Bore, stroke, and cylinder count in; cubic inches, cc, and liters out. With the famous combos one tap away and an overbore table for planning your rebuild.
| Overbore | New bore | Displacement | Gain |
|---|
Displacement grows with the square of the bore but only in step with the stroke. That is why a small overbore adds up across eight cylinders, and why stroker cranks are the bigger lever when you want real cubes from the same block.
A "350" is 349.85 cubic inches. A "5.0" Coyote is 302 cubes and 4,951 cc, while a pushrod Ford 5.0 is a different 302 with different bore and stroke. The badge is marketing rounding; this calculator gives you the true figure for the parts in front of you.
Used blocks get bored. If you are calculating for a build, measure the bore with a bore gauge or calipers at the top of the ring travel, and confirm the crank stroke from the crank casting or a piston-travel measurement, not the badge on the fender.
Because the badge is rounded. A 4.000 inch bore and 3.480 inch stroke across 8 cylinders works out to 349.85 cubic inches, and Chevrolet rounded to 350. Most famous engine sizes are rounded the same way. Load the Chevy 350 preset above and see it.
A stroker uses a crankshaft with a longer stroke than stock in the same block. The classic example is the 383 small-block Chevy: a 350 block bored 0.030 over with a 3.750 inch stroke crank in place of the stock 3.480. Same block, 33 more cubic inches. The preset is above.
On a typical small-block V8, about 5 to 7 cubic inches. The overbore table next to your result shows the exact number for your bore and stroke combination, from +0.010 to +0.060.
No. Displacement sets the ceiling, but airflow, compression, cam timing, and induction decide how close you get. A healthy street engine makes roughly 1 horsepower per cubic inch; strong builds exceed it. Displacement is the first number in the plan, not the last.
Pistons & Ink is a digital product studio based in Ocala, Florida, building web and mobile products for the automotive enthusiast community. We come from the custom car and truck world — lowriders, minitrucks, C10s, restomods — and we build tools we'd use ourselves.
This displacement calculator is one of 11 free tools in the Pistons & Ink Digital Toolbox, built for the aftermarket auto industry. If it helped you, the rest of the toolbox is right here.
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