Undersquare vs. Oversquare Engines

ramcharger said
1. Let's take a well built LA stroker with a 4.040 bore giving us a hair over 408 ci and a 400 B block bored .040 over giving us a hair under 408 ci. Let's top these engines with a pair of well ported Eddy heads (same amount of time put into both), keep the comp ratio at a sane 10.5:1 and stab in a cam that is identical. Lets say a solid roller cam 250 dur @ .050 and .600 lift ground on a 108 CL. Top it off with a single plane manifold and a 850 cfm carb.

Which engine will give us the most power and at what rpm? I would think that the B block would far out power the LA stroker due to the larger valves, ports and bore that would unshroud the valves and less friction from side loading due to the longer connecting rod (6.638 vs. 6.123).

2. Now, lets do nothing but reduce the size of the cam to 230 dur @ .050 and .540 lift but still a solid roller and switch to a dual plane manifold but keep everything else identical. Will the LA stroker provide more torque than the B? Will it be at a lower rpm? What about the area under the curve? Would the B block have a higher HP peak due to the bigger ports, valves, etc?

Any and all responses are appreciated.

I think the issues are apples to oranges... By limiting heads to one brand and style, and camshaft, and compression.. and you eliminate maximizing each combo with the available parts for them. The stroke is the key in both cases.

#1....The LA RPMs will feed the 4" crank engine to 6500 with a std CNC program netting 270-280cfm. The suggested cam is smaller in terms or duration at .050 than I'd use. A solid roller would be more like 265-270°@.050 at .600 lift, and with taking out for lash and the nasty pushrod angles, that lift at the valve is closer to .560. Also, carb is on the smallish side. I think performance wise 520-540 at 6300 is close. I built a 416 very similar to that that made 540 with a dual plane and 950 carb, using a smaller solid roller cam. The torque peak will be higher than mine tho. I'd think 470-490tq @ 43-4400rpm would be what I'd expect.
The B wedge with it's shorter stroke and a CNC head in the 310 area will be undercarbed but not by much. But it will make it's power higher in the rpm band. I think the numbers would be similar, but slightly lower even at peak. I'd be looking for 510-525hp at 6800, with torque in the higher rpms too. I'd be looking for peak torque in the 5K area with a peak around 470 pound feet. To get things better, I'd run a higher static ratio, closer to 11.5 and a single plane intake for this one, plus a carb in the 950 area.
I have a program that uses a bunch of data points to approximate frictional losses for an engine... Interestingly, the hp it estimates being lost by the 4" is higher, but at 6600, the B wedge has the same hp loss as the 4" LA does at 6K.