I cant see why you cant use a stock set of rods providing they are in good shape. You are not buzzing 9000rpm like we do with Dads car. I buzz about 6000 with mine and I have to run stock rods. Unless you just want to spend the dough and make the bottom end absolutely bulletproof, then you can do it. I personally dont think you need to. Now if this was a small block stroker motor...........

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64 T-Boltish Fairlane 427 HR 4spd 10.05 at 133.7 so far ... arrgh ,so close!!

This is where we discovered the life span of the "stock rod". I think it was after three failures when we had a stroker crank built
(cast) and bought Eagle rods. We always used "truck" rods with good bolts, the last set were full floating pins, magged, polished and shotpeened. This work was done by an extremely reputable shop in our area.
The rods would stretch apart - in the middle - after about 95 passes. At that time we shifted at 6500 and thru the eyes at 6900. The last season with stock rods we ran 3.91 gears to get the revs down and see us thru the season until the new motor was done.

We now have two seasons on our 500cid, and life is good! It is inspected each winter,
the only issue has been we replaced the rod bolts - these have to come from Eagle (I think they were L19 - help me out here, memory is going) - that was a recomendation from Eagle after a friend had an Eagle rod fail (BBC). I shift this one at at 6200 and thru the eyes about 6900 - now run 10.6.

My opinion - if you keep revs and compression down you will be OK. If you want to go faster buy the Eagle rods with "good bolts" and the lightest piston you can afford. And the cranks seem bullet proof!

If you have the bucks (I sure don't) Oliver rods are top quality.
http://www.oliver-rods.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=index.html

Crower also makes some great parts
http://www.crower.com/

Manley makes a Pro Series I Beam in the 6.8 length, tough part is they run about a grand a set.
http://www.racenet.net/missing.php3?url=http://www.internetracerssupply.com/eng/man-rods-steel.php3

And no discussion of quality rods would be complete without the grand daddy of them all, Carrillo. But MAN they are expensive, the 6.8 BBC's run about $1700 a set!
http://www.carrilloind.com/story.html
http://www.herbertperformance.com/Catalog/ConnectingRods/Carrillo_rods/carrillo_rods.html

And here is Eagle, truth be told, there 6.8 rod is only two grams heavier, at around $620, than the $1700+ set of Olivers.
http://www.racenet.net/missing.php3?url=http://www.internetracerssupply.com/eng/eag-rods.php3

Lets not forget Lunati, who makes a wide range of rods.
http://www.holley.com/HiOctn/ProdLine/Products/IEC/IECCR/IECCR.html

Happy browsing...

Eagle is now producing a second series of rods that are a good bit lighter than the original rods. (Which they still sell) Like I said, the Eagle 6.8 rods, in this new series, are only a couple of grams heavier than the Oliver Parabolics, which is a top of the line rod.

Our rods are the 6.800 BBC Eagle, with the offset ground cast crank. Use Arias .030" over pistons. A steel stroker crank for a BBF is worth it's weight in gold up here.

Paul - what are you using for heads / induction, those are pretty good times!

Sheesh,we must have almost every Ford racer in Canada here now,eh?!

I feel so inferior ,my rods only 6.488" but then again Alex's is only 5.155" LOL

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64 T-Boltish Fairlane 427 HR 4spd 10.05 at 133.7 so far ... arrgh ,so close!!

Some of the fine racers on this thread have mentioned that they run a CAST crank off-set ground to gain some stroke. JT mentioned turning down the rod pins to 2.20 (BBC) size.

What are some opinions on what the top of the RPM scale is for, say, a OEM 429/460 (cast) crank turned down to 2.20" - can it live @ 8000 RPMs for a season or two? If not, what is a reasonable rpm ceiling?

When I look at the cost of a custom, forged crank, it starts sounding like the co$t of building an assembly to top at 6.5K is half of what it would co$t to spin it at 7.5-8.0K RPMs. Does anyone have a favorite crank supplier/maker?

I don't see much sense in having killer con rods if my crank can't take it......

Thanks, Ryan

I think you could pull 7500 with aluminum rods and light pistons. Those factory cranks are tough. My crank is a factory 460 crank turned down to 2.2 and offset gound to 4.140 stroke.

Great forum, nice to hear about some "relevant topics".

We run our cast crank (offset to 4.140")at 6900 - 7000 rpm. That's our limit - hate breaking parts, both moneywise as well as Chevy guys babbleing!

Agree with Jay the cast piece is tough, cost us $500 Canadian for all crank work. We have the crank magged each season (makes us feel better). I would think a preped steel crank would be at least $2500 up here.

Aluminum rods would be great, we considered them - but how long do they last? Everyone had a different story , where as "steel" is forever.

What kind of dampers are you guys using - we bought a "Rattler", so far - so good.

Pulled the motor yesterday, plan on putting it on Dyno in January (first time), to see what we have - figure out where we are going.

The site is good no matter what you drive, these guys just flat no their ****! Anyway, he has a good piece on Aluminum rods, talks about when to use them and when not, how to take care of them and what to look out for. Like don't start your engine when it is cold, like less than 45 degrees, always let your motor warm fully before hammering it, and so on. He has a customer with over 500 runs on the same set of aluminum rods.

The reason I asked about what it would take to run a BBF @ 8K rpms, was based on what 'Kid Vishus' had suggested to me in a Nov thread (Rod Ratio vs. Cubic Inches); "...to get your car to hook on that smaller (10") tire maybe a hi-rpm motor leaving at a lower rpm might be the way to go. Say a motor with a 7600 shift point but leave at 3500 or just low enuff not to bog the motor. A 429 with a big cam, big heads, longer than stock rods and a big carb? Just an idea."

So I was thinking - if a guy was to have a shift point of 7600, then he should build the motor to max at a bit over that, say, 8000 rpms... and so I was wondering what would be required to build an engine to that level. But from the sounds if it, it's way too costly for me & my budget!

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The '3-Pedal Attitude' Kid
in a '69 FB w/ 306 now, but
the 460+ is coming...