Well i am in the planning stages of my truck build. The baselive vehicle is my 86 with 9in of lift. Here are the specs:

351w (all stock)
C6 trans 4x4
IFS front 10.25 rear with 3.55
38.5 tires

Those are just to show whta the truck has. I know the axles and gear ratio is horrible for the combo, but i want to start building the motor while i try breaking the axles in the mud will soon be looking for a D60 for the front with 5.13s and lockers for both.

Anywhoo... I am looking for a good torquy motor. SOmethin around the area of 350-400 horse with as much torque as i can get. I know swapping to a 460 would be best, but i like my small blocks.

What should i start with? I am getting to block machiened as it has 200k on it. I have a set of hedman LT headers for it. What else should i be looking for? Heads, cam, pistions, rods, crank, rocker ratio, intake, carb?

Looking forward to hearing some combos! Maybe a simulation graph?

Oh i got about 3k to work with here

 

I smell a Stroker!!!

Put a basic(cast) stroker kit in it and mount some 180cc RHS heads on it and you'll have the axle breaking Tq you're looking for.

 

How big should i go, 408 or 427? I know more cubes= more fun, but i dont want to sacrafice any reliability or elongativity of the block.

 

393 to 408 will be most cost effective and leave the block essentially stock except for whatever overbore it needs so it'll be most reliabable.