[cubby102]

Originally Posted by ol'George

We preferred to call them a 265" in the day as metric had not become common in America.
It had no oil filter provision on the block like the later ones in '56-up.

You could punch them out 1/8" and put 283" pistons in that block. and the '57 283's could be punched 1/8" to 301" with aftermarket pistons.
I did several.
In '58 they went to side motor mounts and thin wall casting, so +.060 was all that you could go safely.
moot point now as it was too long ago for most younger fellows.

Those 1 year only 1955 blocks, that we didn't like back in the day, now command a good price because of restorers wanting numbers matching correct parts.

Gm knew the "boys" were coming back from Korea with a lot of saved $$ and wanting something better than a stove bolt 6 or a flathead ford.
so they started a tradition of building affordable speed parts at dam near cost, for the small block equipped sedans and hard tops.
And it worked, you could afford Cams ,dual quads, dual point ignition, any rear gear ratio you wanted all the way to 5:88 on gas station jockey wages, or a grocery bagger.
You could build a 1/4 mile sedan that you shifted @ 7500 rpm and ran the low 14's on a budget.
the rest is history, a wonderful time to grow up.

Played with many of the 265s I was actually referring to the 262 those little guys loved taking some boost with a nice set of heads.