80 series stroker build kit.

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AtrueCroft

AtrueCroft

Joined
Aug 19, 2025
Threads
5
Messages
39
Location
Georgia
Good morning everybody,
I’ve been doing a lot of research and asking a lot of questions about 80 series LS swaps, Magnuson supercharge and turbo charged and knowing the differences. I’m currently restoring my 1996 80 series LC but looking for the best affordable option out there with great power. What do you guys think about a stroker build?
The whole goal is for me to increase power while heading up to ski resorts and highway speeds. Everyone knows it takes about 17 seconds on an old 1FZFE engine to get to 60 MPH. lol.
I talked to countless people, and spent many hours researching. All amazing stuff and knowledge but now I’ve heard about a stroker build recently. @Cruisers and Co are fantastic people to with and providing good info and then considering just buying a turbo kit from them. I wanted to get some perspective on other people thoughts.
This build is more for vacation trips, hunting, skiing and long travels to Mexico surf trips.
 
Here are my thoughts. You'll probably gain a significant amount of power out of a naturally aspirated stroker. But it should be a significant change to be worth it. Don't go from a 4.5 to a 4.8 for example. In my opinion it would have to be at least a 5.0 liter after complete. You will hugely benefit from aftermarket cams and a ported head as well. You will also need efi tuning to get potential out of it. Probably looking at 60hp gain at minimum. Possibly 100. The benefit is naturally aspirated typically handles malfunctions without too much risk of major damage. You could add forced induction to the stockish engine instead. But forced induction is temperamental and requires constant monitoring. Its much easier to destroy the engine if something malfunctions. What might help make a decision is to calculate your dollar per hp/tq for your options. Weigh your circumstances in line with that. Keep in mind whatever you do, it will need repairs at some point. If its too exotic that will be difficult to repair in a auto zone parking lot 1000 miles from home.
 
Fj80oregon said:
No such thing as affordable power! A stroker kit is going to cost $5-7k parts and thousands from a machine shop to set it up, if you can even find one. Just buy a turbo and be done!
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White Stripe said:
Here are my thoughts. You'll probably gain a significant amount of power out of a naturally aspirated stroker. But it should be a significant change to be worth it. Don't go from a 4.5 to a 4.8 for example. In my opinion it would have to be at least a 5.0 liter after complete. You will hugely benefit from aftermarket cams and a ported head as well. You will also need efi tuning to get potential out of it. Probably looking at 60hp gain at minimum. Possibly 100. The benefit is naturally aspirated typically handles malfunctions without too much risk of major damage. You could add forced induction to the stockish engine instead. But forced induction is temperamental and requires constant monitoring. It’s much easier to destroy the engine if something malfunctions. What might help make a decision is to calculate your dollar per hp/tq for your options. Weigh your circumstances in line with that. Keep in mind whatever you do, it will need repairs at some point. If its too exotic that will be difficult to repair in a auto zone parking lot 1000 miles from home.
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thanks for a good run down on the details. @Fj80oregon gave great insight as well. When I contacted the person that was selling the stroker kit he stated I could get about 1000 hp with his kit and a “plug and play” which I completely called BS.
I think maybe I’m just overthinking it but honestly I’ll have to pull the engine out sooner than later, due to bad bearings. In my area there isn’t any performance machine shops that can port my heads or really anything engine related except maybe bore the engine block which would cost me around 550. Other than that nothing. I did find a guy that was selling an LQ9 for around 2k about 10k miles on it and an LQ4 around 1500 bucks but no wire harness. Some say that isn’t a deal breaker. I never done an engine swap before and in the past I’ve asked tons of questions on here and it seemed people got a little bit annoyed with me lol
 
AtrueCroft said:
thanks for a good run down on the details. @Fj80oregon gave great insight as well. When I contacted the person that was selling the stroker kit he stated I could get about 1000 hp with his kit and a “plug and play” which I completely called BS.
I think maybe I’m just overthinking it but honestly I’ll have to pull the engine out sooner than later, due to bad bearings. In my area there isn’t any performance machine shops that can port my heads or really anything engine related except maybe bore the engine block which would cost me around 550. Other than that nothing. I did find a guy that was selling an LQ9 for around 2k about 10k miles on it and an LQ4 around 1500 bucks but no wire harness. Some say that isn’t a deal breaker. I never done an engine swap before and in the past I’ve asked tons of questions on here and it seemed people got a little bit annoyed with me lol
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How long are you keeping the vehicle? What is your budget and do you have mechanic skills? Is your only use going to ski areas?
 
