Input on engine and tranny combo

[northcountry67]

The body of my 67 GMC is near complete. It is two wheel drive and I shortened the frame. I am now in the market (short on funds) for the best engine and tranny combo. Any input would be appreciated. I have a lead on a 68 Chevy LWB with a 283 and 2 speed powerglide. The motor will need rebuilding.

[mrein3]

Lengby, MN? I had to look that one up.
Welcome to the site from a fellow Minnesotan.

To answer your question I would look towards a 350 small block. It will be the cheapest to rebuild. Since the 283 you are looking at already needs to be rebuilt I'd look elsewhere.

Once you locate a good rebuilder you find yourself firmly on the engine rebuild slippery slope. A 383 isn't that much more to do than a 350. Better heads aren't that much more than stock. And so on. However the 350 in my Chevelle that I rebuilt wasn't in too bad of shape when I started. The bores were still in spec. I basically cleaned it up, had a machine shop go over the rods, honed the bores, had a valve job done on the stock heads, and ended up with less than $600 in the whole thing. There are a lot of crate 350s out there for less than $1000.

For a transmission I'd stick with a th350 as long as you aren't building a fire breathing dragon in front of it. Lots of guys on this site are using 700r4s to get the overdrive. But then you are looking at $1000 for a 700r4 rebuild verses $500 or less, more than likely much less, to rebuild the th350.

If funds are short and you just want to get on the road find a running 350/350, clean them up, then install them. Then you can drive your truck until the funds are there to build a real nice engine.

[northcountry67]

Thanks for your input. I have been shopping for a 73-79 Chevy pickup 2wd to use as a donor. I'm sure with the way they rust here I'll find one running cheap.

[super72bb]

I am partial to a 383 stroker when it comes to small blocks. But if price is the big one, I would lean towards a 350 as well.

It is always such a hard thing when it comes to buying a motor from someone without ever hearing it run first. Often you see in the local buy & sell paper a engine where someone has dumped lots of money into rebuilding it, and it hasn't ran yet. For whatever reason they have lost interest in there project or the just need the money and are forced to sell. If you are patient you may run across such a thing. I would be really leary of someone without reciepts from a reputable engine shop listing the work that was done. In other words... any time I ever had an engine built for me I always had it well documented what was done. A fello board member "Duece" ran across a kick A$$ 383 stroker this way, at a fraction of what it would have cost to build it. You take a bit of a risk there is no doubt, but if you do all your reasearch it can pay off huge like it did for "Duece"

Just a thought

Curt

[Old Yeller 1970]

I vote for a 350 engine (GM only made 60,000,000 of them ) and either a TH350 or TH400 (if you're short on cash) or 700r4 (if you can afford it).

[matthufham]

in my case i have 2 350's, one's a block with heads, the other is a beat up longblock. i plan to trade the longblock in for a fresh longblock 350. that's about $750 with my core charge in there. mate that to a th350 that came out of the truck and drive it.

with the truck running, i plan to take the other 350 and build a nice 383 out of it over a maximum period of 2 years. i have a th400 that needs rebuilding, but for the cost of the rebuild, a shortened driveshaft, new b&m shifter window for the 4 speed, and other stuff, it's better to stick with my th350.