[Marv D]

Not exactly apples and apples, but.....
Scott Forte was a employee of a well known carburetor, cam and head manufacturer and we talked at length about the "420 HP TOTAL PACKAGE" They offered. I also asked him if they had ever put the package on a 383 and what improvements they saw. He was quick to explain that the 383 they built did NOT see any higher "PEAK HP" numbers than the 355 dyno mule that was built to test the package and make the 'advertised' numbers. They DID see improvements of as much as 30-35 pound ft of torque in the 3000 - 4500 range. With HP being nothing but a function of torque and rpm you can say the 383 did make more 'overall power'. But heads, cam and all had not offered any great benefit to 'PEAK HP' between the 355 and 383. With most smallblocks making a peak in the 6000-6500 range, and being pretty much all done by 7000, that's not surprising with a milder cam.

Myself I suspect that would be the very much case here with the 276HR in a 383 vs a like built 350. A hydraulic roller is a HEAVY lifter and RPM's above 5500 - 6000 are typically nothing but beating up on the valve train,, and torque falls so quickly that peak HP suffers (again, torque and HP are exactly the same at 5250rpm, so were just talking a function of TORQUE with a cam that is not going to be real happy above 6000). So especially with a hydraulic roller motor,, forget about any advertised HP numbers. (There usually bogus BS anyways) Put it in a real simulator like Engine Analyzer (calling Super73!!!! LOL) and you can get some pretty decent ideas of how much torque increase you will see. and just keep in mind,, that increase will be in a very DRIVABLE range.