97 7.4 engine rebuild

[cheerdude63]

Hi all, I am new to the forum so if I am posting in the wrong spot please let me know. I have recently become the proud owner of a 147k mile truck that has 0 oil pressure. I am going to rebuild the 7.4L that is currently in there. I was wondering if it would be worth the money and effort to stroke it, maybe a cam swap and port the heads. I still wan't to retain my MPI on top, so to my knowledge an a/m aluminum head change would be the only way to keep that if I wanted to change the heads. Would the L29 heads be worth putting bigger valves in? Or is all of this too much and would I be better off going with a stock rebuild and super charging with a 411 ECM swap and upgraded exhaust and air filter box.

 

[Christian Steffen]

The stroker option gets kind of expensive, but I do enjoy how mine runs. I would recommend forged pistons either way. No matter what (stroker or S/C) definitely do a cam swap, that is probably the best bang for your buck upgrade.

Aluminum heads would be great, but I think if you do that with a cam you'll quickly find the limit of the intake manifold. Porting the manifold would probably help, but I haven't tried this myself yet so I cannot speak to it. I have noticed that when I go WOT my manifold pressure will start to drop in the higher rpm range.

I've read that because of the valve shrouding bigger valves in the stock heads actually flow worse. If you de-shroud the valves and do some porting, bigger might work well but this is purely speculation.

A stockish rebuild with some good pistons, a cam, and a SC would probably work pretty well, as long as you 0411 swap and put in bigger injectors.

Also, pretty much everything mentioned above requires tuning, so for your 97 the 0411 is probably a must anyway.

 

[cheerdude63]

So if I did like a 489 or 496 stroker, with a dish piston so I maintain compression ratio. A better cam and a super charger, I would be pullin stumps then uh? haha.