Which engine to choose for Chevelle?

[Big Dave]

Decision made and engine built....383 stroker.

[oldsman71]

that will work!!

[sycopath]

big chevy

alumanium head 540 9 or10. to 1 tire frier

[MR P-BODY]

While I see you went old school you could at least put a Fast injection
system on it and pick up power and mileage... IF I owned a GM I would
have gone with a LS... more power and lighter weight on the nose... if
you wanted more power yet.. a single or twin turbo with 8-10 pounds
of boost and still get the mileage..... I am finishing up a Mopar right
now(a Dodge Rampage little PU) its old school with a 416ci SB but I
am in the process of picking up a Gen 3 hemi for it

[Beagle]

Modern aluminum heads on an "old school" 383 will be a hoot. It's hard to argue with the torque you can make with the inches!

The LS's big benefit in my mind is decent heads right off the bat. You don't have to go out and buy heads, but that's the biggest benefit I see. You put decent heads on a roller cammed 383, and I don't think you're giving up much of anything to "new" school - at least at the 500 hp mark. Beyond that, yeah, we've all heard plenty of boost it to the moon stories.

I can't see what manifold but it's got a helluva pad on it - if it's a single plane I would definitely agree with P-body on EFI...

I was gonna answer Boss '9 but ... grin. Nevermind. haha. Need Details!

[yellomalibu]

Decision made and engine built....383 stroker.

Tell us about it. What heads, cam, intake? Carb or bolt-on EFI?

[mlcraven]

x2

just because theyre in the magazines doesnt mean there are a million of them rolling around on the streets

throw an iron 6.0 in it with a good set of heads and a cam and be happy, carb or efi is up to you

Your final choice -- a classic stroker small block -- makes good sense; barrels of fun without spending buckets of $$$. For those concerned about "boring", quite frankly I think the BBC option is overdone and over-hyped. As for the LS phenomena, its popularity in enthusiast mags is probably a reflection of the influence of the advertising department and the desire to have fresh content (but not so fresh anymore, now that the next gen Chevy 'small block' is coming out!).