Do you guys think that with a stock bottom end, too high of an rpm or too much power period will do it in?
Would it last longer in a 355 going to 6500 rpm with 450 horsepower, or would you think a 383 w/ a lot of torque down low would kill it first.
Thanks Steve

I'm not really sure how to answer your question since most of today's 383s are not the "stock" 400 crankshaft turned down. But I would venture to say that RPM would be the first to cause bottom end trouble.

Some 350 stock bottom ends were forged so this opens up even more variables.

Generally, the more cubic inches the less RPMs you have to turn to make the same power. For example, your 355 may have to turn 6500 RPM to make the 450 hp where the 383 may only have to turn 5800 to make the same hp.

I think there are guys out there that have had success at turning 350 up to 6500 RPM without problems.

Sorry, I am trying to be helpful here, but maybe I'm just totally misunderstanding your question????

I personally have to say that im not sure about the limitations of a stock bottom end. My friend Gary has a 69 camaro and he was turning 8,000 rpm with a factory cast, yes i did say cast crank in his daily driver 350. It finally broke on him but it wasnt because of the crank, it was that his offshore 50 dollar balancer let loose and took out the entire front part of his motor. So i personally dont know about the limitations of RPM and such. I personally thought he was crazy turning that kind of rpm with a cast crank and i sure as heck wouldnt recommend it but it did happen and im confident that if he would have had a good balencer in the first place that it would still all be in tact. So who knows. But if you were to ask me id say RPM would be the thing to kill a bottom end, not the power.