Dont. If your choice is between stroker, or heads then get the heads. A stroker on stock heads is pointless. I know its been done, but dont understand why. But the bang for your buck is in the heads. Ill never do another stroker motor.
Well, if you stroke it, you will gain torque on the bottomend. If you stroke it AND do heads, you will gain power all throughout the powerband. I did a 331 with Canfield heads. The power gain is incredible to say the least. You can also go with a stroker bottomend, then later add heads when you can afford it.
If your bottom end is ok now, do the heads first. If not, stroking now makes sense, but I also think you get more power for the least amount of money with the heads
This is one reason. Bang for the buck. if you need to rebuild anyways, and have money burning a hole in your pocket then go ahead and stroke away. But for me the HP/torque gained compared to the cost of a stroker wasnt worth it for s street strip car. Now Im on a limited car funds budget. Some guys have more money to play with and dont feel so bad dropping a large chunk of money on a stroker. But if its something you have to save up for, or choose one thing over the other then a stroker isnt something i would go with. Do the heads, torque convertor, rear gears, and then if its still not fast enough and you have money to blow then go for the stroker. atleast then you will have everything else in order.
If I was younger Id go with the heads and gears. But Im not,Ive stacked many bones to get here and I dont have any dependants. My wife is a college grad with a very good job, me too. Not bragin but Ive waited a long time and saved my pennies along the way. 347 Nope not me. 332 will last longer but Im starting from the block up so Im doing a total resto and I have the time, I have the money, my build is a preplanned event. This is just fun for me. If I was young and had dependants Id go with Bang for Buck. IMHO I dont bump no mo wit no big fat woman. When we did da dip she almos broke ma hip.
This is a myth. It boils down to simple physics. Take one of each, run them both on dyno's and the 347's block and pistons will wear faster. As to how long either will last in actual service, that depends on whose driving the car and how they treat the engine.
Choose one or the other, it's your money. Both options cost about the same (heads or stroker kit) But keep in mind your intake/carb combo, the stroker will demand more air/fuel (bigger carb, bigger intake volume), so this is something else you'll have to address to get the full benefit (unless you have these parts already in hand). The torque gained from the stroker alone will sell you.(the same net effect gears do) Doing heads without stroking will move the powerband upwards in the rpm scale, and do little or nothing to increase bottomend torque. Torque is what moves the car and accellerates it faster. Back when I was playing with my V8 Ranger, I built five motors for it. The first was just an overhaul of an 88 Crown Vic motor, it did OK, but was hardly satisfying. The second was a reman shortblock with better rod bolts and a B303 cam, topped with ported(by me) E7's and an RPM intake. It was lots of fun, made lots of power all over the rpm band. Next I replaced the heads and intake with the Canfields (now on my 331) and a Vic Jr and a 650 DP Holley. The personality changed dramatically, but nothing was gained (actually lost power) on the bottom. Power now came on at nearly 3 grand and and quit at 7500. The motor lasted two months before cracking a cylinder wall. (it ran 2 years before with the ported heads, with daily freeway blasts to 6000) Then I built a motor from spare parts, basically an Explorer motor with a carb This motor was topped with a Ford A321 intake and 600VS Holley and the ported E7's running Cobra roller rockers and the Explorer cam. This motor turned out to be the best combo for a daily driver, smooth power from idle to 6000 and 18 mpg without OD. While running this motor I built the 331, topped with the same Canfield heads, Z303 cam, 1.7 rockers, 10.4 to 1 comp ratio, topped with the repop 3x2 intake (high rise dual plane) and three 250 Holleys. This motor was/is a blast, it's tame enough for a daily driver (also gets 16-18 mpg on the highway) makes power from 1500 to 6500. It's got a nasty lope at idle in gear (500 rpms) and will break the rear tires (295/50's with trac loc) loose with only a light touch of the brakes and gas. The Explorer level motor would also do this from a dead stop, both these motors felt like they equaled each other in bottomend torque. I know this is a lot to take in, but you'll gain different power from taking this in different directions, where you want it is up to you.
Simple physics? Well, show me the calculations. So you're worried that you may only get 150k miles out of the 347 when you may get 152k miles out of the smaller stroker. I'd be more worried about the stock block cracking before i'd be concerned about getting the extra 2000 miles. I'd be more interested in the practical application then the scientific theory.
