[Jason Oldfield]

Well, it sounds like the 2 of you should talk. One wants to go to a small block, the other a big block...

That said, I've always liked my 383 cid Chevys. Stock 4-bolt cast-iron .030 over 350 blocks, nothing special in the heads department with all 23° valvetrain, run of the mill Edelbrock cast aluminum manifold, and an out of the box Race Demon carb. Run it at 14:1 compression with some good internal pieces and a 4-7 swap cam, and it makes 600 hp all day and runs forever with very little maintenence. It doesn't get much cheaper to build or easier to maintain.

Whatever you do, I would steer you away from 377 cid combos with stock 400 blocks, as the cylinder walls are too thin, and unless you fill them with concrete (not exactly good for weight savings or cooling system capacity) you'll crack the blocks one after the other.

I can't say much about the bigger small blocks of today. The 406s and 434s seem to be pretty popular, so I would have to assume they're pretty reliable, though to build them you need an aftermarket block. I know a few experimented with 454 and 472 cid small blocks, but its pretty rare to see those these days, so I'm assuming that may have pushed the stock SBC design past its limits.

All that said, if you can work some type of trade with Rob, I don't think you could beat that. He had 1 or 2 wins this year with that combo...