1972 318 street build

Yes, please don't worry over turning down the crank. You will seriously lose maybe 0.01% of strength. You'll break something else first.

The stroker kits run close to $2000 balanced, so that ruins a $3000 budget. One way to beat that price is to go with a cast stroker crank ($350), your stock rods, the pistons I linked in post #8 ($600), and then have the rotating assembly balanced locally (probably $150 for a MINIMAL balance and $300 for a complete balance). But you are still in the $1300-1400 range and you have to bore the block etc. Then there are heads and cam, intake and carb.

So you can see that you'll have to expand the budget well past $3000 to stroke it. If you are stuck on the $3k limit, then something will have to give and the stroker is pretty much out the window.

Do you have a local machine shop? And are you familiar with engine assembly? Not trying to put you on the spot by any means, but having it assembled is a bunch more $$ and that takes a big bite out of your budget. Whether you want to tackle this as your first engine project is a question; it is doable with enough study and info gathering, but is not for those who won'y put the time into studying and asking questions... which you are doing.