to stroke or not to stroke?

rmchrgr said
I don't think that's so true in 2015. The reason is cost. You can buy a 4" cast crank for $370, re-use your factory 6.123" rods (if you want) with lighter pistons that also cost roughly the same as a stock-stroke piston and install it all without any modifications to the main saddles or block. Why wouldn't you do that?

The only reason to not make that choice is because you are trying to prove that a non-stroker will make the same power because logic does not support it. Read all the old threads where guys are trying to justify building a 318 rather than a 360. You can build the 318 to the moon but do the same things to a 360 and it will always make more power. It's physics, not opinion. More air/fuel for a given volume = more power.

So blowing up junkyard 360s is less cost effective than building a stroked bottom end? What sense does that make? Would you run a 40 year old junkyard 8:1:1 short block with factory balancing and bearing tolerances and heavy rotating parts without any prep? If so that's fine but that's not really fair here.

Where I think it's especially true is that 318 stroke cranks are fairly common and usually good. Many 360 cores don't have usable cranks for their stock main size- and if you have to replace it, it costs just as much to replace it with a 4" as a 3.58". Those same 360 cores often need bored, so if you can't reuse the stock pistons and you can't reuse the stock crank- well then you have to buy used or new. Even if they don't need bored, most 360s have very low compression. If you're going to buy new, there's very little price difference (when I looked none) in cranks and little in pistons.

Strokers tend to have strong torque and make their power lower down.

AJ/FormS said
The relationship, between Hp,car weight, and mph,was well established in the sixties and seventies,perhaps earlier.Thats one of the reasons that when asked how fast my car is, I give the the MPH number.That number instantly establishes a P/W . Whereas an ET tells how focused the project is and how much money/time you have put into it, and thats when the pi$$ing starts.

It seems the MPH is a better example of what the car CAN do rather than what it has done.

Many SS cars do great compared to other vehicles with their same HP due to there not being any compromises in their build.