I'm putting togehter the 283 I've been wanting to build for a long, long time. The parts are showing up easily for some reason lately, so I think it'sign I must finish it.
I've got a wild solid roller motor now that's fun to drive, but want a more reliable piece for long drives and extended reliability.

The 283 I have now is as follows:
.060 over forged pistons with 4 valve reliefs.
305 HO heads, bowl porting, stock valves & Z-28 springs. headers of course and an RPM intake.

I'm running a 1900 lb street rod with a 3.23 gear, turbo 350 and 3800 stall converter.
This car is a play toy. I can use a lower stall converter to take advantage of the gear ratio and cruise rpm of 2800 for a hydraulic no brainer or, go for a nostalgic solid. What cam is the question for either scenerio?
The thought of keeping the 3800 converter has crossed my mind for use a nostalgic solid cam. What do you cam gurus think?

What size combustion chambers do the heads have? It is really difficult to build any compression with flattop pistons in a 283. If the heads are larger than 64cc forget about using them. Just guessing with 64cc heads on a 283 the most you'll get compressionwise is just over 9-1. If you run a large cam with this combo it will be a real slug down low. I built a 283 with trw domed pistons years ago and used open chamber 76cc heads and it was a dog. With the flattop pistons I would think 55-58cc heads would be alright with a 270ish cam.

The 305 HO heads have had a little shave and are probably 55-58 cc chambers.

Jimmy P,

If you want a 'Nostalgia' solid, I'd suggest a Lunati 40199--it just means 'custom grind', with a grind number of 01-UF14-UF14-10-A01.
This is a 264/264 at .020, 232/232 at .050, .470/.470 valve lift, and 110 LSA. I'd run the valve lash at .012" cold, .016" hot, and put the cam in around 103 to 106 ATDC. It should be ground around 106 ATDC.
This cam is a lot like the original Duntov cam, but will a little more power.
The biggest hydraulic I normally use is the 301A3LUN, 266/272 at the seat, 211/217 at .050, .441/.454 valve lift. and 110 LSA. Your 3800 SS converter might could use more cam, but I wouldn't go larger than the 301A6LUN, which is 276/276 at the seat, 221/221 at .050, .454/.454 valve lift, and again 110 LSA. It is a lot better than the old 350HP cam.
Hope this helps....

UDHarold

Thanks Harold. You da man. Im ordering the the little solid today!