Why the overbore from 396 to 402

[COPOL89]

Thats a real good question , I also have wondered the real reason for the over bore. I have herard many reasons but i think most were personal opinions but one that stuck in my mind had something to do with the onset of tighter emissions. I did read in an artical onetime that when the over bore was introduced the 396 engine ID was to remain because they didn't want to change the legandary SS396 name plate because of sales. Does anyone else out there have any clad reasons for this? And didn't they change the casting from the 272 to the 854 when the over bore was introduced? I also remember the confusion at the parts counter because it was refered to a 400 mark 4 and they also introduced the 400 small block later on. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]