An explorer upper is easy to find and pretty cheap.

Agreed. If I can't find a Cobra upper cheap (I like the looks of them), I'll go with the Explorer.

Saw this ad in craigslist for a motor, but this statement caught my eye and I thought of you..
http://cosprings.craigslist.org/pts/2531382251.html

I even have a lightning style efi intake with a 94-95 cobra upper or an aluminum 4brl intake

perhaps he'll separate if thats what you need.

Brett

Thanks! I'll ask him:)

Or just trade motors with him.

Yea...I'm sure he'd go for that idea.

Question.....what all should I keep of the parts I have? Viper, you mentioned that much if not all of the accessories, alt, etc. can't be used. Also, I noticed that many of them are corroded. The engine is from Hawaii, the block, heads, crank, cam are all fine, but most of the other accessories have surface corrosion.

Here is what I plan on doing to get organized......

Tossing/Selling:

Alternator and bracket/Mount
Water pump (corrosion is on inside also)
Wiring
Upper/lower intakes
Dizzy/wires
Pulleys
Injectors

This is what I plan on keeping:

Block
Cam
Heads
Crank
All bolts etc.
Starter
Fuel Rail
Timing Chain and cover
Pistons etc.

Sound about right? Thanks.

So what would do we say these are worth? It would be the blue upper and the lower without the fuel rails.

Picking the above parts up today for a great deal! Thanks Brett!!

Glad I could help. Lord knows this place has helped me out a ton.

Brett

the upper are worth what scrap aluminum is going for and if its a 351w lightning its worth 250. to 350. if its a 5.0 not much .

first go to mustang corral and they'll all tell you that year upper flows like crap , has no top end and if your strokin a motor that will really kill it in all ranges of power as for cool looking i guess . even the gt40 may not get enough air in for a stroker . after market intakes matched to the heads and rpm range your going to running at is important .

you know if you were going to run a basic 347 then you would be OK with a factory intake, it is when you get into bigger camshafts and larger combustion chambers that you need a bigger plenum, (the bigger the pump, the bigger the intake) Neither would be worth a damn with a 427 that's for sure.

Did you buy chance ever call my friend about building your engine? He can help you with all of the correct combination's to set it up properly. He has been beating around the idea on having a seminar he can give if a group of people were willing to listen and learn. A lot of knowledge in setting up an engine combination.

I'll see how this runs. It's easy enough to swap out. I've decided on a 408 now.

I did call your buddy and he was very helpful. He mentioned that he only builds 2-3 engines a year and that they are normally pretty wild.

This is a huge learning process for me so I appreciate everyone's suggestions. Thanks.

I'm going to watch to see what you end up with. I did some reading a couple years ago about stroking the 351W. This forum has a section devoted to strokers. And a sponsor that specializes in stroker motors.

http://sbftech.com/index.php?PHPSESSID= ... 2f6d173ed&

They are mostly a drag racing group, so their ideas may be different than what we need for low rpm motors.

The thing I took from the reading I did there, was that 5.0 & 5.8 parts were designed for 5.0s & 5.8s. When you start dealing with 400 cubic inches, you need to start dealing with intake, heads & exhaust capable of moving that much air into & out of the motor. They will tell you that the GT40 stuff was never designed to handle that kind of air flow. They start talking Twisted Wedge heads, Trick Flow intakes & custom cams that were built for big block cubic inches. When I wanted to know if all that is necessary for a truck motor, there were very few people that spoke up with suggestions. There is a guy there with a 408 & NP435 in a Toyota pick up/rock crawler.

Good luck.

Chad

Thanks for the link! I've also done quite a lot of reading on the subject and talked to many of the manufacturers. If I had a free flowing stream of $ to spend on this, I'm sure I'd do the TrickFlow upper and lower but that's not the situation. I'm going to spend $ on the block work, heads, rotating assembly, and cam but nothing crazy. Even with the upper and lowers I have now, the thing will be a beast I'm sure. I can always upgrade the intakes in the future.

I'm officially jealous. Since I just upgraded my axles, but not to D60s, I wrote off a 408. But...... I do have a good 96 Explorer motor waiting for a home. Since my carbed motor is good (20,000+/- miles), I'm considering swapping the EFI stuff onto my motor & building up the Explorer motor. A stroker has crossed my mind.

I'm guessing that IF the intake or head becomes a restriction, it would be at higher rpms, and your performance would suffer. I'd build with what you've got, when you are happy with the set up (heads, intake, pistons, etc) consider a custom ground camshaft to make the most of your set up.

Here are some of the links I saved while reading on the 408W, good luck again.
http://sbftech.com/index.php/topic,1119.0.html
http://www.dragzine.com/tech-stories/en ... w-stroker/
http://www.alternativeauto.com/waterbox ... okers.html
http://sbftech.com/index.php/topic,24843.0.html

If you post 10 posts, at sbftech.com, you get access to another section, "Membership Tech" & "Myths & Rumors", that has some super detailed, if not confusing discussions, there is one on cylinder heads that is amazing.

Here is a way to calculate how much air a motor can use & how to choose a head to fit:
http://sbftech.com/index.php/topic,4125.0.html

Chad

Thanks! I've talked to Woody many times on the phone (he owns that forum and also www.fordstrokers.com). Great guy with loads of experience and information.

Made a few decisions over the weekend as I pondered a 408w which is the tried/true version of this stroker. I said to hell with it, I want a 427 and am going to build one:) Bronco Hut may be able to get a me a good price from CHP on their 427 stroker kit so will probably order it up tomorrow. It's on back-order though so will be 3-4 weeks before I have it:(

On the intake issue, I've posted both of them for sale on eBay so we'll see where that goes. I like the TrickFlow design and will probably go with that along with the EEC-IV computer setup.