Does anyone know of any horsepower limitations when using Edelborck heads on a stroked 340? I'm hoping to get 550 horsepower using a kit with a forged crank.

With stock flow in the upper 240-250+ range, it would be big stretch to get the HP you desire...even to get 500hp, while doable, would take quite a bit of cam to get there.

for whatever it's worth, a generic formula that applies only to 8 cylinder engines is that for every cfm of flow, a head can support 2.05 hp. IE, heads that flow 250 cfm can support as much as 512.5 hp...and that really doesn't change whether it's a stroker or not...the peak rpm and torque changes though.

As stated, a set of professionaly ported eddies can do the trick.

If you look in the tech archives you'll see a couple of articles that I wrote for Mopar Muscle magazine on a 427 inch small block that we built last year. We used Edelbrock heads with the Stage III porting. Those heads will easily support 550+ hp. That 427 made a little over 500 hp with a super small cam and carb. It isn't a drag race motor so we didn't put a big cam or a big carb on it.

At some point wouldn't a person be money ahead to just buy a better set of heads than paying someone to max port a set of Edelbrock heads?

If not eddys, what are your suggestions? And what are my intake manifold choices? This is not necessarily a drag motor but will see some quarter mile use. I'll probably keep the 3:91 gears and it is a 4 speed.

I'm not an engine builder or a head porter. I was just asking the question to see how much an all- out port job + shipping to and from a reputable head porter would cost vs just buying heads that will deliver the power level you want without having to spend extra money on them.

I went with W2 econo heads on mine. The bare heads weren't all that expensive, but the offset rockers and shaft setups were rather spendy.

I know Indy makes several small block heads that are likely have more potential than Edelbrocks.

Mopar Performance used to sell Commando heads. I don't know where they rank at. MP W5 heads are good, but you would be stuck with finding a used set these days.

Brodix makes Mopar smallblock heads too.

http://www.brodix.com/heads/b1.php

Talking to RyanJ or a few of the other guys on the race only board that deal in smallblocks for a living would be a good idea to help narrow down your choices.