anybody got any tips/ideas or links for hopping up a 283 ? i'm rebuilding a VERY low milage '61 model impala motor for a buddy and i'd like to give it just a bit more oomph. i want to keep it pretty much stock visualy but carb, intake, headers, cam, pistons, valve train and ignition can all be tweaked. the motor is going into a daily driver 65 nova street car so it doesn't need to turn in the 12s or boil the tires. i'm mainly looking for tips on proven cam, compression,carb/intake combos. anybody ???
not sure what the best cam would be, but the mild edelbrock/holley intake/carb set up always works for something a little more than gettin' up and going. headers, higher flow heads, bigger slugs. never done it personally, but i heard from my dad that 283's are pretty badass when bored a little to about a 301. plus, it's damn near impossible to tear up that block. had a stock one in my chevelle and it ran like a champ even after 40 years.
good luck, im thinin about doin the same with my 60belair post some pics and specs on the motor when your done
Sometimes the simplest stuff works best...especially on a 283! Back in high school, a buddy of mine wiped out the 307 Chevy in his 71 Ventura, and needed another motor to take it's place REAL quick. Another friend of ours had an old 283 laying around, so we did a one weekend backyard rebuild using a wagon for an engine stand and a host of tools pooled from all three of our garages! It was fun work, actually...we disassembled the motor, cleaned everything to the best of our abilities, gave it a quick hone with a hand drill and a borrowed honing tool from our high school auto shop, installed new iron rings and Clevite bearings, a new oil pump and a put the motor together with a cheap Mr Gasket engine rebuild gasket kit. bob satyed after school on Friday to grind the valves and seats in the stock 283 heads, and he rummaged through the valvespring drawer to pull out the best matching set he could find. I donated the stock cam from my 69 Chevelle's 300 horse 350 engine, and the respective lifters (kept in order when I removed them from my motor) to the project and we re-used the two barrel intake and carb from the 307, along with the single point distributor equipped with an extra set of Accel points I had in the glovebox of my Chevelle. The motor ran surprisingly strong! A 71 Ventura is just a 71 Nova, so it's not a big, heavy car or anything. It did have a TH-350 trans with a stock converter and 3.08 open rear. He scrounged up a set of used headers for it from another friend of ours and that was the extent of the mods! I always wanted to try dropping the aluminum 67-69 Z28 intake and Holley 780cfm carb off my Chevelle onto that little 283, but the guy's dad woulda freaked if he'd caught wind of such 'nonsense'! (His dad was weird...we coulda had a free 400 that ran fine, but he wouldn't allow his boy to go UP from a 307 to a 400...or do any performance mods to the smaller 283!) So...that 283 was just a stock rebuild with a 300hp 350 cam in it, and it was no slouch! That car stayed right with my Chevelle until the secondaries on my car came in and I could pull away on the top end...but off the line and through first gear...dead even! (My Chevelle ran 15.20s with a warmed over 350, TH375 tranny, stock converter and 2.73 gears...the Ventura with the 283 in it woulda probably pulled a 15.6 to 15.8...not bad for a two barrel 283!) Of course...all this took place back in 1984 when regular gas was still available at any gas station. Today, if I were to run a 283 at all, I'd equip it with a set of good 305 heads to run on unleaded fuel, give it the same mild cam (or close) that we slipped into my buddy's motor when his dad wasn't looking, and top with a Weiand Action Series intake and a Holley 600cfm vacuum secondaries carb. Maybe an HEI since it's 2006 and all!!
Here are the specs for the 283 I'm putting together: -1965 283 block bored .030 over to 286 -stock rotating assembly - Comp Xtreme Energy hydraulic flat-tappet cam Lift- Intake: .447 Exhaust: .454 Duration- Intake: 212 Exhaust: 218 - Stock rebuilt power pack heads - Corvette exhaust manifolds -Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold - Carb is yet to be determined, it will be 650 cfm, I was going to go with Edelbrock for convenience, but know i'm thinking Holley for more tuning flexability. My reasonable, if not slightly optimistic goal is 300 HP, 330 FT/LBS, Possible with proper tuning, especially considering stock 4bbl 283's made 230HP/300FT/LBS in 1958. What's more, I plan to clean up the edelbrock manifold, paint everything, slap on some corvette or chevy script valve covers and you've got a perfect hot rod motor, perhaps aquired from a friend at the chevy dealership in 1957?
