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The bottom line is that it's a mute point these days unless you are restoring an original car and insist on original internals (not very common occurance) the stock stuff is basically obsolete. If you are building a 440 all you need is a good block and MAYBE a set of 906/915/452 iron heads (most go aluminum now) and a stock steel crank (I'd buy a stroker) and go aftermarket for everything else.

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That's all true, though you skipped over another reason (and the reason that I used 906 rods) - to be eligible for certain classes of racing; in my case PSMCDR. Cost is another reason; you can build a nice engine using the stock crank and rods and if you look at the weights of all the components, I'd worry about piston weight far more than rod weight.

It is true that there is better stuff out there for every major component, at the same time I think my build did very well considering the restrictions of the class and as far as the bottom end goes, the combination of the stock forged crank, 906 rods and NHRA legal forged pistons is a pretty stout setup. I was able to internally balance my engine because the Ross pistons are lighter than the TRW stockers (my balanced reciprocating assy is lighter than a stock A12 using the lighter LY rods); I addressed the rod bolt issue with high quality ARP bolts so at the end of the day, I have a "stock" bottom end that is pretty strong and meets the rules of the class.


Dave

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