Sir,
I respectfully disagree with your advice and I'll attempt to briefly explain my point.
AdamsGT, who started this thread, indicated the car would be street driven. In addition, the subject has to do with choosing between a 331 vs 347 engine.
The typical/most popular EFI solution is to use Ford's EEC-IV. The Adaptive capabilities of this computer would support the operation of a stroker motor (331/347), but it's civility and behavior will MOST CERTAINLY be different from the stock 302.
I have pulled the following text from a website devoted to Ford EFI.
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What does modifying the EEC tune give you? The #1 thing it gives you is the ability to make a moderately built 347 stroker run with near stock manners on the street. You can usually improve fuel economy, rid annoying lean tip-ins that make takeoffs rough, calm hunting idles to let you run a much lower RPM idle than would be possible with an OEM tune, and cure conk-outs on RPM-drops as you approach a stop sign/light or declutch. There's other issues you can often face while just driving that would be annoying like tip-out bucking. Automatics can also have issues where they want to conk out as soon as you put them in gear if you don't manually tune the idle screw up. Not every vehicle is going to display every one of these issues. But if you have any of them, these are the things that can be tuned out to make a beast-of-an-engine tame enough to drive on the street without headaches. As long as the cam isn't over-the-top aggressive and there aren't other mechanical issues, you should be able to get decent driving manners out of most any SBF build.
Having the ability to tune also gives the the opportunity to play around in the spark tables to see if you can save some cash by going with lower grade fuels. Most people with builds that rely on the OEM tune just accept that the engine will live on 91/93 octane premium. However many people find that with the right tweaks, they can get near the same power and run lower grades.
And with a tuning solution, a dyno operator can find the optimal spark table for your engine to maximize the fuel you are burning. The stock curve is best for a stock engine given Ford's goals for the engine (longevity, emissions, etc). But even the OEM spark tables aren't necessarily ideal for the individual. You can usually find places all within the RPM/Load map where adding some spark here or pulling some spark there improves things even on a stock engine. And with a modified engine, it's pretty much a guarantee that this will be possible. This becomes especially true with boosted applications.
So bottom line, you get what you pay for. If you are only racing the car up and down the track and you aren't getting paid, then run the stock tune or better yet, do as someone else suggested, just run a carb. It's a lot cheaper and simpler. EFI gives you flexibility in engine tuning that goes beyond what a carb and vac advance can give you. If you deny yourself the ability to use it, then you are better off with a carb and simple distributor. However if have a moderate build in a frequently driven vehicle and you want daily-driver manners and some sentiments of fuel economy from it, then that's where a tune is going to be much appreciated.
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Again, my recommendation would be to go with the 347 and have the EEC tuned for that engine ($350) and Adam will have a car with great street manners and many more HP for the adrenalin boost !
I greatly appreciate having a venue in which disparate opinions can be expressed !! Sincerely...
-D
