I haven't been on here for about 6 months and I gotta say, I don't see many of the old user names anymore.
Anyhow, I found a place that actually has reasonable prices for 383 short blocks and heads. I bought one of the short blocks and a set of heads for my Chevelle. Obviously it will work in a Vette also.
Here is a tale of good and bad things.
The block is a GM 4 bolt main and comes with a steel eagle crank, rods, speedpro cam, speedpro pistons, is fully machined, balanced and assembled. The heads are GM steel and are 'reconditioned',and come fully assembled. The short block cost me $1790.00 DELIVERED to my door and the heads were $400.00 plus $50.00 shipping. Now I am not saying you will get these prices but they will be very darn close. That is part of the good part.
The bad part, which brings up the fact that the engine comes with a 5 year 50,000 mile warranty. I am not overly fond of moving engines in and out of cars. I have better things to do with my time. A dyno shop avoids taking all the time to put it in and then finding out it doesn't run. I set up an appointment with a 'local' engine dyno shop. We did a 20 minute pre-oil using a drill through the distributor opening to the oil pump. Then did a 30 minute cam break-in at around 2000 rpm. Did a quick valve adjustment and then we went to lunch. After lunch we warmed up the motor and did the first pull. The motor made 374.5 hp at 5253 rpm and had torque of 398.2 at 4531 rpm. The print out I got was started at 4431 so I suspect the actual peak torque was much higher at lower rpm. We started the second run and got 375.8 hp at 5136 rpm and 408.0 torque at 4451 rpm. The print out started at 4451 so as before, the actual peak was probably higher. At 5300 rpm a valve guide decided it REALLY liked the valve stem and held it tightly, like a lover, and it resulted in a bent push rod and an obvious aborted run. Found that out without having to put the motor in the car and getting stuck on the road.
Now, for more good news. The warranty pays off. As soon as I called the motor builder, he immediately sent me a complete set of intake and exhaust valves, valve guides and pushrods. It was my decision to do the work locally instead of sending the head back to him. While waiting for the parts to show up, a friend examined the motor to ensure the valve did not hit the piston and found two disturbing things. First the clearance between 5 and 6 rods was only .005. He said it should be a minimum of .012. Secondly we found that the crank shaft was radiused ( like it should be for a high performance crank ) but the rod bearings were of a 'stock' configuration. Meaning the bearings were riding back and forth on the shaft causing wear on the bearing. During the 35 minutes or so that the engine ran, the metal on the bearing was worn down to the copper. I called the builder again and he found three of four engines that he had crated and ready to ship, had the same bearing problem. He has now ordered the correct bearing. It is not really his fault as he gets the strokers as a complete kit. His assemblers just never thought to check for a match between the bearing and crank. The correct ones should have been supplied with the kit.
As we reassembled the engine, we found a final problem. The cam had been degreed on the exhaust lifter instead of the intake. So it was degreed in at 114 degrees instead of 106 degrees. (big time power loss)
After talking to the engine builder yet again, we determined that the heads he sent me had not gone through the reconditioning process yet. I know why it happened and it is like a one in a million thing. (too long to explain here). Anyway, none of the valve's seating were even remotely equi-distant from the head deck. (means the compression from cylinder to cylinder was not the same due to different combustion chamber volumes). We did a comp valve job to fix that.
Tomorrow, the engine builder is supposed to call me back and tell me how much he is going to re-imburse me for the labor charges. I have a pretty good feeling he will send me a check for the whole $2200.00 in labor and the $650.00 for the aborted dyno run.
I still think that even with the problems I encountered, which the manufacturer is now aware of and will correct, it is a good price for a stroker engine and that they seem to be a good company to do business with. The engine made very good power considering the cam was off and no two cylinders had the same compression. ( all that will be fixed for future engines ).
Tomorrow, after I talk to the builder, I will let you know who he is and how well he stands behind his warranty.
This really is a good solution for the weaker 350s in many of the middle and later c3s. You should be able to use all your existing brackets, intakes, carbs, suspension, etc. etc. I decided to use an Edelbrock RPM air gap with a Holley 770 Street Avenger and an MSD distributor with a 6A box. This pretty much keeps my power at a very streetable under 5500 rpm. If you have deep pockets, you can always decide to spend an extra grand on a hydrolic roller cam and valve train and pick up a whole group of power and torque.
Stay tuned.

I hate to say it... but the worst thing about a bargain... getting what you pay for..

but if he's willing to reimburse you 2200$ for a 1800$ engine.. then it really cant be that bad..

Yet another reason I hate crate engines and prefer to build my own.

Although I have to admit that we buy lots of short blocks here, but only frome one or two relialbe sources for dyno testing. This is of course a time saving factor. The short blocks we get are very reliable, when couple them with our heads, intake and carbs. Many of these engines end up with thousands of hours and dyno pulls. We have used short blocks from Tennesse Motor Supply, JR Motorsports and Blue Print Engines.

When we decide to do it right we use Lunati, period no ? about the quality and if the parts have been matched and balanced. Just requires a deeper pocket.

I'm also thinking of a crate for my 79. The engine is running OK but needs some work. The carb is leaking gas and either needs replacement or rebuild, there are several oil leaks, the car runs hot (check overheating posts)and I want more power. It would be nice to convert to a BB but I know that would require much modification. Maybe a 383 but that doesn't reall get the mojo flowing. It appears everybody has a stroked 350. So where am I going with this, who knows? Any pros/cons to the BB swap that someone would want to share?

problemenko said: So where am I going with this, who knows? Any pros/cons to the BB swap that someone would want to share?

pros.. coolness factor x 5

cons.. expensive time consuming swap, SB are much easier to work on and get parts for..

Still waiting to hear from the engine supplier, should be a FAX coming to me today.
As far as a big block swap and the small block lacking mojo, my '69 has a 427 / 390 hp engine. This stroker ( now that it is running right ) should have higher hp and just about the same torque. Even the short printouts that I got showed over 400 ft lbs at over 4000 rpm. The torque peak was ( I guess ) probably around 2500-3000 rpm and was more like 425-440. Once I get the money straightened out, I will either go back to an engine dyno or use a chassis dyno and try to reverse work the numbers to make a comparison.
Again, stay tuned