[theastronaut]

El Campo, you're thinking straight on the crank. Destroking it would typically kill bottom end torque, but I'm thinking that the intake with 8 separate runners will keep reversion from influencing/diluting the intake charge like it does with a plenum manifold, so that will definitly help with low speed engine smoothness and torque production. I'll bump the compression up too to help with low end torque. The LSx guys are running around 30 degrees more duration when they swap to an IR intake with no loss of bottem end driveability and way better throttle response. The other reason for the 4.8 crank is that it's stronger and slows the piston speed down so the rods and pistons aren't as stressed at high rpms. That along with porting the heads will move the powerband up a good bit- I hate it when an engine won't pull hard on the top end. It'll also be geared short (4.56) to take advantage of the higher powerband.

The current engine in my '64 VW is a torque monster (peak tq at around 2400 rpm) but it gives up around 5200 rpm, and that's no fun with 4.37 gears. So I'd be fine with giving up a little torque to have it pull harder up top. If I need more torque I can always downshift. My dad likes to get his truck in 5th/overdrive asap and thinks he's killing an engine if it gets above 3000 rpm; I'm just the opposite. If it doesn't work as planned I can fairly easily pull it and swap the 5.3 crank/rods back in.