The rod is definitely a factor when adding up the "bob-weight", just not as critical as the piston since it is swinging further out there.

Since I'm one of the last Mopar guys to build a motor on a budget, or will own up to it publically..............the LY rod and modern lite-weight forged pistons are a whole lot better than those huge TRW/factory slugs and heavy 6-Pak rods.

5 of my 440 blocks were pulled out of C-bodies, that were already scrapped, and ironically they all had around 72k-74k miles on them. All of them weren't seized from a bad bearing, rod or crank issue. If they weren't just worn out from neglect and daily driver duty, worn bores, dirty bearings, they could be overhauled and run more. Point being, I have no qualms about specifically freshening the rods with machine work and good rod bolts to use them in another 440 budget build and/or even a 400/451 budget stroker.

I've seen several B-bodies run high 10's with the old 590 MP cam, iron heads, big valves, home porting and stock RB stroke.