[Tony Radford]

RB, when I bought my car already built, it was sporting a 351W with stock stroke, hydraulic cam with a pretty radical lope, Edlebrock 600, Twisted Wedge heads with some additional porting, MSD ignition etc. Estimated HP is 410. Several of the guys here in the Atlanta area have recently completed builds and have chosen to go with a locally produced Windsor with 396 stroker kit, 750 Holly and a solid cam with estimated HP at 465. Big difference in performance, primarily in the torque area. Next week, I'm replacing my stock stroke Windsor with a 427 stroker kit, Vic. Jr. intake, solid cam, Mighy Demon 750 DP carb and additioinal porting on my current heads. Estimated HP will be around 500 with 530 ft/lbs of torque. What has dissapointed me most with my current rig is the fact that it stops pulling at 5,000 RPM. I'm having a great time working out this new build with direction from Bill Parham at Southern Automotive. I've done a serious amount of reading on heads, cams, carbs, strokers in general etc. I'm complicating things by adding external surface polishing to heads, intake, water pump, valve covers, timing cover and so on as I do a lot of car shows. You will need to focus on your cylinder head selection. I highly recommend a stroker crank and solid cam/lifter set up. You'll really notice the difference and the additional cost won't be significant since you are starting from scratch. There is a great SBF head comparison article on the fordmuscle.com site. Do the research and have fun with the task.

TR