Looking to rebuild a 360 in a LRE for street use, with occasional towing. Would like to have 400 cubes or more with around 400-500 foot pounds torque in the mid-range. Should I go internal or external balance and why? I intend to use stock manifolds and a mild cam, with a dual-plane intake, T-Quad 850, 2500 stall 727A, 3:23 sure-grip. Looking for stroker kit recommendations, and cam recommendations...

Eagle cast 4" crank <$300 & KB stroker hypereutectics would be a reasonable start.

Eagle cast crank would be a terrible start. Get at a minimum a SCAT cast crank, SCAT I beam rods and KB pistons if you are going to use the original open chamber heads or wiseco if you are gonna get a decent head (closed chamber).

The problem with the Eagle crank is the overlap area between the main and rod journals, they grind away all the meat there in an attempt to make them balance internally, long story short, it don't work, they still need mallory to internally balance and the crank is severly weakened, I have seen them break in an almost stock magnum motor, low compression, stock cam, stock intake, stock ex manifolds... took about two weeks.

I would talk to Dan at performance only in florida for a good deal.

External balance is fine in your case, if you chose to go internal balance you should then step up to a steel crank as the extra cost of the mallory required to internally balance a cast crank will offset the cost of the entry leval steel crank like a SCAT or K1. Eagle makes so much junk I will not even buy what little bit of good stuff they make on princaple.

Are you suggesting the EAGLE cast crank is garbage? I'll agree! They look like a 4yr old used an angle grinder to work them. Absolutely no way I'd think of using one.

Call the guys at Hughes Engines and they'll set you up with what you need. I worked with them on the 427 inch small block that I built last year.

ohio crankshaft has a decent 408 kit.

I bought a new Eagle cast crank then traded it and it was just about to come back to me in another deal. Perfect timing as I think I'm gonna pass on that part of the trade

Scat kit $1200 at Summit with the %15 code just a shade over a grand , that deal can't be beat.

Call Nick at www.compu-flow.com and he will set you up with great parts that work and even better advice
Gus

So if I use a Scat cast-crank hit for 408 cubes, it would still be externally balanced and I could use the original balancer? Should I up-grade the balancer and flex-plate? Will a 360 balancer be enough weight for a 408 or should I use something else? I would still use a weighted torque converter for a cast crank 360? Which after-market balancer would keep the stock pulley alignement? Thanks...

If you use an external balanced kit then you can use your original balancer and converter.

Okay, that's what I was thinking, is there a better balancer I should use or will my old one be okay weight wise? Is it worth me upgrading to a better flew plate or just use the old one as well? What are you thoughts for a cam? Thanks again!

Can you even get a scat kit that is external balanced?

My understanding is the Scat kit is intended as an internal balance set up. No sense in hanging heavy pistons on the deal to work with your external balancer. That's going backwards.

Get a neutral balance damper and move on would be my suggestion. Just about any 273/318/340 would work and aren't hard to find.

Not 100% sure but Summit seems to show a kit which is cast crank internal balance or same kit cast crank with zero balance. Check them out at Sumit 1-98113 and 98113BI these are both with 20cc dished pistons... Remember this is for a street truck not a bracket racer looking for torque more than HP.

The kit is designed to use a neutral/internal balance damper.

So I could use my stock 360 balancer with the 1-98113 kit? But the other kit 1-98113BI would need a neutral balancer? I am getting this right?

As long as your balancer is not in bad shape the stock one is fine for mild street/strip use. Check for dry rot in the rubber or if the outer shell has turned in relatio to the outer shell. If it checks out OK I would use it.

Cam is gonna depend on the heads but in general a cam around 230@.050 duration with about .480 lobe lift would be good. I would recomend the comp XE268 with open chamber heads or the comp 280 magnum with a good head like a magnum that flows good in relatio to the intake. If you are gonna get a good aftermarket head like an RHS X head or eddelbrock then you might look for a higher ratio rocker to take advantage of the aditional airflow potential.

The BI kit comes balanced from Scat . Their balance job is suspect so get it balanced locally . Just use a 318-340 or aftermarket neutral balancer. There is also a cheaper 98111 kit with hyper pistons . Visit Scat Crankshafts website or call for more info . Also call KB pistons for piston/compression info. Pistons are KB/Icon 745.