Help!

Hey, I've got 77' Camaro, it has a 350 in it. I have the option of making the 350 into a 383, or put a 327 in instead. What should I do? Its not going to be a race car of course. But I want my disco ara camaro to turn some heads and smoke some honda's. If you have any ideas, please share.

Build the 350 to a 383 and sell me the 327. In my opinion the 327 is better because you can rev it higher and it is made to rev easier. The 383 fits under the old adage "no replacement for displacement" which is true. But you can put some good high compression pistons in the 327 have it balanced and blueprinted put a hotted up cam, and 300 "double hump heads" that have been reworked and get a solid 400 horsepower small block with a air gap intake and a 600 to 650 cfm carb. Msd ignition headers and flowmaster exhaust you probably get 320 to rear wheels with a good lockup tranny and some 373 gears, lighten the car with fiberglass body panels relocate battery to trunk and then you probably could not only smoke some hondas but might even eat a 5.0 mustang if neither is turboed or shooting two much gas. The problem with the camaro is the heavy weight issue, and the huge steel bumpers add about 150 to each end of the car, the more you lighten the load and tune the 327. the more powerful it will be. One of the easiest ways to get the most out of it would be look to jegs or summit for an elderbrock package and find you a good machine shop that you know will not screw you. One of the things about the 327 is that it is worth a lot of money to someone restoring a corvette, nova, impala, or older camaro. So watch out that whoever does the work on your 327 doesnt swap it for a common 350 or 350 block. Also be careful of the cast numbers on the block and heads, there is apossibility that the 327 you have already has the more popular doublehump or camel heads. You will make more power if you use the lighter weight heads from the aftermarket but I have always tried to preserve the authenticity of an engine by using "old horsepower" tricks. I hope this helps you and if you want to build the 383 sell me the 327.

Sell the little engine and invest the money in the bigger one. As Aveo pointed out, the Camaro is quite heavy (compared to the first gen, anyway). The 383 is a far better performance engine for a street car, especially a heavy one, than 327.

While 327 may enjoy a better rod/stroke and bore/stroke ratio, it has been obsolete since 1969. 350 rendered it that. We still hear from the shade-tree crowd about how great "300" or "double hump" heads are. It's pure mythology. In the late '60s, 327 was the "king of the small blocks", no doubt. 40 years have passed. New things have been developed. The "041" head (350 and 370 HP 350) is a FAR better performance head. And it's obsolete, too. A pair of Dart Iron Eagles outperforms them easily, and unless the 350 heads are already ported, will do it for less cash outlay.

Eagle (and others) make a great 383 "kit", too. Avoid those with cast cranks, as they're known to flex BADLY over 5,000 RPM. The ONLY cast crank we've found able to stand up to performance usage is the factory Chevy nodular 400 crank, with the mains turned down to fit the 350 block. Those are getting quite rare. Get the kit with the forged crank. You'll thank me later.. (:-

Choose your entire combination BEFORE buying ANY parts. This will avoid the "changing horses mid-stream", and insure compatibility.

We sent a 383 to Holland last year, with Dart Pro-1s, Comp XE274H, 10.25:1 compression, Performer RPM "Air Gap", etc. that makes an honest 500 HP on 93 octane gas. They put it in a Cobra "kit car" (I TOLD them Cobras have Fords, but they wanted the Chevy). They're now afraid of the car! When he hammers the gas, the car just spins around in circles... (:- I guess they just read about 500 HP, and had no idea what it REALLY means... How many out there have actually driven a car with 500-plus HP? Unless it's a great big engine (450-plus CID), it's going to be a bit of a handful! I LIKE IT!!!

Aveo,

Not to rain on your parade, just letting folks know, things are different than they used to be, and as a current builder in the real world, I speak with experience, and only a desire to see others do well with their cars.

On that note, we DID build a performance 327 (not a resto) for a '64 Impala last year. We used a Comp solid XE grind, light (lighter than the old TRWs, anyway) pistons, Performer RPM, Hookers and a 3.73 gear. With a 4-speed, the car went 12.90s last Summer. Not bad for a big ol' tank! But it requires "race" gas, and can be a nightmare to just drive around town (QUITE rowdy...). There's no free lunch!

Jim

Im sure you are right about all of that I just want him to sell me the 327 because I have a 67 crackerbox nova with a 6 cylinder in it now but was a factory ss car with a 327 powerglide and i want the engine because there is a high likely hood that it will be date code correct for my nova. I dont know why they took the eight cylinder out and put a six in unless they were concerned with gas mileage,

put the 327 in it. a 383 is all stroke and no bore and they dont rev as high as a 327.327's have great hp and tq numbers too when built right.