350 Rebuild

[nikwho]

Originally Posted by garyd1961

Never said there was anything wrong with a 383 been there and done that myself. I'm saying a 350 with a good set of heads is better than a 383 with 882s or even camel humps. If you got the money for the machine work and good aluminum heads go for the 383 by all means. Just don't forget we are talking about a kid and his first motor build though.
I still would start with a roller block. Why put all the money and effort into a motor with a flat tappet cam when you can have a hydraulic roller for another hundred bucks.

Well, it is his child, who may be an affluent adult. You are asserting that it is a kid. I respect your opinion, regarding how you would build the engine, but I would personally approach it a little differently. If on a tight budget, I personally would invest as much as I could afford in building a super stout short block, with new Scat/Eagle/etc. rotating assembly, solid machine work and ARP bolts/studs, even if it meant poor performance, due to short term use of poor quality heads. I could then get that engine installed and driving, then later upgrade the heads.

I do agree with what you are saying about a factory roller block having some added value. I meant to just say that I would not write off a good buildable gen 1 block.

Nik