I need some direction on building a stroker. I have the 400 block in at the machine shop, and can't decide on building a 471 from used parts or buying a complete rotating assembly from muscle motors or 440 source. I have a set of ly rods and I can get a steel 440 crank. Cutting down the mains, offset grinding and cutting the counter weights down will cost $550 with the crank purchase. Buying a 451 or 471 kit is the same price. I am also going to use the 440 source stealth heads.

I too have a 400 block & turned down a 440 steel crank. If I was to repeat I'd offset it to 3.9 (471). No help on whether to go w the kit or not wo checking it out

Either way is proven to work... given the choice of a fresh un-fatigued crank and an older re-ground crank I'd take the fresh crank. Ditto on the rods. The H beam rods in the kits are likly better than the LY's even when new.

I like the 471 build but does anybody have part numbers on an aftermarket crank, and which rods to use. I do not think manley is making the 14279 rods anymore. What can I use to replace them?

I would do as CAB stated. Just buy the 471 kit that will come with the crank , rods and pistons with everything else you will need. I bough the 440Source kit for my 493 as it just made it so much easier then me tracking down and ordering each individual parts. I had the crank , pistons , rods and bearings with my kit. I had to take the time to check everything including the balance on all the pistons with the pins and pin snap rings and everything as I bought the balanced kit but rechecked everything since I have acess to my brothers machine shop and his balance equipment. But my point is with the kit you have all the main parts and you can spend as much time as you like checking it all but you wont be tracking down individual parts. I really like the torque of my 493 as it is a simple build that makes tons of power with out zinging 7000 RPM and they say the 471 is a great combo. Good luck with it.

Depending on what your building, check what pistons will work "off the shelf". Custom pistons are about twice as expensive as the off the shelf ones.
I think the Keith Black Hypereutectic pistons will accept the stock piston pin size, but have quench domes for open chamber heads that would need extra machining to remove for use with closed chamber heads. The 440 Source / KB ICON pistons are designed to use the smaller 0.990" piston pin.
I did a quick check on Summit for stroker pistons that use the stock 1.094" piston pin and the selection was pretty small, two Ross sets (around $600+) and a JE piston at a bit over $800.
Checking for pistons with the 0.990" piston pin results in a wider selection of off the Shelf pistons, and the ICON pistons are only $475/set.

Anyhow, new 4340 H-Beam rods with the 0.990" pins, and ARP bolts are only about $500/set and allow you a wider selection of pistons.

Just upgrading the stock rods to the 8740 ARP rod bolts will cost $61.31 for the bolts plus machine work to install them and re-size the ends, so you could have $150 tied up into your stock rods.

So I would recommend looking into using new rods. They have larger bolts (7/16" vs. 3/8") and made if stronger materials, and the smaller piston pin size should allow you to make up the cost difference by using a less expensive off the shelf piston.

If the cost is the same, buy the kit you want & sell off your other parts.

I see that you are from Florida. Why not send a pm to member Performance Only(Dan}...He has a machine shop in Delray and is a competent engine builder. I bet he can point you in the right direction! Good luck with your build!!

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. 440 source has the 471 kits with 6.535 and the 451 kits with 6.760. Muscle motors has 471 kits with the option of 6.535 or 6.7 rods. Which is the better combo and will I have clearance issues with any of these rods?

Go w the 6.760" that way you maintain the OE rod/stroke ratio. May be a slight bit of rod interference at the bottom of the bore(s) but nothing that cant be easily handled w a die grinder

Thanks RapidRobert, I guess I will have to stick with the muscle motors 471 kit, since 440 source does not have that size rod on a 471.

It's been my understanding that if you will be running stock manifolds, the larger kits might not be an advantage over the medium stroker kits, as there won't be enough flow capacity to accomodate the stroke volume.

Opinions/experience to the contrary are welcomed.

W the ex manifolds being the bottleneck you'll reach that bottleneck point at a lower rpm w a stroker since it's displacing more vol from more swept area (all else being the same which it wont be exactly)

Yes I am going to be using my stock manifolds, with tti 2.5 full exhaust kit with a edelbrock dp4b intake. Not sure on the cam yet but I have read the .528 mopar works great with stock manifolds.

Do you have a copy of my big block book? I spent a lot of time in the book going over the various stroker combinations.

Yes Andy I have your book and it is full of great info. Can't wait till the new one is out.

IMO, with the options you are looking at, you can't make a bad choice as long as everything is done correctly. It will really come down to your preference. If it were me, I would go for the larger ci.in., with the longest rod. At the same power level, the larger displacement engine will have slightly better street manners at lower rpm, but, I don’t know if you would even notice the difference between a 451 and 470.