Of all the strokers that people have built over the years, what is the best/most popular for the b engine and why? For a street strip car of course.

The 470, although small by what is common now, has proven to be very cost effective and reliable.

I built a 512 low deck for my 68 Charger, I love it, lots of torque makes for a fun street car & track times are pretty good for a 4100 lb piglet

I really like the 400/512....Its a beast at +770hp with Indy heads. They are a bitter fit in an A-body and lighter...

I'd start with a 4.25 crank and Trick Flow 240 heads and go from there. Find a set of pistons that give you 9.50 to 10.0 for compression and then select rods that fit. I recommend a hyd roller cam for a street/strip type of engine, maybe something around 240@050. If you have the space I'd use a Trick Flow intake and then top it off with a Holley Sniper setup and a Holley Hyperspark distributor. An engine like that should make at least 600/600 for hp and torque and be very easy to drive on the street.

Thank you guys for the replies. I have finally come to my senses and realized that I should have built a big block a long time ago. In the back of my mind, I was thinking 470. I will research these other engines and decide. Thank you all.

I have a copy of your book so dog-eared that I have to buy another. Best engine book I have read. I was also thinking of the Hyperspark and sniper. That would make a neat combination I think.

The 470 is a good engine but for a street car I'd go with a pump gas 512. I can't think of any reason not to build a 512. The rotating assembly fits in the block just fine and works with an internal oil pickup. You can fit a windage tray on there and any passenger car oil pan should fit. There should be plenty of choices for pistons, rods, cranks, rings, etc. so you aren't held hostage by any one vendor. The Trick Flow heads flow enough air right out of the box to get you to the 600 hp level with a really mild cam. You can make more power if you use a bigger cam but then you give up some low speed smoothness.

I have a pump gas 512 in my Duster and it is easy to drive around town. The cam is 246@050. It has plenty of vacuum at idle and works really well with the torque converter that I have in the car. The Duster is 3000 lbs and has 4.56 gears so that probably helps the low speed response. I might have different thoughts on that cam if the car was heavy and had 3.23 gears.

Thanks. If I updated that book today I would add a whole chapter on EFI and would highly recommend that everyone ditch their carbs and switch to a Sniper. I hate to see people spending $12,000 for a new 500 inch stroker engine and then wearing it out in a few thousand miles because their double pumper dumps so much extra fuel into the engine. I have an engine in the shop right now that was ruined by running rich. The customer said he only had 500 miles on it but it is wore out. He is switching to EFI.

Thanks Andy. Your recommendation of a 512 is very interesting and I bet it would make gobs of torque.

440Source has a 512 rotating kit or you can piece one together using cranks, rods and pistons from your vendor of choice. The problem is that for street driving on pump gas you need to stay around 10:1 compression and there are not a lot of piston choices that will give you 10:1 compression with the 78 cc Trick Flow heads. Diamond has a piston but that is about it and the Diamond pistons are expensive. ICON has a piston but the compression is a bit higher. You can always get a custom piston of course but that adds money to the build.

The 500 is also a decent engine to build and SCAT has a complete kit for that engine. This kit has dished pistons that would give you around 10:1 compression with Trick Flow heads.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sca-1-48095
People might not know this but the Pro Shop price for SCAT rotating assemblies is actually cheaper than the 440Source pricing plus the SCAT kit from Summit comes with free freight. So you can save a hundred bucks or more by going with the SCAT kit. Your engine builder probably has a Pro Shop account with Summit.

You have a PM on this

I built a 505" RB with ported Stealth heads and a small .545 234/240 @ .050 hydraulic roller. The heads flow virtually the same as out of the box Trickflow 240's. With 10.6:1, it easily handles pump gas.

It is a great, low maintenance combo that makes gobs of torque, is docile around town and still runs respectable numbers at the track. With a 2800 stall converter and 3.54 gears it is very pleasant at speed.

I have over 7,000 miles on mine now and flog it often.

You will need to upgrade the rest of the drivetrain to handle the torque.

It never ceases to amaze me, that after 50+ years of experience with today's carbs, people still spend mucho denero on parts and experts for their engines. Then turn around and slap on a $500 (or maybe $1,100) out-of-the-box carb and when it is not perfect for their combo, complain that carbs are obsolete and must be replaced by a $2,000 (or maybe $3,000+) obsolete version of EFI.

They would have the same complaints if they chose their cam, pistons, or converter the same way they chose their carb. If the same attention was paid to the choice of carb and tuner that is paid to the choice of cam or converter, there would be a lot more happy carb owners with a lot more money left to spend on other car parts.

The only thing wrong with today's carbs is unreasonable expectations. Guys expect an OOTB version to be right for their combo. But then, to me, the only thing wrong with today's EFI is it's additional expense for modest or non existent gains over a well tuned carb.

EFI has it's place. But since we are not all Andy or have unlimited budgets, carbs very much still have their place. To " HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE DITCH THEIR CARBS AND SWITCH" to any of today's EFIs is a disservice to many on this forum. It does not accurately reflect where technology stands today. With either the carbs or the EFI.

For some, Andy for instance, EFI and engine management systems are the logical choice. Just as it is for today's vehicles. Although today's vehicles use very different forms of EFI from the obsolete version most of us would install. But for most of us mere mortals retrofitting our dinosaurs, the only real advantage that sells the additional expense of EFI is the tuning. An un-tuned EFI is as bad (maybe worse) as an un-tuned carb. But EFI is expected to self tune. And sometimes it does. But have ThumperDart or someone like him (I know, I know, there is no one else like him) tune the carb for the combo and the real waste of the extra money spent on today's retrofit EFI is evident.

I am going with a 470 only because I always wanted 1 and heard even though on the small side it would be a fun engine for.double duty

I built my 470 in 2007 for my 68 Road Runner. I used Edelbrock RPM heads and intake and a 440 Source kit . Flat top pistons 10.73 -1 My goal was a low rpm power range so I could use my 3.23 gears and the original road runner torque converter. Mostly street and an occasional strip pass . The engine surpassed my expectations. Andy's book was a big help as was Dwayne Porter's cam choice. I have two carbs to use . A QF 780 with electric choke and a Race Demon RS 1050 . The Demon made 13 more peak HP and 15 lbs or so more torque. The engine sat on the stand until 2017 and I decided to put it on the dyno. We did not fine tune the Demon and probably left some power on the table with that tune.



Mark

Never ran anything bigger than my 470 w/home ported rpm's and a .680-.660 solid roller in my street/strip mid 9-second Dart and I love it. See a lot of 500+ strokers that run well too but this little guy is a blast and fairly fast......

Yep, any chance Andy F. gets he will try and shove that EFI crap down your throat for various reasons and one being his ties w/Holley.......I see some like em and see many for sale and I will put one of my carbs up against any of those if anyone want to get down and I tried to do this years ago w/Andy but he wanted no part of it......

And you would be guilty of spreading more fake efi news.

Your constant efi/trickflow sales pitch is really getting old......and now with your story of the supposed ruined engine in your shop, you sir have evolved into a complete liar.

So your customer changed engine ruining fouled plugs often enough to accumulate 500 miles? As "Somebody Currently quite Famous" would say "that's bulls**t.