took the truck out yesterday! it ran, shifted and stopped

[neverwinter]

well after a week or so of fiddling i got it out on the road. brakes seem ok - for drums that is. she def isnt the fasted thing in the world and i was in 4th at about 30mph. def some clunking and clattering and will need a solid tuneup.

i'm sure its been covered billions of times but if an extreme newb wanted to do some simple bolt-on doodads for power on the stock 283, what do you all suggest?

heads, cam, exhaust, carb, intake?

not looking to go 500hp or 130 mph. merely curious as towhat you all use as a recipe for a fun daily driver with a little more oomph for highway. i am also reading about swapping the rear end gears to help with the rpms.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Im thinking by the time you spend all that money on the 283 you could find something more up to date for the same cash that would run alot better. You really dont know how worn that 283 is. Of course if you are trying to keep it preriod correct then don't do this.

[SulphuriousSam]

Neverwinter,

I'm in the middle of rebuilding mine. Just going back with OEM stuff is gonna bang ya for at least $400 bucks for a rebuild kit. You will find that everything for a 283 is more expensive than for a 350. I assume that's because 283's are getting to be rare and there's less call for the parts/gaskets/etc.

I had added it all up before hand and to build the 283 for performance was going to be a LOT more than building a 350. I chose to just keep my 283 but take it back stock to save money.

That being said, if you insist on souping up your 283, then an aluminum 4 barrel intake, a q-jet 4 barrel, a nice performance cam (doesn't take much of one either), some headers to replace the exhaust manifolds, then of course put some power pack heads on it and you've got a hot little motor...that was really expensive to build

[neverwinter]

LOL thanks Sam! yeah was more just thinking aloud. I just dropped some coin on one of my bikes and had a guy flake on buying one of the others so cash is tight for a while. I kind of want to keep this as-is unless for some reason the engine goes. At that point id have to look into the whole rebuild vs. crate etc. I just read all these magical claims of "add 30hp" or "increase tq by 20%" with all sorts of bolt on doo dads but they fail to mention the rest of the stuff thats been done. If you could get 20hp with a simple carb swap wouldnt everyone do it? Thanks again for the replies all.

- jason

[kieth]

More fuel

Needs more air (heads)

Needs less restrictive exhaust (headers) muffleres

[SulphuriousSam]

^^^^
What he said

Stick with easy...and if you want cheap you better start with headers instead of heads unless you find a set used somewhere.

There's ways to get tons of performance from the 283 but most of 'em ain't cheap.

[BMERDOC]

I'd start with the intake and exhaust first. You'd be suprised at how much a simple intake/carb swap costs after all your materials are accumulated. Consider swapping over to HEI also. Leave the long block alone. I think this stuff will give you the extra you are lookin for.

[blackdawg]

A good used set of headers,a intake and carb are a good way to increase power for little money.I purchased a 600 cfm rebuilt edelbrock carb,preformer intake with a adapter plate and a set of headers off of craigslist for about 280.keep searching the deals are out there.