The guys who invented the Internet probably didn't think it would ever get as big as it did, either. Way back in the late '40s GM was a step behind. Ford's flathead V-8 and any of the straight-sixes of the day were considered the only hot engines to have. GM had to catch up and knew that its new small-block V-8 would have to be a chameleon of sorts. It had to power everything from trucks to sedans, and it had to be adaptable for the future. GM's once-famous Stovebolt six was fading quickly, and they needed a new ace in the hole to stay ahead of what would become the musclecar race of the future.
In 1955, GM's new 265-cid V-8 offered a 3.75-inch bore and short 3.00-inch stroke (note: big-bore, short stroke theory worked even then) with minimal fanfare. No one knew that this meager 8.0:1 compression, two-barrel Rochester-wearing pug would eventually turn out to be what it is today. Power for the day was around 162 hp with solid lifters, which were eventually replaced with hydraulics in all but a very few performance V-8s.
The 283By 1957, GM's plan to release a much more adaptable V-8 was in full swing. To raise the stakes they overbored the 265 by 1/8 inch, creating a new 3.875-inch bore, 283-cid V-8. This eventually led to the very first American production engine ever making 1-hp-per-cubic-inch, after GM dropped its new fuel-injection system on top. The small-block Chevy was now the unchallenged leader in performance engines. A title some would say it has never lost.
The 327With the introduction of Chevrolet's short-lived "W" engine family in 1958, starting with the 348 and eventually capping off at 409-cid, it was only fitting that a larger small-block serve as the base V-8 engine in GM's inventory. By 1962, the small-block's stroke was stretched to 3.25 inches, and a new block was made to fit a 4.00-inch bore. This gave us the 327-cid small-block that we still hold so dear to our hearts today.
The 350 and BeyondWithout ignoring the next evolutionary step up the small-block ladder, the smaller-displacement 302, we're fast-forwarding a few years to talk about the engine we all love, the 350. By increasing the 327's stroke to 3.48 inches, displacement was upped once again. This was the largest stroke ever to be offered in the factory 4.00-inch bore blocks. The small-block 400 came a little later, and we're not really going to delve deeply into that arena for this story because those motors are about as hard to find as an honest politician.
What They've BecomeNow that your lesson in early small-block history is complete, we'd like to take you into never-never land. This fairy-tale land is filled with the great small-blocks that never were. Why GM never built any of these engines is anyone's guess. And maybe we've missed something here, but we've come up with 10 hypothetical small-blocks you could slap together using nothing but factory parts. The engine combinations we hypothesize here are only possible because of the wide variety of off-the-shelf pistons available from any of a number of aftermarket piston sources like Speed-Pro, Ross, or JE. The important fact to remember is that these hypothetical small-blocks could be built using other stuff lying around in any junkyard. The blocks, cranks, and connecting rods are all collecting rust at this very moment, so run out, track some down, and you could truly build something that no one else has.