[Guest]

I am considering building a new engine and my best choice as far as I can tell is to stroke a 351w. I want more power than I have with the 302 and I dont want to have to go to a big block. Has anyone had any experience with building a 390 stroker? Would it be better to just keep the engine at 351? Thanks for any tips you can give me.

Chris

 

[camachinist]

Are you keeping the 4 speed and the 8" rear?

Best to think about the entire package, IMO...

A stock stroke W can provide plenty of low cost fun and it won't be prone to breaking parts. If you can find a '69 4V W, like the one the engine in my race car is based on, you might be surprised at how much fun you can have on a budget, especially with a 4 speed...*G*

There's plenty of VMF'ers who've gone stroked W...they'll be along with the pros and cons...

Have fun!

 

[RagTop]

I agree with Pat. You don't need the problems a stroker can cause. The stock 351W in M code format is a pretty formidable power plant. Ours is running a 10.7 to 1 compression ratio with stock heads, balanced and bored .060 over and it runs like a scalded dog. You might want to be thinking about a 9" rear end for the beast, however. The 8" won't like what the 351W 4V is capable of for long. We swapped our rear gears from a 2.75 open to 3.73 Traction Loc. Big time acceleration.

 

[Guest]

The 8" is going to be replaced with a brand new 9" 3.50 L.S.D. from Currie Enterprises. I arrived just yesterday and it should take plenty of abuse and keep kicking. My brother has a '68 Firebird 400 and my goal is to beat him with the new engine. I figure I want about 400 horses from the engine, but I also can't spend a lot of money, so I figured a little more displacement would be the way to go.

Chris

 

[camachinist]

I suspect you could build the same basic engine which I have in the race car (even with the A333 cam..very mild), except with flat-tops and some AFR's rather than the Edelbrocks I have (old technology *G*) and achieve an easy 400 hp without stroking...

Crunch the numbers and see what you come up with...I'll bet costs would be pretty close as the stroker would be limited somewhat by CI heads, even ported ones.

Sounds like fun!

 

[motorhead]

i'm a fan of the 89-92 5.0 HO's with a modest blower. The engine is strong enough to add 6#-8# of boost on the stock engine. if you can stay off of the gas you'll even get some decent gas milage. The heads on the engine are decent but a set of explorer gt-40p heads or better yet the AFR's.

A setup like this will have good longevity as long as you pay attention to details and get the right injectors.

Join the dark side.

 

[69RedMach1]

What's he running for e.t.'s with that Pontiac. I'm running a '69 351W in my '69 Mach 1 w/ Edelbrock's Performer RPM package including heads, C4 tranny, Speed Demon 750 carb and 8" rear w/ 3.80's. My best e.t.: [email protected] 107.3. You can easily spank that Pontiac w/ the 351W.