I'm thinking about building a 557 stroker next year after I get back from fishing in Alaska. Anyone done one of these? Who makes the best kit, I was kinda leaning towards the scat kit. Who makes the best pistons? Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

 

All the kits I have seen are from reputable people. So the parts really come down to what you wanna do in the end.

You want high rpm or forced induction then you'll need to get the best you can afford.

If your building a torque monster any kit will work.

 

Ok, thank you. The plan is to build it somewhat conservative at first with around 600 hp on a pump gas friendly 10:1 compression, but I wanna build the bottom end as strong as possible so that down the road when I want to switch to some kasse heads and a more extreme cam shaft, the bottom end won't have to be touched. And yes, forced induction is a definite possibility later on

 

Don't even consider a cast crank then. Forged crank.

One of the best for cranks is Adney Brown performance crank 585-549-7557

Here is his website

Performance Crankshaft

he can balance it before shipping and probably one of the only if not THE only guy I would trust to balance it mail order.

Pistons, Diamond, SRP or J&E all are amoung the best. I have personally run all of them and the J&E was what i had in my BBF stroker at 900+hp and constant 8000rpms.

 

Awesome info, thank you. I was kinda figuring on forged crank, after market 4 bolt main caps, forged I-beam rods, and the later 385 block with the longer cylinder skirts, but the pistons where the part I didn't know about. Eventually its gonna be a dry pump with a more extreme cam and kasse heads. After that who knows, but forced induction could be the next step How are the scat or eagle pistons? I know the scat kit is rated for 1200 hp but with all the ideas in my head it may well push that limit.

 

This would all be eventually packed in my 65' galaxie 4 door, stripped as light as possible with the after market fiberglass front fenders, bumpers, and trunk and hood from crites performance. Also plan to pull the roof from a 2 door 65' to chop and graft in for the nicer profile

 

Neither scat or eagle make pistons they use someone elses in those kits. usually probe, not bad for a street motor I guess about like the old TRW slugs.

If your seriously thinking 1200hp don't bother with a stock block at all.

I ran a D9TE block at a little over 900 on 2 bolts and I know a lot survive at over 1000hp but for what it costs to upgrade to 4bolt etc you aer way ahead of the game to buy an A460 or IDT block. Not just the strength advantage of the 4 bolts but you have better oiling system with priority main oiling etc AND if you ever really get serious about boost, they are setup for 18 bolt heads.

I like the frontend of the 65s wish I could actually get alum or fiberglass parts for my 67.


Oh and don't go with the forged I-beam stuff, look at billet like the Oliver billet I-beam. about the best you can get and will survive forced induction and easily handle 1200hp. Got a set of them and an A460 block waiting for me to built a new engine for my galaxie

 

Ok, and ya, I would rather spend the extra for the block than risk everything going up like an a-bomb. Thank you for all the great info, I really appreciate it. If you have a couple minutes and have any insight in FE engines, would you mind checking out my post in the FE section. I started posting on the '390 compression check' thread but with the problems I am having it started getting off the original topic so I started a new thread 'timing chain stamped wrong'. Its the original engine in my galaxie and its been giving my hello for the last 3 weeks.

The main problem with the 65's is that the are almost a stand alone model since they are entirely different than the 64', and then they went and changed a bunch of stuff for 66'

 

Actually the 65 thru 69 are very similar, at least underneath.

The 66 is a lot closer to the 65 the 67 doesn't interchange much of anything with those 2 yrs and 68 they went to side by side headlights.

 

Ya, mechanically they are all very much alike, with the exception of a few little goofy things like the 65's frame horns that the tranny cross member mounts too. Cosmetically though they are real hard to find parts for, even from dearborn and concourse parts. Of coarse I maybe wrong about how different they all are, this is the first one I have had that I could tear into

 

How much horse power do you actually intend to have?

I built a 521 blackbird motor years ago "a Cad 500 with an offset ground crank".

Well I put a stiff roller cam, roller rockers, ported heads, 9.7-1 compression, and matched dual plane manifold. I dutifully installed it into a road raced preped 69 Nova, and I thought I was going to die. This was with 2.73 gears, and a RV torque convertor behind it. Drag radials couldn't keep it planted, and I was fast enough to get kicked off 1/4 tracks.

So I can only imagine what Kasse heads, and forced induction would do on such a big motor. You better get right with the God of your choice, and I would try 2 or 3 to be on the safe side.

 

Well first off, once it gets the kasse heads and forced induction it will simply be a dedicated drag car since we have a nice little quarter mile strip here and I wouldn't mind jumping into bracket racing. Plus it will be running race fuel at that point. Don't know exactly how much power I want but at least 1000 eventually. This will be years and years down the road, especially when you consider the amount of frame and suspension work it is gonna need, especially being a hard top. And ya, me and the big man are back on speaking terms and have an understanding after years of silence

 

Hey monsterbaby, just out of curiosity, what kinda of frame work are you doing on your galaxie to handle the power? Are you stiffening up the factory frame or going to a full custom tube frame?

 

So far I am just running a mild 406 so no big work being done except to convert to disk fronts.

My frame is pretty solid tho so might back half it and leave the stock frame from the rear torque boxes forward. probably put a 6pt bar in and that should be enough.

 

I see. I was thinking something along the same lines for mine, box the rear and build the suspension and run disk brakes all around. In a few years when I get it all finished I was thinking a full tube frame just for the simple sake of better safe than sorry and I have a tenancy to over kill stuff when I'm building, with a 1000 plus horse power it probably a good idea.