funny that you mention that. A friend of mine told me tonight that a 361 is an anchor and to not spend the money on rebuilding it to get a 383 and put a little into it and I would be happier. So what year 383 should I be trying to find. Anyone ?????
Look for any 63 or later 383 with a 4 bbl. These had a high compression ratio. The 383 2 bbl was a standard motor Chrysler Newports & 300 Sports (non-letter series) for a while. These are low compression engines.
The 361 4bbl was the top cataloged engine (413 Max Wedge was not in the catalogs) available in 1962 for the Plymouth and Dodge 330-500 lines. While the 2 bbl was rated at 265 hp, the 4 bbl was rated at 305 hp. There was no difference in compression ratio, 9.2:1
