I'm going to rebuild my 400 and get a mild cam and whatever other goodies I can find. However since I don't want 16: 1 compression(I'm exaggerating you get the point), I can either get the 434 stroker kit with a forged crank, pistons, and rods, and use the stock heads, or I can get aluminum heads and uses the stock internals. So what would you do and why?

 

If it was me go with stock internals and upgrade all bolts to arp. Then buy decent heads. things you can do is polish beams and shotpeen con rods with new rod bolts and buy nice piston for your applicaiton. New hyd roller cam and related componets. Go to my photos in my album and I'm doing exactly this. wyoming4x4 and scroll through my 6.7 liter CJ. modern cam and worked heads you can make some stout hrspwr. the engine already has 4" stroke crank so that part taken care of and 400 rods are pretty strong also but upgrade rod bolts and head bolts and mains with new quality bolts ARP! this combo is capable of some serious hrspwr if correct combo. But what application are you thinking?? Once you do this now you have to build up manual tranny with quality clutch and centerforce II or better or dual friction. different clutches rated for different torque capacities. Once you hit about 400ft lb torque OEM parts are pretty much junk! C-6 has to be built up a little and nice torque converter. things to think about. combo capable of 500hrspwr and 500ft lb torque if setup correctly with nice heads on pump gas and roller cam. pushing pump gas limits but not a hard thing to do with $$$$$$$$$

 

Like the guy above said. Detail the motor with a grinder, and use good bolts.

The cam and edelbrock head combo would be worth more average hp/average tq then a stock headed 434. Although the stock headed 434 will likely out tq it early on.

You can also polish your pistons, and heads. Which allows you to raise you compression a bit more. As the polished surfaces reduce octane or compression sensitivity. That way you can easily run 10-1 on pump gas.