I am building an s-10 mud truck truck not a race truck just something to play around the local mudholes in. Truck will not be used on the trails and not driven on the street. I was planning in using a 2000 350 vortec motor with a different cam, intake and a carb on it. My brother in-law drag races and found a good deal on a 440 bbc. Its a 60 over 454 with a 396/402 crank. I did some research and found this was done to reduce some of the torque and make the big block rev better. This motor was in a drag car so i'm pretty sure it's got a big cam cam in it but that can be changed. My s-10 is pretty light,gutted body, frame and dana 60's in front and rear and i haven't decided on the gears yet but i will be running 39.5 boggers for now and step up to 44 bogger or ag tires later on. Will this big block be a better choice than the vortec motor.

You said that the 350 Vortec has a carb? What's up with that?

Yes, that's a better choice for 39.5's IMO. May have to deal with a cam/intake change, but try it out first.

The vortec motor is just a stock longblock no intake or electronics with it. So i was just going to buy a vortec intake for a carb since i already have several and have rest of the parts.

dont forget to machine the heads to go bigger than .430 lift.(on the stock vortec heads) i know the older ones had to have this done. dont know if the newer ones had to or what year the cut off is for this.