My brothers and I are fond of NOS big shot plates, double-cross and the like. We've had 3 or 4 stock block combos in the high 8's, low 9's and never knocked the webbing out of a block, broke other stuff, but not that. A few have had aluminum main caps, and a few have had aluminum rods.

In 1997, we went 9.19 in a 3000lb AMX, with a single stage cheater plate. It had an aluminum rod 451 (400 block, 440 crank in it. After 17 years of service, including many street miles, one of the 6.53 BME rods finally let go last summer.