So based on what everyone said, the reasons I m going with the stroker is because when I built the current 340 I didn’t know what was doing when it came to picking the right parts.
The story of this engine goes like this:
I was daily driving it while and I was a senior in high school and I blew up the 273 that came in it. Retrofit roller cams were pretty new for SB Chrysler’s in early 2000s and I had bought a 68 340 core with steel crank and X heads from a friend. One year at Carlisle I found new TRW 10.5 forged pistons with rods for $200 at the swap meet and bought them. I wanted a roller motor because that was the sh*t when I was buying parts.
Being naive (aka a dumbass) I bought the bottom of the page roller cam Hughes made at the time. I hand ported the x heads and put 2.05 valves in it. Note my dad owns a shop and a machine shop (I was the machinist while I was in college) and he has been building a-body mopars all long time but they were all big blocks and hemis. So its not like I was completely clueless about porting, the machine work. And it was a pretty good running 340.
The cam required 200 psi of cylinder pressure to run right and my engine was only making 165-170. So I called Hughes and got them to design a different cam. I had bet with a Chevy owner who worked for my dad for that we would race before the of the season and not wanting to lose I ordered the new cam which had a tighter LSA which would help the motor build more cylinder pressure.
Then that same week I found a set of used closed chamber Edelbrock heads on Craigslist for a really good deal, so I decided that while I m going through the work to change cams I should bolt on aluminum heads. Both of these decisions are why I am where am I currently. To have proper piston-to-valve clearance with tighter LSA, I had to clearance the pistons. By cutting deeper valve reliefs in the pistons, and switching to aluminum heads I made my cylinder pressure problem worse. And I think the ported iron heads out flowed the Edelbrock’s.
Those TRW pistons were brand new, but they were an old design and the valve reliefs weren’t deep enough/in correct location, so I was going to have change pistons to get the right compression. And if I m going through the effort/cost to change pistons I might as well put a stroker crank in it.
So 5 years later I m finally doing it. I already have spent the money on expensive stuff like the Edelbrock heads, valvetrain and the 340 block, which has some good machine work done to it and has some trick oiling system modifications.
I thought about getting a 360 block, but I don’t want to do all the machine work again. And I know it doesn’t matter, but something about a 340 block in a 67-69 barracuda fast back feels right. Even if they didn’t come in my 67, the 340 in that body style feels good.
The car has a super expensive ATI 8 inch converter (think it’s 3800-4000 stall), a good 727 trans, 4.30 gears and Mickey Thompson 275s. I switched to manual brakes because it has low vacuum and a rough idle. And as the car sits now I feel like I m running it to its max.
My hope is with a stroker and the ported heads I can go faster, but change gears to a 4.10 and make it more driveable. I can go to different cam or my old one with they wider LSA if I want. I would like to put the A/C back on and reduce the rear gear so I can enjoy driving the car more instead of just going to track and back.
Sorry wrote a book, just wanted everyone to know why I m doing what I am doing. Live and learn, who hasn’t bought a cam to big at least once in their life?