Reply to "Stroker kit"

Hooo boy! I looked into this awhile back and assembling the parts for a home-built stroker is tricky. Using a kit is smart since extensive machining of everything is necessary. A stroker Cleveland is ragged-edge at 406 inches. Going out to 454 is possible but 427 is much easier and cheaper & you'll likely never notice the difference. With 427 or 454, you'll likely be using a 351W block instead of your Cleveland. First, the Windsor is taller, allowing for slightly longer con-rods, which lessens the side-thrust on the cylinder walls with a big-arm crank. Windsor cylinder walls at 0.030 overbore are thicker than fragile 351C cylinder walls are unbored, so the ring seal in the Windsor will last longer. Second, the Windsor block is wider and stronger at the pan rail, lessening the amount of rail and counterweights that need to be cut away (this last causes rebalencing problems.) You can easily adapt good closed chamber Cleveland heads to the Windsor block, making what used to be called a "Street Boss" in the '80s. You'll need a special wider intake manifold to fit the conglomerate engine, and there may be some problems with front block bracktry and GTS or big-bore headers hitting the rear coil-overs & maybe the gas tank shield, forcing some cut-and-weld adaptions. I wouldn't even consider using any part of stock 'bunch-of-banannas' exhausts.Once together, the 4V heads really come alive on a big-inch engine but this is NOT an easy adaption unless you are experienced in the art & have lots of tools. Most Pantera vendors (including the owners of this Forum) sell kits and even do these adaptions to your car on a regular basis, for locals and out-of-towners, costing you more money but saving untold troubles & heartache if things don't go exactly as planned in your garage.