hey guys im planning on building a 416ci stroker from my 340 block. Im contimplating weather i should go with the 4" forged steel crank or the 4" cast steel crank? what horsepower are the cast cranks good up to?and should i be using a set of h beam or i beam rods? your help would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks alot ray

4" cast crank is good for 500hp unblown, 4" forged is good for about 600hp unblown. Your stock block will need alot of mods if you want 500 to 600hp. If you have an old block, you better think of the fatigue life you have left in it before the block breaks or splits the cylinder walls. You better sonic test and magnaflux the block first. Forged pistons are a must. You know if you built a mild 440, you would already be at these power levels anyway.With that kind of cubes with the small block, you are going to have an aftermarket head. So measure cost vs outcome. The bigblock is going to out torque the small block. If you go with an aftermarket R-3 block, it is possible to stroke one of these things to 474cubes with a 4.25 crank. It just cost alot of money!!!

Hey ray, I am in the process of building a 360 stroker so I have been researching them. Mopar muscle built the 360 a bomb with a cast crank and 600 horsepower. The forged crank is only used for engines with forced induction, nitrous, or in the event that you plan on spinning it over about 6500 rpm. The stock block can handle it for sure, just make sure you get the tolerances right and use 4 bolt mains. Also, The I beam rods are only good for 500 horsepower. the H beams are for up to 800. make sure you dont forget about the oil system. There are some real easy mods that are worth doing for reliability reasons. Make sure you use good heads. The indy heads are good but only for applications that exceed 7000 rpm. I would recommend a set of edelbrock heads slightly ported. You can get them at www.hughesengines.com. They will flow about the same as the indy's but at a much lower rpm. Besides, indy says 700 hp potential but if you read closley thats fully ported. plus the recommended parts take the price for the whole top end heads to intake to over 4000 dollars. As far as a 440 goes your gonna spend roughly 5 to 6 grand for a 440 with everything radiator and all. For this price you will push about 450 horsepower with a 6000 rpm redline. With a smallblock you can easily get 5 to 6 hundred horsepower and a 7000 plus rpm redline for just under 8000. Thats if you build it. Crate motors are cheaper. Mopar has a 435 hp smallblock stroker for a little over 4000 dollars.

I hate to disagree but, the cost of a built 440 with stock heads with over size valves does not cost 4 to 5 grand. It can if you want to replace everything including the block! You can duplicate the 440 resto to rad article for much less than this. I have just done this for 2800 bucks and I have better pistons than the .087 deck height pistons they were using. This article in mopar muscle describes a stock 440 going thru changes of horespower advancements. From stock 350hp to 464hp using stock size valves! This baby put out 524ftlbs of torque! And it's basically and street motor. That 600hp small block was not. No matter what- A built smallblock isn't going to come close to the torque of a mild built 440. Just ask Herb McCandeless and Ken from INDY. If you've never been there or done that, ask somebody who has personally. Ask a drag racer who done both

I couldn't agree more Detar the 440 is one of if not the best base starting  point for performance! I also think that the 400 has the most potential of all the factory motors ever built with the accepiton of the Hemi.  

All fine except for one thing, 440 and hemis are nose heavy, especially in an A body. They handle like crap. I can assure you a well built 360 or stroker small block makes plenty of power, similar to the 440 when comparing apples to apples, and they drive like a dream compared to the big block. So if your driving more than a quarter mile at a time you should consider a 360 or 408 depending on the level of power your after. Or go the 340 stroker route, its even bigger like 416 or so.  

big block big block big block the guy had a small block question. If your going to use a 340 block i think you should use a main girdle. we just did a mild one with edelbrock heads it went 513hp 519tq it is a animal on the street it had 400 hp by 3800rpm.I like the steel crank because i think it has less deflection and that makes the mains live better. Also we have broke 2 eagle cast cranks at 500 or less power good luck!!!