Thoughts/opinions on Blueprint Engines 408 stroker crate engine?
It's a good crank. I'd say it's plenty for anything street/strip oriented. If BPE trusts it and will warranty it at their rated power, I wouldn't worry about it.
I appreciate the opinion but I already see that nobody is worried about it.
I'll also say that I have no doubts that this engine will perform as advertised and I am not at all considering cancelling my order. Having said this, I'm still perfectly within my rights to be interested in the thinking behind this decision and what it means about longevity and durability of the motor. I can't be the only one who just has a question as to why they used forged pistons, forged rods...and a cast crank? I don't know what brand is being used in this motor but IIRC, the difference in price for an Eagle forged crank over their cast crank is $300ish. Sure, that's a lot of money for a company pumping out hundreds of crate engines but for a person who's already dropping $8k-$9k on an engine, it seems like a worthwhile question
Maybe it's because the unspecified cast crank that they chose is just incredibly durable. Maybe it's because there's something unique about the Magnum engine that makes the crank less of a worry (even though Mopar saw fit to used forged cranks in their performance variants of the LA small block through most of 1972 at least). Maybe the limitation on the flow through heads means that the engine is no good past 5xxx RPM and the cast crank is good enough for that speed? I am assuming that one of these things explains it.
And yes. I called their tech department with a bunch of questions before putting down my deposit and they were all more or less answered to satisfaction but most of my confidence in the engine came from this thread. The tech didn't know a lot of specifics. Maybe he was more of an expert on the Chevy stuff? In any case,
@Johnny Mac seems to have this level of detailed knowledge. I'm hoping he or someone else will know.
Basically, I'd just like to know if this is the weakest link in the engine, what it means about max RPM or vulnerability to knock, etc. Does it mean that the bottom end motor is absolutely maxed out? Will it ventilate the block if you go over 5900 RPM? Would the engine even be better with a forged crank? If so, how much better?