may affect your choices of colors that work with the green. Not offering a Yea or Nay here, just saying that you may want to get further along in your build before locking in on engine color no matter what color it is.........

 

Mike's right, of course. Color compatibility has to be worked out at the beginning. That said, I've got a Ford blue 351W with a Rustoleum green cab on my '29 AA and don't care that they clash, just that they reflect their original colors.

 

My socks hardly ever match