Yeah, I'm taking my time on my 383. I scored a brand new one-piece forged crank and H-beam rods for $350, I bought an LT1 block for $50. I got new, never-assembled LT1 aluminum heads for $279. So far I'm up to $680 in parts. I set aside $2500 to do a 450-hp build, so that leaves me buttloads of money for CNC porting, injectors, and pistons, but if I wanted to I could assemble it with stock parts right now and get 300+ from it for just shy of $1000 total investment.

dam thats good, but come on dude wheres the fun in stock haha
i would definitely have those heads worked on there going to need to do more machining for 2.02 valves and the spring seats to be able to except good after market parts.
and then after all that get a custom grind cam made with a full roller setup and YOU'LL BE VERY HAPPY WITH YOUR POWER!

Here is the porting/cam I'm going with. Take a look at the 185cc porting. 260 cfms from 185cc is nothing to shake a stick at. And the $1800 price tag with a cam to go with it isn't too bad either.

http://www.advancedinduction.com/AiProductsLT1.html

Curtis, Have you ever heard of a re-ring job? I realize that lots of people think that they are strictly for lunatics, but the fact is that they work. And guess what, there are real simple inexpensive ways to check things like the bores, crankshaft, you dont NEED to buy new pistons, you dont even NEED to have it ballanced because the factory ballance job is still intact. That CAN be done for basicaly the cost of a good core, a kit and some magnafluxing. But you CANNOT build a 383 from a 350 like that... It costs a LOT more!!

Even if you are going with new pistons, I can get 350 pistons for less than 383 pistons, and not all 350 cores have bad cranks or even cranks that need to be ground. By the way, I can get a 350 crank ground for $50.00, how much did you say you paid for your 383 crank???

Dont tell me that you can build a 383 for as little as a 350 because its BOSH!!