Short stroke means quick high winding....Long stroke gives bottom end torque...Whoever said drag racing does not need torque is(not meaning in the wrong way) wrong...Torque is what moves the car... That is why the 360 works better stock. (Longer Stroke) + more cubic inches. Short stroke means HP or high winding, but less torque...Which causes greater chance of breakage...This is why the 440 is fast and low maintenance.(Long stroke + Low rpm)...Why would you take a high winder and put a small runner or less flow head on it...Why would you spend 100's of dollars on buying valves, porting, & springs when you can go to salvage, buy stock set of 360 heads and do a $110.00 valve job and flow better if you are on a budget and flow is what you will need with a high winder(stock 360 head...1.88 intake). Always advance your cam in a sb at least 4*(will bring power range to lower rpm) unless you use hughes cam, because this is built into a hughes cam. Why does the stroke motor run faster? Because of more cubic inches?...To some degree, but the reason is for the longer stroke(more torque) to move the car quicker...If your car is geared and tired right, if you p/u a 10th of a second in the first 60' of the race track, you will pick up close to three 10th over the whole 1/4 mi. So, does this mean the quicker 60' the better et?..Yes! 318's are great. I run one with stock bottom end (3.910 bore), stock 340 cam(advanced 8 degrees), Pair of stock 360 J heads, LD340 intake, and I believe it was the 650 carter carb, w/ 1 5/8 headers and run 13.70's in a 3000 lb car...It was great when a buddy of mine was only running 13.40's w/ a 360... I am in the process of building a 349 cu in out of a 318 and a 390 out of a 318...We will see what the 318 can do...LOL...Lee