Why They Seldom Build 283 Sbc Engines

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
Staff member
One of the local guys recently purchased a 1960 impala with a 283 engine,
the engines in serious need of a rebuild, So I started looking into parts availability.
while all the parts are certainly available,
notice the 283 has a smaller main(2.30") and rod bearing diameter (2.0")
than the later 327-350 engines with the much more common and cheaper
(2.45" mains and 2.1" rods)
and that difference limits choices at decent prices,
and the current parts have millions of revolutions and 60 years of stress ,
so replacing the old existing rotating assembly seems warranted.
except for some local refurbished parts some machine shops have in stock.
I suggested he might want to build a 350-383 as the cost of an upgrade would be rather minimal,
compared to rebuilding his 283 that appears to be well worn,
and most likely will need the block bored and a new rotating assembly as the old one has well over 300k miles and has already been rebuild once in the past,
as per the original owners mom.
given that and you can generally expect in a mild rebuild for street transportation,
to get about 1 hp and maybe 1.2 ft lbs of torque per cubic inch of displacement,
going the larger displacement and larger bore, and cheaper parts route seems a no brainer to me!
yes you may already have a rebuildable 283 block and the crank and rods might be salvageable, but after 300K miles and a previous rebuild, Id suggest the existing components are well used.

CrankSpecifications-SBC01.jpg
jornalz1.png

https://www.scatcrankshafts.com/
 
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