9.980 - 7.100" = 2.880" for 1/2 of stroke plus compression height.
The smallest compression height with which I am familiar is 1.000" in some smallblock engines, pushing the envelope, like a 4" crank and 6" rod in a chevy 350.
So you take your 2.880 and subtract 1" = 1.880"
2 x 1.880 = 3.76" stroke.
This is an undoable package unless you are going to use 0.927" or smaller diameter pins. Anyway, there's no need to because you don't need that long a rod in a B engine.
Spend the few bucks it takes to buy Streetwize's engine book. I believe he likes the 6.535 bigblock chevy + 0.400" rod in a B engine.
I have really backed off my "long rods are best" ideas after seeing short rod engines with really big heads taking the Enginemasters competitions. I know Smokey is dead and unable to defend his theory, but I think that late engines are showing us that shorter rod ratios are practically better, to the point that the B rod 451 looks better than the RB rod 451 for everyday use. John Kaase would be the leader on this rethink.
As for cylinder wall thickness, if you have a new World block you may see 0.300" walls, but on an OEM Mopar bigblock you'll be lucky to see 0.200" on all 8 holes, anywhere.
If you can keep the major thrust to 0.170" and never go below 0.100" on any portion of any hole, it should be OK. A few years ago a major builder looked at a number of 400 blocks and found that most of them had 7 good holes and one that needed sleeving. I have read accounts here of a "cold weather" 400 block that had a cylinder with less than 0.090" on one bore, with the bore standard sized.
It was traditional to think that Mopar blocks were hell for stout and cylinder walls were no problem, but that was before sonic checking became affordable. Now we can see how bad the castings really were!
That's analagous to the new thinking about heads that has come from having flowbenches on every streetcorner. Now we know how bad those B/RB heads really were.
Also about 10 years ago it surprised everyone to see that a mostly stock 440 really did make about 325 hp. Before there was a dyno in every garage, it was easy to imagine much more.......
The good old days are now!
R.
