Gasket options for resealing 383 SBC

[K10eddie]

Howdy,

So my 383 that I bought used about a year ago has been sweating and burning a lot of oil. About a 1qt a month, it's been slowly disappearing coolant as well. I noticed some head bolts have backed out as well, hence I assume how the coolant has been ghosting on me. I'm thinking about pulling the engine, tearing it down to a short block, and resealing it (probably arp head studs too).

My question is this, should I just get a fel pro generic 350 gasket kit, toss the head gaskets and buy new ones specifically for my 383? Or is there a smarter way to put together a kit? I tried looking for a 383 kit, but most places only 350 kits pop up.

The engine is almost 10 years old, but it has been in a summer only 1st gen Camaro for those 10 years. It's a Smeding 383 extreme if it matters. It's still a good running engine, but it just burns and leaks way too many fluids. I bought it from my buddy last year for a good deal, knowing that it did burn oil, but of course the leaks start happening 6 months after I bought and installed it. Hindsight is awesome.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Cometic, expensive but worth it. MLS head gaskets are the way to go.

 

[yevgenievich]

It is still 350 engine as far as seals are concerned. Just matters if one or two piece seal, type of heads and the intake port design

 

[Rusty Nail]

Ya i've never heard of a "383" head gasket? Rather than pull the entire engine, I would swap the head gaskets for some standard replacement Fel-Pros OTC at the O'Reilly's or something WAY before I spent 4x that much on a pair that says "Cometic" on em...if you tell everybody else that's what you used, nobody will ever know, including the engine. I think TEN YEARS in a weekend hotrod is sufficient service...replacement is a fine chore, old boy.

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[K10eddie]

Pulling the engine sounds like a lot of work, but I figure it'd almost be easier to pull it to make quick work of the gaskets and head pulling. MLS gaskets aren't what I was really going for, the compression is under 10:1, and it's a mostly winter and then secondary vehicle. However thanks for all the responses.