The block:
I'm building a Ford 351 Windsor bored .030" over with a 408 stroker kit. I bought a machined block from ProMar in NJ. I considered buying a used engine locally, tearing it down myself and having it machined but I was afraid I might buy something irreparably damaged. The block looks really good so far. It's out of a '91 Ford truck (probably an F series pickup or an E-series van) and it was built for hydraulic rockers. I initially thought I'd keep the engine's original displacement but the company I bought the crank and rod from (Coast High Performance) doesn't usually sell the original stuff so it would take longer to put a standard displacement kit together than a stroker kit. The 408 stroker that I opted for is a pretty cool size. The bore and stroke are almost identical (or square) at 4" apiece. From what I understand it's a pretty flexible size. It works well for drag racing and street racing (not that I'll ever race the car) but like any stroker kit it will wear out faster that a standard bore and stroke.
The valve train:
I bought a used set of aluminum AFR 185 heads online. They're cast aluminum but the intake and exhaust ports plus the combustion chamber are CNC milled for good flow. They also have very big valves. I got a pretty good deal on them and they arrived in really good shape. I tore them down and rebuilt them cleaning the valves and replacing the seals. I also had the combustion chambers, exhaust ports, valve faces, piston faces and the backsides of the exhaust valves ceramic-coated to handle heat. I'm still considering running the engine on propane which burns pretty hot so I thought the coating would help. On a block related note I had the piston skirts as well as the main bearings and connecting rod bearings ceramic coated to fight wear. I chose CompCams XE274HR hydraulic roller cam and hydraulic roller lifters as well as full roller rockers. The cam is relatively radical but with a good ignition setup it should idle nicely.
Ignition and intake:
We have pretty strict emissions standards in my county. I don't think they'll apply to this project but I'm an environmentally conscious kind of guy so I chose to use closed loop fuel injection. I'm installing an Accel DFI ignition system. It's pretty much a complete fuel and ignition system. The kit includes among other things, a programmable ECU with a bunch of preprogrammed base tunes to get you started, an intake manifold and throttle body, fuel rails, injectors, pumps, sensors including a wide band O2 sensor, a coil, hardware, hoses and a special distributor that tells the ECU the position of the crank and allows the ECU to adjust ignition timing. It's a pretty sweet system. The only downside is that tuning it requires a little training. I also considered using the Edelbrock Pro-FLo system but Amazon had a fantastic deal on the Accel system that I couldn't pass up. The ignition system also promises to deliver a smooth manageable idle despite my radical cam. We'll see.
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