I was thinking of his 273 with a 4'' stroker kit. He mentioned that he wasn't interested in a 318 or a 360. So how about a 331 cubic inch stroker? 3.23 gears. Sounds like a fun car to me. Maybe I'm just getting old.
To me if I was to build a 273/318 would be because there size and the 3.31 stroke.
But If the OP just wants to stick with the stock block for whatever reason but stroking was ok,
a 4" stroker with 360 or magnum heads or even ported out stockers would make decent power, bore size would eat some but 400 ish hp shouldn't be to hard at a reasonable rpm.
But I really don't get strokers, I'd just go 360 in that case, same with 408 i'd go with a 400 or 413 if I wanted around 400 cid even a 383 is close enough with an over bore. If your gonna spend money stroking an engine build a displacement we don't already have, 470 to 540+.
