There are many ways of getting to 3.8L motors. Stroking is a pretty safe option as you can safely stretch the rod length to about 129 plus mm so as to keep the piston/rod ratio near 1.6-1.

Larger liners can also be in the equation. To obtain a true 3.8 with liners only requires a 102.4 bore or about 2.4 mm.It is better to go with steel liners. You really don't have to sacrifice thickness or strength.

As for costs not sure where you are looking. A AP 80.4 mm crank is about 6K. There is the trick of going with small NASCAR oval bearings and using the existing crank material to pick up an extra 2 mm. This can be done for about 1.5K instead of 6K. Steel liners about 4K and CP pistons about 1.5K. Thrown in the rods at 1.5K and 6K or so for a disassembly and reassembly and you have most of the costs. There are all kinds of there things that can be done, but that is true with the 3.6L also.

When you stroke the motor you will pick up more torque earlier than you would see with simply larger liners. The motor will be more responsive. A combination of 2 mm on the crank and 2.4 mm on the bore is killer but than you have just over 3.9L.

Keep in mind it is foolish to simply look at the displacement. You also need to match the turbo's so as to work the motor output with the sweet spot on the turbo's.

 

Boost is nice, however responsiveness and getting from point A to point B faster is really what it is all about unless you have a lot of time to get where you want to go. Especially coming out of a twisty. Building boost is more time consuming than more compression. Then again, like everything, moderation of different aspects usually is better.

 

I got to see one get torn down last year and still am not swayed. When your beast is let loose maybe I will see the light.