97 needs a motor, Stroker crate advice needed

[Ben824]

He really sounds like he lows his stuff and was only one of two people I have talked to who dished out the Pistons to keep comelression low to still run 87 pump gas but he assured me his engine design would still achieve 275 HP and 325 torque! I was astonished!

So I am going to be calling my guy in Jasper to see if he and his engine builder will rebuild my engine with Russ's head and rotating assembly and to Russ's specs and still be affordable. Fingers crossed!

Oh and while I got all the stroker guy's attention, I have the Dodge Neon 703 injectors, will they be enough to feed this little monster when I am done, or will I still need the Ford injectors?

 

[shelbyluvv]

Russ has been building stuff for the SoCal guys on the down low for years. He is an artist at his craft. Probably one of the nicest guys you will ever meet as well.

 

[cal]

I have never heard of this Russ dude's strokers. Is this a new thing?

5 years? You'd have to be very lucky to not see anything about him on naxja. He's build my last three motors (all upgrades, no grenades..)

 

[Ben824]

Hey really was one of the nicest guys! He we spent 45 minutes on the phone but maybe only 20 actually talking about my engine. The rest of the time he spent telling me about his history and how he has run his business over the years and even took the time to explain aspects of engine building that I could actually understand. I can keep up and follow and asbsorb information and comprehend it but times when I try to read about it online the comprehension gets lost. I never understood quench and what it was, I only knew it was important. He explained it too me and now I get it. What he explained to me is you can still keep a good tight quench and just dish out the Pistons to keep an efficient burn but run a lower octane fuel and not sacrifice power. What other engine builders will do is take off the shelf parts and in order to knock down the compression ratio for 87 octane they increase the quench creating a less efficient burn and sacrificing power. He is only one of two people I have talked to that will dish out the Pistons to drop compression for lower octane fuels, the other was S and J Engines but their base motor didn't include head work or upgraded cam.

 

[lazyxj]

Thats the important side of it. Russ is a top end specialist

Each head is fully inspected by the friendliest shop cat ever.

Only downside with Russ is the backlog, He has a one man shop and is a busy guy. I'm waiting on stroker from him, so get in line.

The ATK stroker also looks interesting and isn't a bad price for one with a ported head. 270-HP would be definite improvement.
The warranty may require an authorized shop do the install, so check the warranty carefully before proceeding.

 

[cal]

Each head is fully inspected by the friendliest shop cat ever.

Ironically, he's allergic to cats.

 

[shelbyluvv]

Ironically, he's allergic to cats.

But not those big walking rocks!

 

[cal]

Yeah, I never understood the concept of a shop tortoise myself, but apparently they keep the parrot in-line.

 

[shelbyluvv]

Hahahaha!

 

[Ben824]

Well after many talks back and forth I just don't think I can afford Russ. He makes a world class product but sadly my budget can't come close. When we first talked I thought he told me he could send me his cylinder head and a rotating assembly for $1400. But turns out it will cost $2300, my budget is $4000 for everything and I won't be able to find a shop here that will pull my engine, machine my block to his specs, and reassemble and put it all back in my Jeep. So now I'm stuck finding someone here who could maybe copy him. I found one shop that does Strokers but they said they won't port or polish iron heads anymore because it's too much of a pain compared to stock. Not too many shops here do Jeep Strokers so it's be a hard search. Plus the ones I have talked to that said they could do it, is dragging their feet getting back to me with pricing.

 

[shelbyluvv]

Did the South East Chapter quit helping people? Have you talked to Tyler in TN about doing the swap for you? How about this. Get a junkyard block, have it built. When you get it back from the engine builder bring the engine and your Jeep down here to my place and WE will swap it out in a weekend.

No charge for my labor but you will have to help.

 

[Ben824]

Unfortunately Tyler is just too far away from me but I have heard good things about him but I just don't have the time or the gas money to get the Jeep that far. The Jeep's engine broke the wrist pin on Monday so the engine is locked up and will need to be trailered. I can move it up to an hour and half away but my old work truck doesn't get the greatest gas mileage when pulling a load and filling up a 32 gallon tank isn't cheap at the current gas prices. When I asked over in the SEC chapter other than a mention about Tyler it was mostly crickets which surprised me. And I was recommended two different shops over in Georgia Jeepers on Facebook and one shop I called two days ago and never heard back and I called yesterday and he said I was at the top of his list and he is just trying to figure out pricing. The other shop said the don't do any iron cylinder head work anymore and told me I probably wouldn't find anyone to do it, who doesn't do iron head work anymore?

 

[DeftwillP]

Current gas prices?? I know it's not the late 90's any more when I started driving but I'll take these prices over what it was say 2-3 years ago.

 

[Ben824]

Agreed but $2.68 x 32 gallons = $86.08 and at 10 mpg when towing and driving 200 miles not a cheap venture to run up to TN to take it to Tyler

 

[DeftwillP]

$107.20 for a round trip is still certainly cheaper than it's going to be to ship a stroker somewhere.

 

[Ben824]

True but there is also the matter of time of which I just don't have a lot of right now at work and I just got engaged so the fiancé is dragging me around to venues in my free time haha I heard there is a relation between a happy wife and a happy life haha

 

[Johnnie Walker]

AAA platinum member?

 

[TRCM]

If you can't afford 100 bucks or so for gas to get it to the guy who is gonna build the engine for you....how are you gonna afford the engine itself and all the other little things that come up while getting it running ??

 

[Ben824]

My budget is $4000, if he charges $4000 then I don't have $100 in gas to get it there. My Jeep would only need one thing to get it running and that's a bored throttle body. My Jeep has the 99+ intake manifold, banks header, magniflow high flow cat, flow master 50 series muffler, and K&N high flow air intake. I also have Neon 703 injectors which I have done some asking around over on JeepStrokers forum and the response has been that they should probably work so I might not have to do injectors. So other than having the engine pulled, built, and put back in, there isn't much of the "little things" that will need to be done other than the throttle body and I can do that when I get my next paycheck, and I found a guy that will bored me one for $80 and I send him mine back as a core.

 

[Red99XJVT]

So, if I may ask, what did you end up doing?