The "Original" 5.3 liter GM V8s......They make good boat anchors...

Had someone ask me if it would be worth hot-rodding the small GM V8s of the early-mid '60's. If you don't know-in the early '60's GM, Ford and Chrysler had sort of an unwritten rule-small cars got small engines, big cars got big engines. That's why all the performance cars of the early '60's were full-size cars-409 Impalas, 389 and 421 Catalinas, Bonnevilles and Gran Prix's, 394 and 425 inch Olds "Rocket" 88s, 401 inch Buick Rivieras, 390 and 406 Galaxies, and 383 and 413 Belvederes. When GM's infamous ban on racing came down in 1963, people were worried-especially the brass at Pontiac who had climbed to second place in sales behind only Mighty Chevrolet-largely through their performance image. Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts won 22 NASCAR races in 1961-62 in their fire-breathing 421 Catalinas. This is where the saying "Win on Sunday,Sell on Monday." came from. John DeLorean and Pete Estes came up with the idea of building a high-performance street car, rather than a race car. At the same time Oldsmobile broke the rules and put the small 330 inch V8 in the Jetstar 88 and lowered the price. A direct assault on Pontiac's best-selling Catalina. This infuriated De Lorean, who found a loophole in the rule. The GM rulebook said no compact or intermediate car could have a standard engine larger than 330 inches. Estes and Delorean dropped the "Big Car" 389 into the lightweight Tempest / LeMans and the GTO was born. They got away with it, because the GTO package was an OPTION, not standard equipment. The rest is history-the horsepower race was on. Anyhow, back to the question at hand-if you have a Pontiac Tempest, Chevy Malibu, Olds Cutlass, or Buick Skylark built from say 1964-67-are these standard engines worth hopping up?  I have to say no. The only one worth hot-rodding would be a 327 Chevy. However-the only reason anyone would want a 327 is if they were restoring a 63-68 Corvette,Impala SS or Nova SS to the nth degree-and then you'd want it to be stock. For a "Hot Rod" 350s are the proverbial "dime a dozen" and are a lot easier to find than a 327. And, honestly-if I wanted a badass Nova- or "Gasser" style '55 or whatever-I'd probably build a 383-a 350 with a stroker crank, rather than mess with a 327. Dont' get me wrong- a properly built 327 can really rock-it's just that a 350 can make the same or more power for less money. The 327 has been out of production since 1969-that's 43 years. GM is still selling 350 crate engines to this day. Yes, most all SBC parts interchange-but stuff like cranks and pistons-are way cheaper for a 350 than they are for a 327 because of demand. Everybody and his brother has a 350. Junkyard's are full of them. So, like I said- unless your restoring say- a '64 Corvette-I'd just use a 350. # 2. 326 Pontiac. These are not worth hot rodding beyond adding dual exhausts and installing a 4bbl carb and intake, and maybe swapping the 2-speed ST300 trans for a TH350. Here's why-Pontiac engines are externally identical from 326 to a 455. Swapping in a 389,400, 421/428 or 455 would literally be a bolt-in. And these make waaay more power than a 326 could. Secondly-if you wanted to hot rod a 326-you couldn't-the big-valve heads off a 400 or larger engine that you'd need to make any serious power-won't work on the small-bore 326-the valves will hit the block. If you have a 326 LeMans or Firebird-I'd save your money and get a 400. #3. 330 Oldsmobile. The only thing a 330 is good for-is they have forged steel cranks that are the same stroke as a 350 Olds. The snout of the crank would need to be slightly modified to fit a later 350, but Mondello Performance can do it. This might be something you'd want if you were building a stompin' 350 Olds and wanted to run nitrous. However-to get any real power-you'd need 455 heads and special pistons. If you have that much money-and need to go that fast-why aren't you building a 400-425-455 Olds V8? The only good thing about a 330 Olds is they are externally identical to the later small-block engines. This means that a later-model 350 or 403 would bolt right in. There's a fair amount of aftermarket support for them-a mildly warmed-over 350 / 403 and a TH350 in place of the 330 / ST300 would make a '64-67 F85 / Cutlass a really nice driver that could still put down some rubber if you wanted to. But the 330 is just too small for serious performance work. # 4. 300 / 327 / 340 Buick. There is practically zero aftermarket parts for these engines, and a '68 and later 350 makes way more power stock-and there is some aftermarket support-T/A performance makes cams and intakes and headers for 350 Buicks. If I wanted a really fast Skylark I'd build a 400-430-455. But the 340 and smaller ones are just good doorstops. Hope this clears some things up. Mastermind