lil- I'm a big believer in headwork for the SBCs. Myself and a friend are currently doing a 283 for a "fun-only" nostalgia racer that will keep its stock short block (except for balancing). We're using "double hump" heads, but a nice set of "Power Packs" would probably be fine - actually, they may be more suitable for the street - and a lot cheaper (a complete pair goes for $40-$50 around these parts). Just be sure to "massage" the runners and match-port them to the intake/exhaust gaskets. Get a good valve job too. Don't scrimp on the headwork. Save money elsewhere if necessary. I had a small speed shop back in "the days", and we used to sell a shitload of the stock Chevy hydraulic cams from the 350 HP 327. They were cheap and worked great - especially if you had good heads so they could breath. Not sure if that cam is still available from GM, but you could probably get something real close from an aftermarket cam company. The stock springs that go with it are OK too. Maybe a set of Rhodes (anti-pump-up) lifters? Roller-tip rocker arms are relatively inexpensive too (RPMs are your friend - on the little motors especially). Anything you can do to remove weight from the rotating assemblies will generally help - and don't forget about balancing. Be careful not to over-carburate. Its very tempting, but (IMHO) one of the most common reasons for a doggy motor. Smooth-running little motors that can breathe well and turn decent RPMs rock! You didn't say if the tranny was manual or auto, but remember your gears (tranny and rear-end) need to be right for the motor (and car's weight) if you want optimum performance. Improper gearing can spoil all the engine work. Have fun!
One of the reasons that 283s were so popular is that they were a good setup even in stock form. If you had a 283/220hp power pack engine, you could do a lot worse. I wouldn't really want to jack the compression any higher than stock these days; remember, the power packs were rated at 9.5:1 ( I don't know how close that rating is to the real world). Just keep in mind that it's a small V8, and if you run headers, small tube Tri-Y style will probably make the most power for you on the street. Any performer style intake would work well, keeping in mind that no modern intake design allows for the front mounted oil tube; I've always hung onto an old Edelbrock C4B just for that reason. If you like the click-clack of solid lifters, buy a blueprint of the Duntov "097" cam that is still available, not the "346" or "30-30" camshaft that replaced in in 1964. Than one's too wild for anything but an all out race 283. If hydraulics are all right with you, there are several grinds that will do the job. A '61 engine would have a forged crank, so if you used forged replacement pistons and had it balanced, you could wind it way past its power peak without fear of failure.
dig around at some of the swap meets see if'n you can come up with the old two bump heads as well the 202-194 valve heads gave much more intake and breathing to give it a lot more life out of the hole too and then the carbuation could be upgraded lots more than with the smaller valve heads most people don't even give these heads a second glance but are well worth the few dollars more and think if'n you guy's can google up canadian high performance or the equivilant in your area they still have the rebuild kits for those engines had a few in my time Al
Some of the new Edelbrock intakes now come with a circular pad up front where the oil fill tube would be so that you can drill it out with a hole-saw (or the Edelbrock tool for that secific job) if desired. Back in the 80s, the late 60s Z28 intakes were cheap and plentifull. I had one on my Chevelle, and bought a couple others at swap meets for $25 to $40! They're still one of the best intakes you can run on a warmed over small block. (But ironically, back then we used to plug the oil tube hole in those Z28 manifolds with freeze plgs because we didn't need or want the fill tube!) Wish I woulda kept one or two of those old stock aluminum intakes, but Holley makes a near copy of it, and the Weiand Stealth is every bit as good, if not better (just no provision for a fill tube).
i'd like to know more about this tool from edelbrock , i checked their website and couldn't it..do you have a part # ?
It was pictured in their catalog from a couple years ago...essentially just a hole-saw for a 3/8" drill with an Edelbrock logo on it from what I could tell...but sized right for the typical Chevy oil fill tube. I don't have a copy of any old catalogs here...but SOMEBODY must???
here's a link, couple guys have done this before with a 1 1/8 hole saw then use a drum sander to get a nice finish fit. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46700
I had one in my 62 impala...This is what i did....Bored over 30 ....flaptop piston's 4 releif type...nothing to special there..Comp cams 268 ...it had a steel crank...194/160 valve camel hump heads mild work done to them,just a good clean 3 angle valve job....edelbrock perfromer intake,edelbrock 600cfm 4bbl carb...HEI ignition...car ran 14.50's constantly....Got bored bolted on a B&M 144 supercharger 750 cfm carb...went 13.70's at like 106 all day...with an open rear with 3.55 gears... It also had a turbo 350 trans with a 1800 stall...only problem there was I blew the motor up a yr later all because i had regular cheapo flat top piston's i melted the #1 piston on a run at the track it leaned out on top end i was also shifting it at anywhere from 6800-7200..i had full floating pistons and high rev lifters...im sure i was going past the cam specs but the car always ran in the 13's that way if i shifted it any lower i didnt get the same results so thats why i shifted that high....hope that helps you out ...................
Most of my uncles were around street racing during the late 60's - early 70's, an even coming from an era where one would think the 283's time had come and gone, they all describe the 283 as "a mean little motor."
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