Alright Im gonna rebuild my engine here pretty soon and im gonna go w/ a 331 stroker. Now my question is would i benefit goin w/ the short block or just the stroker kit?
Im gonna run a fully built engine and prolly about 8 lbs of boost? is that to much for the stock block?
It is not a good idea to get a 331 kit and just drop it in to a used stock block. You should zero deck the block, get the cylinders bored, the main bearing journals checked, new cam bearings along with a magnaflux and sonic check to make sure that the block is good.
The decision has to be how much will it cost to do that work locally, how much is the shortblock, and would you rather trust your local machinist, or the factory machinist.
So it comes down to where the shortblock will be built, if you have a local machinist that you trust, and if you have the measurement equipment to double check all of the tolerances.
I'm not a supercharger expert, but I know that a built 331 is getting close to the limits of the stock block, especially if you spin it higher than 7,000. Adding boost on top of that is pushing it a bit. My advice is to get a main stud girdle and a good harmonic damper. If money is not an issue, get a dart block.
331 stock block and 8lbs of boost is plenty fine. A stock block that is built right and balanced right with a girdle will hold 550rwhp all day long provided a decent tune and no detonation and keeping it under 6500rpms.
DSS sells their pro-bullet 331 shortblocks for around $2500. at that price i would say you might as well start fresh. Here's a link: http://www.dssracing.com/
i agree with bluedevil. the price of an entire shortblock is close if not cheaper than doing it yourself. D.S.S. deck squares and equalizes the block, they bore and hone with torque plates and put on a girdle. they have ultralite pistons too. they claim a 650 horsepower capacity. thats what i'm gonna do. its a better deal than what i was lookin at to do all that stuff locally. as far as handling 8#s of boost, a stock block can handle up to about 12#s(don't hold me to that), the boost level isn't the thing, its more about how much horsepower it has. generally stock blocks can handle up to 500rwhp. after that your on borrowed time.