The only reason I know of that you would have to bore an engine when stroking it would be to add clearance for the connecting rods so they don't hit the cylinder. However, most hot rodders would probably bore and stroke at the same time to add the maximum cubic inches possible.<br><br>When destroking an engine, there will not be potential connecting rod clearance problems as when stroking. However, either the rod length, piston pin height, or deck height will need to be changed. Otherwise, the piston will never come all the way to the top of the cylinder. This would create seriously low compression. If the deck height is machined down, it would cause fit-up problems for the intake manifold on a V8 engine unless it is altered too.