depends on what your elcamino has, mine has ac and you couldnt put a big block in it no matter how hard you tried, if it doesnt you can put about anything in there, ive done quite abit of research on this and a 383 is cheaper and you can get more power out of it, unless your wanting 14:1 compression or a turbo/blower set up, how do i know this? my uncle has a 81 malibu drag car, he had a 383 in it and threw a rod through the oil pan and another out the manifold, he built a 413 (400 thats .30 over and 4.00in rods) and ran pretty close to a second slower, he had a slightly bigger cam and carb everything else like trans, heads, gears and tires were the same, that 400 is a big and heavy motor

 

While I agree that you can get lots of goody out of a 383 sbc stroker vs. a 400 sbc I believe the original post was about a 408 vs. a 400. The 408 is a small block 360 thats been stroked and bored If I remember correctly it's a 4.040 bore and a 4.000 stroke. I've seen plenty of well built 383 sbc strokers but none of them were nearly as powerful as the 408's I've seen. I'm in no way pretending to have seen all there is to see by any stretch of the imagination either

I believe the Original poster was looking for something a little out of the ordinary for his Elc. Which a 383 is definitely not out of the ordinary. lol Don't get me wrong now I'm not putting the SBC down it's just that from what I've always seen, a stroked Mopar usually takes the prize for power.

I'm sure my comments are probably going to start some kind of turf war here. But remember folks the Original poster did choose to post here for a reason. LOL

 

yea your prolly right
i dont know much about the mopar 408, ive seen a few cars with them and they run much faster than any sbc 383 motor for motor, now from what ive read though can you make a 340 by boaring a 360 .40 over and putting a 318 crank in it? ive heard sombody telling me that and it doesnt make and sence

 

Well a 360 had a smaller bore and longer stroke than a 340. 360 bore was 4.000 stroke 3.580. A 340 bore was 4.040 and stroke was 3.310. A 318 has the same stroke as a 340. so yeah the numbers work out properly there. Problem that I foresee is that if I'm not mistaken the Main journals of 360 are much larger than the journals of a 318 so I think that would kill that one unless I'm mistaken. If you want a 340 just start out with a 340. Mopar Performance sells them all day long!