Stroker advice
I was thinking of buying the piston kit after the bore to make sure I buy the right kit. I didn’t want to buy a kit then have to buy another due to an oversized bore.
Here’s the problem with that thinking.
If a machinist bore the block, let’s say, .030 over, you get the pistons, install them and then measure them for there clearance, then they’re ether to tight or to loose. Now what do you do?
Just because you read a piston is .030 oversized doesn’t mean the next piston in the same batch of 8 is exactly.030 oversized nor does it mean the next manufacturer also has the same exact size for there piston at a .030 oversize.
This applies to cast, hyper or forged pistons. The clearance varies from not only piston to piston but manufacturer to manufacturer as well as the exact metal make up of that pistons. There are different metals used for forged pistons and with hypers, the amount of added silicon can vary a lot.
You could get away with it, you may not get away with it.
My own example is I have a MP circle track stroker kit. 3.45 crank, 4.03 forged slugs. I gave my rotating assembly, crank, rods, pistons, rings, bearings to the machinist with a .020 over block. So now the block will be machined to have each slug precisely measured and installed in its own bore and it’ll never ever be swapped to another bore. If there is any variation, it gets addressed by the machinist and handled.
You’re spending a lot on a stroker, don’t cheap out now. Have the machinist do all the work and then you can request and notify him that you want to put it together. I was given the option, I declined this round. IMO, since he has it, I’ll pay the piper to do it.
I’ve screwed together an easy half dozen engines in my old garage. It’s fun, I love it, but I passed the buck in it on this one. If, IF! Something is off, it’s a bit of a drive and a lot of time to have it straightened out. Once, a long ways back, I had to go back to the machinist 3 times. The 40 minute drive sucks. Disassembling and re assembling sucks. Mostly it was my bad. I gotta own that. It’s the truth. And it SUCKED!