Thanks Bill. It seemed to me according to some folks I'll call "the supposed engine gurus" that 396 bbc's are really useless engines in terms of making any power.....
......stuff like "nobody makes a decent head for a small bore engine" and "my buddy has a 396 powered car and he couldn't keep up with my 355 powered car"....and of course the weight penalty for the extra 100 or so lbs for the small bore engine.
I'll go on to say it now, the 396 in my car still has the original closed chambered oval port heads and rods and that's about it. I went with a forged crank and forged pistons, arp rod/main/head bolts, then added a .574/.578 lift cam, then topped it off with a Performer RPM intake/750 Holley and a Mallory HEI. It breathes thru a set of 1.75 primary headers thru dual 2.5 inch pipes out the back fitted with Ultraflow mufflers.
With a 3000 rpm torque converter and a 4.10 ring and pinion out back it's nice and torquey and pins you to the seat from a dead stop. But it still has me thinking "what if I pulled it and did a 383"....
I've got roughly $3k in my engine, which i thought was rather cheap as everyone says "buiding big blocks is expensive"....what would be a ball park on building a 383?