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As turbostang said, mail order motors are a head ache. Yes i agree Ford Strokers has an awesome reputation but that doesnt delete the fact that they are human and humans do make mistakes. I built a 331 stock block last winter. They have 347 kits that do not have the oiling issues they had back in the days. I went with a 331 due to me wanting to go turbo eventually. With a ground cam for your application you can get 400 out of a 331. I drive mine around town and everyonce in a while to the track which is about a 30 min drive. No problems but mine is currently built for a big shot of nitrous IE rings are gapped pretty big so has quite a bit of blow by and cost of race gas is $10 a gallon so Id rather trailer it. So IMO I would go with a budget build and have some one local assemble your short block if you do not perfer to do it. Longs Racing Engines did all my machine work and I assembled it. As mentioned you can save some money doing it this way but thousandths are very critical. If on a budget build use a stock block with cast crank and rods. This will save you quite a bit. Just keep the revs around 6k and since you dont plan on putting a power adder on it the cast parts will work out fine. thats my 2 cents.
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yup, mistakes happen... when they happen 3 states away, it's a PITA to deal with.
people always ask me who I recommend for a fully built transmission for their diesel truck... the guys in Florida? the guys in Colorado? the guys in California? the guys in Indiana?
my advice is ALWAYS to find the most competent/reputable builder as close to you as possible. They're all using the same damn parts!!! For some guys, it's a neighboring state. For me, I found a guy about 20 miles from me who builds awesome transmissions! He's built them for tons of my friends down here. I have him do all of the autos in my trucks.
The last one he did for me had an issue right out of the gate. The depth on a bushing was off less than 1/32". It got into a ring seal causing pressure to bleed on 3rd gear. It was flare shifting 3rd and would slip 3rd. He was so buried with work at the time (he's ALWAYS busy... comes with being good), he asked me if I could limp it for a week or two. I obliged and just took it easy on it. I was still able to drive it wherever I wanted. Drove to Louisiana, etc. etc.
Couple weeks later he called me up and said can you drop the truck off? The next day I went and picked it up. He had completely rebuilt it, showed me all the parts and carnage, handed me the keys and said "go try and try to tear this one up! if you manage to somehow, we'll just rebuild it again".
they're all using the same parts... If you were talking about trying to make record power with some sort of oddball engine, I could see going with a niche builder and shipping everything back and forth, but for a friggin' SBF? use a local builder IMOComment
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