JMHO,

STROKE IT, IF NOT DON'T BUILD IT!


A 4.25" stroke is perfect for a Hemi, besides the displacement of adding more than an extra cylinder's worth of cubes you are also taking a whole lot of bobweight out of the bottom end. keep the cam mild and that way you work the big ports earlier in the powerband but still utilize them up high (at least as high as a factory 426)

Where you get carried away is when you add big stroke AND a big cam, then in order to really pay off you need to rev it as high or higher than the stock stroke.

Build the best of both worlds, big block grunt at 2800-3200 like a 455 Stage 1 buick....but still have top end power and rev capacity of a hemi

Build it with a mild 238-242 ish @ .050 cam and you'll find more reasons you'll want to go drive it, as opposed to making excuses NOT to.