help me building a 331 stroker out of a 289

did i do this right? did i use the right deck clearence?
62cc heads is 9.14 is this enough or what cam max can i buy? a 282 comp cam?
is 58cc heads better?

Christof I did what you are planning, in 2016 to my '68. I went for the Scat rotating assembly & Stroker kit # 1-94055BE with 0.030 over Icon Forged 9970 FHR pistons.
After the parts arrived I took the block & pistons to the machine shop, had the bores honed with clearance for forged pistons & the block zero decked.
With 0.039 compressed thickness Cometic MLS head gaskets I have a static CR of around 9.8:1.
Working the valves is a Lunati flat tappet camshaft # 10350702 with 1.6:1 Lunati roller rockers, & it is topped of with a pair of AFR Renegade 165 heads, RPM Air Gap Intake & a Summit 600 Carb.
It is a very peppy little engine & I am more than happy with the results of my work.
I am in Germany so more or less the same European Import BS applies here as you have in Belgium.
I'll tack on a few photos of the build if is of any help.
Cheers. Gaz.






















Be sure to order the correct flexplate/flywheel with the kit as it is a balanced assembly.

These pics were from a recent freshening up, about 2500 miles on it now.
I first built this motor about 20 years ago.

My young adult son doing the grunt work 😜

Scat crank is either cast steel or forged steel and not cast iron. You will probably need to add some dollars for the stroker kit install. You will need to get it balanced with your damper of choice and flywheel or flexplate. I didn't want to rely on what somebody at Scat might do for this. My shop didn't like the finish on my crank so they micro polished it "again". Would somebody at Scat done this? Not sure. As it was delivered it didn't look like it was micro polished at all.

Considering it was a stroker kit I also decided to pay my shop to balance and blueprint it which I believe was a wise decision. The forged rods are supposed to be a matched balanced set and one of mine was not. They did send me another rod that was closer but it still required a bit of grinding to match the rest. I made Scat(in this case) send me another rod. I also had one rod bushing that was deformed so I had to have Scat send me another one. I would have not known about these things if my shop had not balanced it in house.

I vinegar thread my engine block because it was full of rust but now I see that there is a engine block piece missing where the cilindern sleeve is put in .

Do i have a problem ? Can ik just bore this sleeve and. Put a stroker in it for max 350hp?

If not I hope I can find a new block here in europe

an update on my 289 block.
i was thinking about it and when i was cleaning the waterports (behind the freese plugs) i had taken out alot of iron litlle pieces that did stick to my magnet and after a lot more investigation its from the piece thats missing out of the casting.

so last day i exchanged my old289 cilinderheads and 0.030 over pistons with a other and good 289 block . i had only pay the seller the half of the block because of my cilinderheads.
the 289 that i bought is still a standard bore so i just need to bore it to 0.030 inch.

i'm gonna go with a 331 stroker ( no need for a 347 because of the max 350hp T5)
there are a few options of +5cc , +6cc or a - 6.8 CC piston head volume.
i wanna buy heads from skip white performance or flotek( debating between flat tapped or roller lifters)
The NKB FORD aluminum heads have 62cc combustion chambers with 190cc runners, 2.02/1.60 stainless valves from comp cams or melling max 535 lift for hydraulic flat tapped
roller heads are to max 600 lift

Flo-Tek Cylinder Head Assembly 203-505FT; 180cc Aluminum 58cc for Ford 302/351W

i know i wanna cheap out on heads but for max 350 hp and that my prices (Europe)are an extra of 30 percent on top of the ( part cost + shipping) the expensier heads are gonna be 3000 dollars for me.


which of the 3 options is the best option ? +5 , +6 or -6.8cc combustion chamber ?
we have 95 ron but with 10 percent of bio fuel in it and 93 ron with a 5 percent bio and a few more expensive gasstations without the bio crap in the fuel

thanks for helping

Domed pistons will raise compression but also require more timing because of slower flame travel and have higher octane requirements. I suggest flattops with valve reliefs; usually adding about 6 cc to the combustion chamber. They'll run best for a street oriented engine that you don't want to be octane sensitive. Some good brands to look at are Mahle, Icon, and Wiseco, preferably in 4032 alloy so you don't have to worry about expansion as much.

Hyper and cast pistons are sometimes a little cheaper, but forged pistons are often lighter, they're stronger, and if you have a tuning "oops" of some sort, they will tend to deform a bit before coming apart. A typical hyper or cast piston when pushed beyond its limits will shatter and do really bad things. With a forged piston, you have a chance to catch it before catastrophic problems occur.

Flo-Tek heads are actually decent castings, but if you have a choice, get the valves, springs, and guides separately - or get AFR Enforcers, which are very similar but come with much better hardware, and won't have weird problems like the heads popping off the valves.

For any street engine, you need to worry about dynamic compression just as much as your static compression number. 8.5:1 dynamic compression (which takes into account valve events and rod ratios as well as the static compression number) is generally considered a 'safe' number for pump gas. Some people advocate higher static compression ratios, like 11:1, but frankly, for a car that's driven a lot, it may not be practical. I would suggest something more between 9:1 and 10:1 for a car that isn't going to be on the track.

Your quench should be somewhere between .037-.045 to get best effect, giving you improved performance and resistance to detonation. Too little, and the pistons can smack into the heads. Too much, and your engine will be much more octane sensitive.