What to do with my car, motor, and rear end questions

[TheFontMaster]

As some of you know I have an 86 Buick Regal with a 307 motor in it now. It needs new floor pans, so when I get to the street rod class here at Wyotech I'm going to replace the floor pans, tub it, and put in a fuel cell since it will need a new gas tank soon as well.

I will also be taking a chassis and performance engine building class while I'm here. I want the car to be a good performer on the drag strip, but aslo be decent for me to drive on a day to day basis. So I don't know if I want to keep something similar to the stock 4 link set up, or ditch that and go with a parralell 4 link set up. I know the benefits of the parralell 4 link for drag racing, but how well do they perform on the road.

The other thing I want to do is rebuild a motor. I want to keep a small block in there because I like the advantages of the wieght savings over a big block, and the money savings too. I am looking at ether a 383, or a 400. I see alot of the 350 based motors, and I would kinda like to have something different. So any sugestions as to where I should start here would be helpful.

Heres a pic of the car.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/fonty/Picture045.jpg

[Rdhanded2]

a 383 is a stroked 350, and the 400 is going to be harder to build up just because of lack of performance part availibility compared to a 350. The 400 does produce more torque though, and is used in a lot of trucks. A buddy of mine had one in his 56 Chevy, but had a lot of cooling problems till he went with a 350 block.

[red2004 TRX450R]

Originally posted by Rdhanded2
a 383 is a stroked 350, and the 400 is going to be harder to build up just because of lack of performance part availibility compared to a 350. The 400 does produce more torque though, and is used in a lot of trucks. A buddy of mine had one in his 56 Chevy, but had a lot of cooling problems till he went with a 350 block.

ALL SMALL BLOCK CHEVYS ARE THE SAME FOR THE MOST PART AND PARTS FROM A 305 327 350 WILL WORK WITH A 400!!!!!!!! some of the rotating parts are different.

parralell 4 link will work good on the street. this is dads ex drag car!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/1qazse4/Hq17.jpg

http://www.alteredgas.com/pics/albums/upload/fd-06242006/fd062406_IMG_1015.jpg

4 link is nice you can make every thing but the rod ends and the coil overs, to save money and to learn!!!

for the motor street/strip I would build a SBC forged balanced and blueprinted, 10.2 to1 flat tops - build a strong bottom end! and if you have the money get good heads IE the new AFR eliminators.
dads street 355 is 10 to 1 and makes about 500 hp. on pump gas but you have to run a manual trans with that much cam to make it streetable! if not you will burn up tranys with a 5000+ stall converter

for the best street ability run two fuel systems one with pump gas and one with race gas feeding you NOS system!!