At some point in the near future, I will need to rebuild the 351m/400 for my bronco. I have a blown up 400(previously rebuilt/OG motor), and a 351m that was running when pulled. If the 400 crank is not good, I have considered the T Meyer rotating assembly for the rebuild. Why should I not buy the stroker kit for the rebuild? My ultimate plan is for the best efficiency and reliability. Can the stoker be tame enough to at least match the efficiency of a slight overbored 400, yet offer just a smidge more power? I am currently mulling around a couple ideas. Let me know yalls thoughts. Also, future plans call for sequential fuel injection and a 6r80.

Both possibilites will need to be street driven dailies. Im also thinking they will both offer between 350-400hp.

Non stroker
- 400 crank
- Tmeyer rebuild kit
- Aluminum heads
- Matched Cam

Stroker
- Tmeyer Rotating assembly
- Tmeyer rebuild kit
- Factory heads, home port(aftermarket heads not in budget w/the rotating assembly).
- Matched cam

 

I would go with stock 4" stroke and Trick Flow Power Port 195 heads. Tim's cam bearings, roller camshaft, ARP hardware, standard volume oil pump with ARP driveshaft.

Aluminum heads will be your friend in the long run, make more power and allow you to run more compression on lower grade fuel.

350-400HP will be very easy.

 

Thats very much the route I was thinking. What kind of compression can be expected with an 87/89 octane, if I run the aluminum heads?

 

Compression you can safely run on 87/89 octane will really depend on your camshaft and the dynamic compression ratio. For something in the 350-400HP range, especially 400 - you should be safe at 10:1. Tim Meyer will have lots of practical experience to put something together for you.

 

Flow data will show that the trick flow heads out flow the stock heads but that doesn’t always translate into efficiency as it relates to gas mileage.

The aluminum heads dissipate heat better and allow for a higher compression ratio but that may not be enough poor part throttle air flow velocity if the trick flow heads have that problem.

You might want to look to see if there is any data out there for port velocity for the stock heads and for the trick flow ones. From the little looking I did it looks like trick flow head flow about the same or a little better than ported 2V heads.

Lots of studies have been done on efficacy for bore vs stroke and the most efficacy combo ends up being a stroke that is slightly longer then the bore. That said every thing else must be perfect in order to see any results from an under square engine.

In most real world usage the biggest efficacy upgrade you can make would be sequential fuel injection. That jump in efficacy will probably out weight any of the engine combos you are considering.

This is all a pretty big can of worms.

I don’t know if the striker kit comes with custom pistons but if it does and you can get them built to match the trick flow heads that make end up making the cost of resizing the 400 crank and rods and the custom pistons needed for the trick flow heads on a 400 a little closer.

Last ditch idea would be look at speedmaster heads. Some people say they are ok some don’t and they will probably need some work out of the box but they are half the cost of trick flow heads.