Sure it's been beaten to death
 

What build would be the better of the two for street application...a built 355 or 383? I have a spare block and want to swap it in my current car after it's built. I don't drag the car. It's a weekend cruiser. I don't know much about either build so please contribute!

383 will be overall better, but more expensive. If you are buying forged everything (including crank) you should just build a 383 b/c little to no price difference, but if you go 355 you can reuse the stock crank and maybe even rods depending on how aggressive you plan on going.

You could get away with the stock crank w/ a 355 build which would save you some money. Labor wise it would be a tad bit more for the 383 build on top of a new crank. The 383 would pump out more torque as well. I'm in the mix of doing a 383. Just need to figure out now if I want to build it for some juice or a ProCharger :)

TQ is king in my book, so a 383 would fit the bill :D

more cubes= more gooder. It is NEVER a bad thing to have too many cubes under the hood.

More Gooder :)

The more cubes you have the more street friendly the car will be. Why do you think the new C6Z06 is 427cid. It's easier to get it to drive like a regular car and make more power.

+1. For most people a quality 355 build using the stock crank, forged rods, and forged pistons is more than sufficient for their power goal. Top it off with a nice heads/cam package and you're good to go.

I was being silly, lol.

I've got the mostest bestest engine out there. I will not never beat all of you!!!

No No NO.
Mo' gooder

Ideally a 383 would be best overall for reasons metioned already. The only thing that I would be weary about is having some good heads that can feed those extra cubes; there's no use in having a 383 with mediocre heads.

Honestly it all comes down to how much money you have for the build. I would spend some money on a good set of pistons, lighten up the stock crank/rods, ARP bolts througout the bottom end, then use what's left over on a "good" set of heads and custom grind cam.

If you have the cash for a 383, go 383.

wat kind of power could the stock crank/rods hold up to. i was thinking of doing that with heads and cam plus a 100 shot

I would get some Compstar rods, some Diamond pistons, and keep your stock crank. Those components along with quality machine work, good bearings & rings and you'd have a stout shortblock. Top it off with some ported heads, beefy cam, quality valvetrain, and a 100 shot, it'd be a real performer.

sounds about like my plans. *sigh* one day...

Sounds like I will spend the few extra bucks and go with a 383. Another question I have is, what Oil pump is recommended with a 383 build? Will I need to run a larger oil pan as well? I see Moroso and Canton make a aftermarket pan...which of the two would be better?

This solely depends on your builder, but I recommend the larger pan. I chose to go with the Canton 242T for the added oil capacity and plug/play capability. I'm also using a high-volume/pressure pump (Melling Select 10552), per my builder's recommendation.

Stock crank is a lot stronger than most give it credit, I was ~900 crank HP on mine without a problem.

A good friend of mine was running stock crank/rods with speedpro pistons. He had GTP heads/cc306 + 150shot which went 10.76@127mph through a blown 10-bolt. He had gone through a few bottles with the 200shot on there but pilled the car to 150 to stay safe. IIRC the car went 10.4x with a bigger cam on the same shot with its new owner a few years back.