No drama, mate. that's correct if you buy a 347, 4340 forged crank, forged pistons, rods etc and prep the block $3k is about right, what save on is machining your old crank and rods, rod bolts etc, was my point, the rest of the work is the same in real terms except for taking a die grinder to the bore skirts. Cheaper if you get the Scat 9000 cast crank which is fine for most people, after all the factory crank is cast. They shouldn't go lean, this is cuased by people taking a holley out of the box an bolting it on and just driving it, you can't do that, even though most people do and get away with it on a stock / mild engine. With a forged piston the top won't burn as easy or come off if they are lean, what they do is expand and tighten up below the oil ring, and pick up. Normally the top coming off a piston is due to pre-ignition, again, pure tuning in that the advance curve is wrong, crap fuel etc. I had alot of trouble with a blown, injected 383 SBC taking the tops off forged pistons, this was a combination of poor fueling due the mainifold runner lenght and pre ignition as a result. Manifold change sorted it. Even so it made 700 at the wheels at 80% throttle tyres smoking with the B&M manifold that we welded injector bosses into.
Victor injection manifold fixed it.
