Build the biggest engine that you can afford...The key word being AFFORD!

The buff magazines are constantly featuring mega-inch monster motors, and the manufacturers are in the game as well. GMPP will sell you a 572 inch Rat motor, Mopar Performance will sell you a 528 inch Hemi or a 505 inch wedge, and Ford SVT will sell you a 514 incher. They all have over 600 hp and they all cost 15-20 grand. If you can afford that and want or think you need that much power-by all means buy one. But the reality is a lot of us can't put 20 grand in the whole car-much less just the engine. And a lot of people don't want or need some killer motor-they just want a little more power than stock. I'm going to give some good advice here on how to get the most bang for your buck. The buff magazines always say "Build the biggest engine you can afford". This is generally good advice, with heavy emphasis on the "afford" part. But different engine lines have different characteristics and what applies to one line may be totally wrong for another. Here's a perfect example. If your building a small-block Chevy-a 350 costs no more to buy or build than a 305, yet makes substantially more power and torque. That's a no-brainer. Anyone would say go with the 350. Further-if the engine needs a new crank or pistons-stroker kits are so cheap for small-block Chevys-I've seen 383 crank, rod and piston kits with rings,bearings and the oil pump for as low as $399!!. It would certainly behoove you to build the 383, which is going to have more oomph than the 350. Now let's say you have a 400 Pontiac. The buff magazines all tell you to put a stroker rotating assembly in it and make a 455. ( Or a 461 / 467 if the block is bored .030 or .060 over ). However stroker rotating assemblys for Pontiacs start at $1799!!  For $1800 you could buy a complete cam kit-cam,lifters, springs, timing chain, rockers, pushrods etc-from Comp Cams or Crane or Lunati, an Edelbrock carb and intake, a set of headers, and still have a little left over for rings, bearings and oil pump and maybe minor machine work-i.e.-turning the crank .010 under, re-sizing the rods etc. If the short block was in good shape-you could build your whole engine for that. The 400 in my brothers GTO cost $1900 to build and dyno'd at 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque. Not bad for a junkyard engine with a few bolt-on parts. To make a 400 a 455-you'd have that much in the rotating assembly-and you still have to buy all the other parts you'd need. You'd end up having 4 grand in the motor instead of 2. And it wouldn't make THAT much more power. One of the buff magazines built a 455 that cost "only" $4,400. They were happy that it made 440 hp and 460 lbs of torque. Guess what? If my brother wants another 59 hp and 30 lbs ft of torque-I think we can get it for a lot less than another $2,500!! A 400 can run just as hard as a 455 with the right equipment. The same goes for making a 383 / 400 Mopar into a 451. It requires all kinds of custom machine work,-including relieving the block for clearance- and the parts are expensive. I'd just stick with the 400 cubes and spend the money on heads, cam, carb and intake, ignition, etc. Where your going to get the most gain per dollar. Here's another scenario where like the Pontiac-less is more. Let's say your Mopar project has a 318. The easiest way to big power is swap in a 340 or 360. However, 340s were only built from 1968-73,and are pretty scarce and usually expensive. 360s were used in zillions of Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler cars and trucks and vans from 1971-1991. And there are millions of "Magnum" engines in junkyards in Dodge trucks and vans and Jeep Chrokees from 1992-2004. I'd get a 360 Magnum. The Magnum heads breathe better than any factory head and many aftermarket ones. Edelbrock offers "Magnum" compatible intakes. And the Magnum heads and intake will bolt up to older "LA" blocks. The small-block Mopar is an awesome base for a hi-performance engine. The hot setup for Small-block Chevy racers is 6-inch rods. ( Stock is 5.7 ). A 360 Mopar has 6.123 inch rods from the factory. Now Eagle and other companies sell rotating assemblys to turn a 360 into a 408. I've even seen Blueprint Engines and others selling 408 Mopar crate engines. One made 375 hp; the other made 415. Big Deal. Mopar Performance's 360 crate motor made 380 hp!!  And cost a lot less. You can get 400 hp out of a 360 Magnum pretty easy with the right parts. In my opinion, stroking it isn't worth the extra expense. Now here's another scenario where the shoe is on the other foot. If you have a 350 Olds and want some more "bang" for your buck, I'd get a 403. Everything interchanges with a 350. Although they were only used from 1976-79 they were used in every GM "Big" car-Catalinas, Bonnevilles, Olds 88s and 98s, Buick Rivieras, and Electras and all the wagons, as well as Pontiac Trans-Ams and Formula Firebirds. There are millions of them out there. And 53 extra cubes will certainly help, all other things being equal. Edelbrock claims 397 hp and 400 lbs of torque from their "Performer RPM" package on a 350. 53 more cubes would put you well over the 400 hp mark. Magazine writers spout numbers flippantly; 400 honest hp will make any street car an absolute rocket. Another "Rodney Dangerfield" ( "No respect" ) is the 400C / M Ford used in millions of cars and trucks from 1971-82. The reason they got a rep as "dogs" was they were saddled with 2bbl carburation, single exhaust, a lazy cam, and were put in heavy cars with salt-flats gearing like 2.75:1.  Their "Cleveland" style heads breathe exceptionally well. Give him a decent cam, headers and a 4bbl carb and intake, and swap the gears for something in the 3.23-3.73:1 range and you'll swear it's a 460. Every year in the engine masters challenge someone has a 400 Ford with over 500 hp. If you have or want to buy a car with this engine-you don't need to swap in a 460-just give this one it's vitamins!  So do some research before you start spending your hard-earned money on the latest "it" fad. Just because something is possible doesn't mean it's good. Mastermind