Need a 400/451 Engine Build Recipe. Help!

If you need to have a builder build it, and you are starting from a bare block, $10K should get you there but it will be close with a hydraulic roller. You need Chinese parts, and you will spend 1/3 or more on the machining and fixing the parts. A stroker is not a toss it together deal. Especially using the lower price point parts. You're basically building a 500hp 440 so you'll need enough head and cam to get that. Stealths and RPMs will both do that without porting. Both need some attention before they get bolted on.

We had a 451 stroker built by Muscle Motors for our parents 69 charger. We told them we did not care about horsepower just wanted tons of torque because we are putting anywhere from 2.76-3.23 highway gear in it so if they want to go on a road trip on the highway the thing ain't turning 3200rpm's to do 60 mph. The only things we told them was it has to be low maintenance, have good vacuum for power brakes, have good idle quality and run on pump gas. They used a 400 with factory 440 steel crank and factory 440 rods, forged pistons it worked out to 9.75.1 comp. ratio. they used a hyd. flat tappet cam with ported 452 heads with 5 angle valve job and 2.14int and 1.81ex ss valves, edelbrock performer rpm dual plane intake. We had them do a break in and dyno the motor, it made 501.9 horsepower at 4900 rpm's and 571.4 lb/ft of torque at 4000 rpm's. Even at 3000rpm's it still made 546lb/ft of torque. It was dyno'ed with speedway 93 octane fuel.

Muscle motors are the low deck King pins. Give them a call.

All good responses here. There are many proven combos out there that takes all the guesswork out of the build. I have a 493 stroker that i had similar aspirations for as the original poster. Nice street manners but really goes when you get on it. So far been very reliable.

only thing i would do different is take a hard look at solid lifters vs. hydraulic. Don't sweat the adjustment part, its really a non issue due to modern machining and one less thing to go wrong...