Beginners questions about 331 stroked engines

jackfrost

New Member
Jan 21, 2006
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Hey how's everyone doing! I'm pretty much a begginer at modding mustangs.I saw the helpful begginers post by srothfuss and been trying to get as much of it done. I've got a 90 lx vert and I plan on using it as a daily driver and it's got 130,000 ( roughly ) miles. Down the road I want to turn the stock 302 to a 331 and get a stage 2 cam. Will be it more cost effective to get a 331 stroker kit and top-engine kit and use the stock engine or just get a built 331. Also in the future I might get a turbo or S/C. One last thing how much should I beef up the stock auto transmission by with this set up. I appreciate your help guys, thanks.
 
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It may be cheaper for you to buy a built 331 shortblock and then buy a topend kit like trickflow's kit. Unless you will be building the motor by yourself you are going to pay a lot for the labor. Make sure to get all the necessary machine work done to the block so you start with a nice reliable platform. I would definately recommend beeffing up the auto at least with a nice converter and a shift kit. it will make a night and day difference. Your looking at at least 5 g's...good luck man
 
Depending on where you wanna go, a forced induction 331 might split the stock block in half(figure a fresh 331 with H/I/C already puts out about 375ish conservatively). The stock block is typically good up to about 450ish HP . Some people are very lucky and are able to milk more but as a general rule, anything about 450 is block splitting territory. All the main girdles and valley supports really don't increase the strength of the block but rather keep all the parts together. Ford is suppose to come out with a new sportsman block which closely resembles the boss 302 block. I would keep an eye out for one of those when those come out.
Kevin
 
If you are going to build a 331 machine work will cost about 150 to clearance the block. Where the money comes in is the rotating assembly. You can buy stroker kits for about 500-600 dollars, but most of these kits would not be good for forced induction (all cast components). What you would need as far as a rotating assembly would be a forged kit, and your looking at 1200-1500 dollars if you want to be safe when using forced induction. Just for your information, I spent 5700 to build my 331, and that is from the block up doing all the work myself.
 
93 331 GT said:
If you are going to build a 331 machine work will cost about 150 to clearance the block. Where the money comes in is the rotating assembly. You can buy stroker kits for about 500-600 dollars, but most of these kits would not be good for forced induction (all cast components). What you would need as far as a rotating assembly would be a forged kit, and your looking at 1200-1500 dollars if you want to be safe when using forced induction. Just for your information, I spent 5700 to build my 331, and that is from the block up doing all the work myself.
you will spend more than 150 in machining.....notching the cylinder skirts = 75$, boring= 125, cam bearings and freeze plugs = 50, hot tanking= 50....the optional line honeing= 125
 
Modular2v said:
you will spend more than 150 in machining.....notching the cylinder skirts = 75$, boring= 125, cam bearings and freeze plugs = 50, hot tanking= 50....the optional line honeing= 125
Where I am it is only $80 dollars for boring and notching, hot tank is 35 and freeze plugs $20 (They do not do cam bearings).
 
One more thing is your compression. If you are going to use a supercharger or turbo (what I built my motor for), you want to keep the compression from 8.5:1 to 9.5:1.
the lower the compression the better. Stock is about 9:1, so get some dish pistons. Flat tops will be in the 10:1 to the 11:1 range.
 
Thanks for the reply guys.:D It's like what they say amount of HP comes hand in hand with amount of money. I pretty much committed myself to spending 6-7 g's + labor on the engine. Appreciate the advice dudes.