Build or buy 408?

If you want fuel injection with an overdrive in a well handling and stopping ride that looks good and performs well, you may want to consider this. Getting all of the above taken care of first and then later building and dropping in a 408" stroker motor that gets good mileage, will perform very well and is reliable might be a wiser way to go. You can likely do the motor swap in a weekend and sell the 5.9 to help recover some of your costs.

Instead of spending the $ on a stroker motor first, and then trying to upgrade the car to take advantage of it after, try it the other way around. Find yourself a nice used, low mileage 5.9 Magnum. reseal it, maybe throw in a reground cam, fresh springs, a nice double roller timing chain and do a manifold mod on the beer keg intake. Get the car running and set-up with EFI, disc brakes, suspension and sub-frame connectors at a minimum and work the bugs out of it.

Once you have it running, handling and stopping the way you want it to, then build yourself a nice stroker motor or buy a short block and heads from MRL, Hughes or someone else.

This will give you a well-functioning platform to put you motor into and allow you time to absorb lots of information about building a car to suit your intended use. It also gives you more time to save more money for your build. A lot of guys I work with have some fantasy about using this part or that, but most of it usually never matches what they are going to use the car for. In other words, have a plan to reach your desired outcome and stick with it.