It seems to me that we are asking questions on the novice level. Nothing wrong with that, we have all been there. If I was a budding "rodder" I would not worry about horsepower figures or strokers. Your low mileage short block with an edelbrock top end (I would Suggest performer/performer rpm) will yeild a strong running engine. This would be a great place to start your "learning curve". Many of us have built way too much under the hood and this tends to show us exactly what is lacking on our cars (suspension, brakes, transmission, rear end and lets not forget about handling and driveability). Sorting these things out to live up to a monster can be very overwhelming and expensive. I would suggest you start mild and enjoy the wrenching, driving, and you will be surprised with the knowledge you will gain - that knowledge will let you build increasingly more horsepower in the future. Dave
Horsepower makes speed and costs money - how fast do you want to spend? From what I can understand from this thread you should be able to have a stroker kit installed in you '9x 302 that has 45000 miles on it. The better top end (Performer RPM) will be needed to supply the air and fuel to your stroker. There is a lot more to "installing" most stroker kits than just bolting pieces into your block - and the bigger the displacement, the more extra work there is to do. Whether you attempt to do it yourself or get a competent machinist to do it you have a valuable learning experience ahead. The best advice I can give is: "Pay attention"