My last LX I did a Cyl head refresh with bigger exhaust valves. It made a noticeable diff, the turbo sounded happier lol! Miss that truck so much that I'm building LX 2.0 :D
 
Doing just a stroker kit and getting 1000hp is a massive line of fermented bull****!

This desire for more hp totally depends on your ability to either spew cash or have decent mechanical skills.

If you have mechanical skills and engine swap to a v8 would be cheapest. I’m a Toyota guy and I would not put a NA v8 in, maybe a UZ.

If you have a healthy engine a turbo is a good choice but your at $10k for the current kit(s).

Either way it’s not a cheap endeavour. If your keeping the truck light you could buy a used head and send it away for a valve enlargement and port job and live with the extra torque/hp provided by that and save $7-8k for reserve for future maintenance on the block.

Playing hp is never an inexpensive game even when you have decent skills, no skills and it is very expensive.

Start looking at the Middle East FZ world for naturally aspirated engine upgrades, they have been doing it for years with excellent results.
 
fjbj40 said:
Doing just a stroker kit and getting 1000hp is a massive line of fermented bull****!

This desire for more hp totally depends on your ability to either spew cash or have decent mechanical skills.

If you have mechanical skills and engine swap to a v8 would be cheapest. I’m a Toyota guy and I would not put a NA v8 in, maybe a UZ.

If you have a healthy engine a turbo is a good choice but your at $10k for the current kit(s).

Either way it’s not a cheap endeavour. If your keeping the truck light you could buy a used head and send it away for a valve enlargement and port job and live with the extra torque/hp provided by that and save $7-8k for reserve for future maintenance on the block.

Playing hp is never an inexpensive game even when you have decent skills, no skills and it is very expensive.

Start looking at the Middle East FZ world for naturally aspirated engine upgrades, they have been doing it for years with excellent results.
Click to expand...
My old build was under 5K.
Head work with new valves, springs, seals, arp studs, full engine reseal, new sensors. I had used a spare lower milage short block (did absolutely nothing to it).

Now if you buy these turbo kits that are advertised here on the forum they are 5k plus. The CX racing kit I bought was under 1600 bucks at the time (2022) but now they are a lil more.
I just bought another kit with their dual ball bearing turbo option for this next build. You can buy their kits without their turbo or wastegate and go with a name brand (their stuff worked great for over 10k miles for me).
 
White Stripe said:
How long are you keeping the vehicle? What is your budget and do you have mechanic skills? Is your only use going to ski areas?
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I’m planning on keeping the vehicle as long as I can, typically for an adventure vehicle or getting around town. I plan on going down to Mexico and national parks with it as well.
I’m pretty mechanically inclined, it’s just where I live. They’re extremely strict with working on vehicles, so I tend to work on it on the weekends after hours or early in the morning.
 
fjbj40 said:
Doing just a stroker kit and getting 1000hp is a massive line of fermented bull****!

This desire for more hp totally depends on your ability to either spew cash or have decent mechanical skills.

If you have mechanical skills and engine swap to a v8 would be cheapest. I’m a Toyota guy and I would not put a NA v8 in, maybe a UZ.

If you have a healthy engine a turbo is a good choice but your at $10k for the current kit(s).

Either way it’s not a cheap endeavour. If your keeping the truck light you could buy a used head and send it away for a valve enlargement and port job and live with the extra torque/hp provided by that and save $7-8k for reserve for future maintenance on the block.

Playing hp is never an inexpensive game even when you have decent skills, no skills and it is very expensive.

Start looking at the Middle East FZ world for naturally aspirated engine upgrades, they have been doing it for years
Click to expand...

fjbj40 said:
Doing just a stroker kit and getting 1000hp is a massive line of fermented bull****!

This desire for more hp totally depends on your ability to either spew cash or have decent mechanical skills.

