jeff swisher
Veteran Member
I have a 350 .030 over 4 bolt block
I pulled a balanced 355" rotating assembly from it and measured the cast pistons at over .050" down the hole.
I have a stroker crank 3.75" in it now, mocked up and 6" crower I beam rods with 7/16 bolts.
I had to grind quite a bit of the lower part of the cylinders to clear those bolts.
I measured the piston do deck clearance and got .0265" at 3 corners and .028"
at one corner.
This is with Mahle pro true forged flat tops.
I will assume this has never been surfaced or decked..Looks stock nasty.
I will have .010" taken off both sides.
The rods I got from the 350 rotating assembly are stroker rods also..Unknown brand.
They are 5.7 with a bolt instead of a nut and bolt and alignment collars for the rod caps.
They also have a dimple on the rod.
Yea like a BBC dimple rod.
Someone polished the beams on them also.
Then hung cast pistons on those rods and left them .050+ down the hole and used a .039" head gasket and some 220 cc intake runner heads.
It was a turd that a stock 180 HP 350 would out run.
Moral of the story never assume your expensive forged pistons will be close to the deck.
Measure everything.
I did check cam to rod clearance with a few cams I have and the 6" crower rods have plenty.
The 5.7 no name have plenty also.
Fun stuff.
I pulled a balanced 355" rotating assembly from it and measured the cast pistons at over .050" down the hole.
I have a stroker crank 3.75" in it now, mocked up and 6" crower I beam rods with 7/16 bolts.
I had to grind quite a bit of the lower part of the cylinders to clear those bolts.
I measured the piston do deck clearance and got .0265" at 3 corners and .028"
at one corner.
This is with Mahle pro true forged flat tops.
I will assume this has never been surfaced or decked..Looks stock nasty.
I will have .010" taken off both sides.
The rods I got from the 350 rotating assembly are stroker rods also..Unknown brand.
They are 5.7 with a bolt instead of a nut and bolt and alignment collars for the rod caps.
They also have a dimple on the rod.
Yea like a BBC dimple rod.
Someone polished the beams on them also.
Then hung cast pistons on those rods and left them .050+ down the hole and used a .039" head gasket and some 220 cc intake runner heads.
It was a turd that a stock 180 HP 350 would out run.
Moral of the story never assume your expensive forged pistons will be close to the deck.
Measure everything.
I did check cam to rod clearance with a few cams I have and the 6" crower rods have plenty.
The 5.7 no name have plenty also.
Fun stuff.