The SCAT crank will take more HP than the stock 360 cast crank. The stock crank has oil grooves(stress risers) all the way around the rod journals. The minimum diameter is significantly smaller on the stock crank than the radiused journal on the SCAT cast crank so there is just plain more meat there and NO stress riser. SCAT also uses better metal, cast steel VS cast iron so the SCAT is much stronger than the factory 360 crank. Also since the SCAT crank is a 4 inch stroke you will end up with a much lighter piston even if the motors make the SAME HP and it will turn fewer RPM at the same HP so ther is much less load on the crank. Balancing is not more expensive if you externally balance it and beleive it or not there are still a lot of motors out there that last a long time that are externally balanced.

If you are useing a SCAT I beam and reasonably light pistons you will be fine at 500 hp. The stock cranks worked fine for years with heavy stock rods and heavy TRW style pistons and the SCAT crank is significantly stronger. If you notice the guys in this thread (and most other threads) that have experianced cast crank failure were doing stuff they were not supposed to do like breaking trannys and running them in powerful dirt track cars and nitrous...