Chevrolet 283 V8 Engine

The Chevy 283 V8 was introduced in 1957 and used up through 1961. GM developed the engine by increasing the bore of the Chevy 265 V8 which was first produced in 1955. The 283 was manufactured with several different carburetor setups such as a single 2 barrel, a 4 barrel, a 2 x 4 barrel setup and an impressive fuel injected model. The fuel injected version of the 283 in 1957 that was used in the Corvette produced an amazing 1 horsepower per cubic inch which was almost unheard of at the time coming from a factory built engine.

The 283 was an improved design over the Chevy 265 in that the bottom end crankshaft and pistons were much more reliable because of the increased flow of oil supply that was engineered into the motor. Another great feature of this engine was that the crankshaft and camshaft were very close to each other which resulted in a much shorter timing chain. This provided greater durability for the timing chain and related crank and cam sprockets.

Problems Associated with the 283

A common problem with the 283 was that the rocker arm stud would back out of the engine head. This would cause loss of power to the cylinder or cylinders that were closest to the backed out rocker arm stud. The best approach to fix this issue was to reinstall the rocker arm stud, drill a hole from the side of the head into the stud and then secure it with a roll pin.

Another issue with the 283 was that the rocker arm ball did not get a sufficient supply of oil due to the push rod being clogged usually because of not changing the oil at the recommended intervals. This unfortunately would cause premature wear to the camshaft, lifters, pushrods and rocker arms which would have to be replaced.