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Yeah... if you are not going to stay stock and are intending to do a full rebuild, the L48 is as good of a starter motor as the L82, because you are going to want to improve what is already the "Better" parts on the L82.
As for "waking it up", get your hands on some heads, a cam, and an intake.
L-82 used a forged crank, forged pistons, bigger valves, different heads (I think) and "pink" rods, different camshaft. I'm basing all this on the fact that the L-82 is almost identical to the L-46 motor in '69.
L82 is the lower compression version of the 350/350hp L46 engine, (used starting in '69), which was descended from the 327/350hp L79 engine, (used in Vette's from '66 thru '68). Stronger cam (L79 used the 151 cam, think L46/L82 did also), 2.02/1/60 valves, higher compression and the aforementioned forged parts, 4 bolt mains etc set it apart from the L48, which was descended from the 300hp 327 or 350 from the same prior years.
There are a lot of stout 350's on the forum that started life as low hp L48's. Cam/heads/intake/carb/exhaust.....can add 100 horses or more to engines that started out rated as low as 165hp ('75)!! Motorhead and many others have built screaming small blocks from these engines!!
Although I do not have a true L48 my GM cheapy crate eng is basically a detuned L48. I put alum heads, a roller cam and headers on it to get about 400hp with the stock cast crank and pistons. Of course it will not take the long term abuse an L82 can it can last a while if not beat to bad.
EZ to find 300 or so HP with a L-48! A good aluminum dual plane intake (I use a WEIAND Action Plus), a decent street cam (at least a CompCam 260H or bigger) and true dual exhausts DeskDynoed me at 275HP. Have since added better heads and headers and I am now DD'ing 345HP and 409ft/lbs. These figures were done by another Forum member, so I figure they are close to correct.......GOOD LUCK! 5 or 6 hundred bucks should do it, if you can do the labor.....
I recall reading an article back in the 70's quoting a GM engineer who said that even the power difference between the L48 and the L82 was not that much, nor was the power the L82 made very impressive anyway. They wanted to give the performance enthusiast, someone like me, all the good pieces needed to provide a good foundation for a real performance motor. Crank, rods, block, heads.
When the L82 was dropped in 81 or 82, I lost all hope that performance cars from GM would ever come again. I had no idea what was around the corner, albeit a longgggggg corner.
:party:
L82 also has, a crank wiper and a plate under the intake to keep hot oil off.
Forged- pistons,crank, 4 bolt mains,bigger valves, bigger heads, stronger valve springs better intake ports(inside). L48, L82. build it,enjoy it. :hurray: