440Source stuff isn't cheap junk, there are many stroker kits in board members' cars and they have shown themselves to be dependable. Your slam on them was unnecessary.

Hughes' less expensive stuff seems to work all right, they have a reputation to protect. Any manmade item can have flaws.

Reality is what I've posted before, the stock block will give up long before the connecting rod, if it has a 7/16" bolt. Lightening up the piston makes the connecting rod's job easier, so putting $$$ into a piston first makes sense to me.

I believe that PEP is the successor to C.A.T., and I'd put them in the lower end of the spectrum, yet they're still stronger than the block. I believe Uncle Cab has used either a CAT crank or set of rods in his racecar with no failures.

For calculations, the aftermarket rods usually list length as 6.760, 0.008 shorter than stock length.

R.

The complaint about the rods being heavy is hilarious coming from a board using the heaviest pistons in the known universe!