If you have mechanical skills and engine swap to a v8 would be cheapest. I’m a Toyota guy and I would not put a NA v8 in, maybe a UZ.

If you have a healthy engine a turbo is a good choice but your at $10k for the current kit(s).

Either way it’s not a cheap endeavour. If your keeping the truck light you could buy a used head and send it away for a valve enlargement and port job and live with the extra torque/hp provided by that and save $7-8k for reserve for future maintenance on the block.

Playing hp is never an inexpensive game even when you have decent skills, no skills and it is very expensive.

Start looking at the Middle East FZ world for naturally aspirated engine upgrades, they have been doing it for years with excellent results.
Click to expand...
I knew that guy was full of it. I’m planning on taking an engine build “ master “ class it’s about four weeks long. It will give me a little bit more knowledge, I’ll take a look at what you recommended, that sounds quite interesting. I should be pulling the engine out in the next few weeks.
 
AtrueCroft said:
I’m planning on keeping the vehicle as long as I can, typically for an adventure vehicle or getting around town. I plan on going down to Mexico and national parks with it as well.
I’m pretty mechanically inclined, it’s just where I live. They’re extremely strict with working on vehicles, so I tend to work on it on the weekends after hours or early in the morning.
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I would probably do a rebuilt engine in that scenario with a ported cylinder head. If you dont have a local machine shop for port work be willing to go further away to find one. With a fresh motor and ported head you'll have a little more power over a fresh 1fz. A basic port job can be done yourself with a good cordless drill and some carbide bits. Plenty of information online for diy. The valve seats will need a valve job with new valves for the engine rebuild. After that if you want to do forced induction later thats always an option down the road. Sounds like your capable of a v8 swap but don't have the circumstances unless you want to pay to have someone else do it.
 
White Stripe said:
I would probably do a rebuilt engine in that scenario with a ported cylinder head. If you dont have a local machine shop for port work be willing to go further away to find one. With a fresh motor and ported head you'll have a little more power over a fresh 1fz. A basic port job can be done yourself with a good cordless drill and some carbide bits. Plenty of information online for diy. The valve seats will need a valve job with new valves for the engine rebuild. After that if you want to do forced induction later thats always an option down the road. Sounds like your capable of a v8 swap but don't have the circumstances unless you want to pay to have someone else
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, you’re definitely right. There is a place outside of where I live within 100 mile radius that I can go to. Unfortunately, that’s what I have to do,

quick question: is porting the heads will help increase power or do I have to use force induction because I was told different things. I also was told that it doesn’t really do much with the stock engine.
 
AtrueCroft said:
Yeah, you’re definitely right. There is a place outside of where I live within 100 mile radius that I can go to. Unfortunately, that’s what I have to do,

quick question: is porting the heads will help increase power or do I have to use force induction because I was told different things. I also was told that it doesn’t really do much with the stock engine.
Click to expand...
An engine is a constant volume air pump.

To more efficient you can make it the more hp you can make. In naturally aspirated form porting does increase hp, if done correctly. Making more efficient intake and exhaust flow increase hp.

Porting will never accomplish the hp increase that forced induction will.

If adding forced induction you can often skip porting as the increase in air density, along with extra fuel and ignition management increases hp in itself.
 
ACACG8 said:
My last LX I did a Cyl head refresh with bigger exhaust valves. It made a noticeable diff, the turbo sounded happier lol! Miss that truck so much that I'm building LX 2.0 :D
Click to expand...
Super tech 1.5mm over? Dished or flat? How did your machine shop like them? Any trouble setting them up?
 
Fj80oregon said:
Super tech 1.5mm over? Dished or flat? How did your machine shop like them? Any trouble setting them up?
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Yes. iirc it was flat. A local shop that builds 2JZs did the work for me. Power Dynamix. They use a lot of the supertech stuff and haven't had issues with their products.
The machinist there was an ex-Toyota master tech, so he was familiar with 1FZs
 
mudgudgeon said:
Tell us where you can get all the parts to do a stroker for $7k?
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Brian crowler is the only shop I am aware of looks like they went up in price. 7600-9k. I am in no way promoting this I have only heard of issues and not good support from them.

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