Stroking an FE -- Questions!!

[RICK LAKE]

1985 CCX Jeff can you tell by looking at any FE motor in a car what size it is? The only way I have seen a possible size differents is how long the burnout is and how many gears are pulled. Except for the race gas in some of the cobras at shows and smelling it, they all look big in the engine compartment. For the price it takes to build a 427 cubic motor, you can add another 55 cubes and get more power at a lower RPM and have less maintainance overall. I think that we, sorry ( some of us ) That you can do more or the same with a different gearing in the rear of the car and less compression. The trade off is a lower RPM limit. IMO I don't like turning my strokers over 6,200 rpm with a 6,500 max. It's easier to change the gears in the rearend or get a double overdrive trans, then rebuild a motor. The new street Richmond 5 spd is a great gear ratio for a cobra with the 2.87 and .77 overdrive. With a set of 3.08 or 3.31 you have the best of both worlds. Add a KCR roller cam and the cars idle nasty and sound like a solid roller camshaft. In the end does it matter, when the cars look as nice as yours with the big GY tires and knockoffs. Rick L.