200 vs 250

[MeanGreen&Fireball]

I built a "rather exotic" stroked 250 4.125 stroke the main problem I had was piston side load wear and timing chain issues. unless you can find a good aftermarket timing chain I would steer clear of the 250 for a "wild" build. I haven't looked lately but at the time I build my 250 the only timing chain available was stock replacement and every brand was built by one Chinese manufacturer. The crank gear broke 3 times at idle (I assume from the lopey cam) the combo wore out the pistons/cylinder walls in 3k miles but it did make good power (444whp and 501 ft lbs) at 18 lbs boost. in the end I wouldn't do it again. my build is on this site and on the Classis inlines site in the dyno room.

noted !!! thank you for the info. Sounds like I was referring to your build on classic inlines, since I was amazed by the amount of power made by the 250. I have read several post about this timing chain issues and all the work went into trying to correct the issue, I dont think I want to even get into that type of problem. Sounds like I need to be more conservative and build a mild street engine since I really lean more to the reliable rule of thumb.
So, if you had the option of building a mild street engine, would you start with a 200 or the 250?

 

[fast64ranchero]

IMO, I would only build a 250 if I planned on correcting the low compression/piston down the hole issue. so if you are willing to have pistons made. The 250 starts off 25% larger so it does have a advantage. Another down fall is with the stock head they fall off early in the rpm range. I can post dyno sheets of mine, about 5K rpm, (even with the head/cam I had), was all it wanted.