Anyone running a 4.5" stroke 440?

Thoughts and recommendations please.

I built one, it was a strong engine. Homeported RPM heads, the 3600 lbs car run 10.4's on street radials and stock chassis, and that was with a PG trans and 3.23 rear gears.

The limiting factor is the block bottom end strength. A 4.5 stroke motor will get you 535 to 541 cubes, more than enough to get into 850 to 900 hp with the right heads. If you plan on running a small port head, then the revs will stay down around 5800 to 6000 rpm and the motor should live a long life.
Go with a very good crank if you can, and consider a 2.100 rod bearing size in a very long aluminum rod to make for a light rotating assembly. You could go as long as 7.210 with a 1.24 compression height piston. Basically if you are willing to go custom aluminum rods, then talk to your piston maker first, then build the rods to fit. Or you can just go with a 2.2 h beam that is 7.10 long, but the assembly will be a bit heavier.

Here's a combo we run in my son's dragster.
Short filled stock 440 block with steel cross bolt PROGRAM caps.
4.375 bore X 4.5 stroke 440 source kit. Everything was checked on the kit with no issues. Indy CNC 325 440-1 heads.
.700 roller, HS rockers Indy dominator intake with alcohol carb. This combo runs hi 7's @ 168-170 shifting at 7000. Lot's of torque and doesn't hurt parts.

RIP

Some background. The conversation about the 4.5" stroke 440 was from a friends brother who wants a hot pump gas street engine. He told me he has max wedge ported RPM heads that were from his old engine. When I looked at 440 Source kits the pistons were 0.050" below deck, and he was thinking of somewhere around 11:1 compression? I looked at the Probe kits too. The kit from Ohio CrankShaft looks like you can get custom JE pistons for the price.
I think you would have to go with an external oil pickup with these kits?
I'm also not sure how hard this stroke would be on a stock 440 bottom end? I would think a main girdle minimum, and maybe stronger main caps?
I have the BCR kit on one of my engines, but I'm not sure this guy wants to spend that much?

My recommendation is that if he doesn't want to spend the money to keep it together, then steer him to a shorter stroke.

External oiling is a must. The one I built was with stock bottom with main studs, no girdle or aluminum caps. It was an Eagle kit with Mahle flat top pistons, the CR was pretty stout despite of removing material from the chambers and pistons where you could. But still it run with our 93 octane. The heads weren't quite ported to the MW size, somewhere around half way, and the engine had huge tq. It was all done at about 5500 rpm, the cam was a custom street roller from Scott Brown with a little over 270 degrees at .050".

i Used a 76 440 block and did the short fill and a main girdle for bottom end strenth. 4340 crank and 7.1 h-beam rods and diamond pistons. Ialso used a box stock set of eddy victor heads and a super victor intake with a 1150 quick fuel and put the compression at 12.5 to 1, Comp roller cam, t@d rockers and smith brothers pushrods and an external oil system. The motor on the dyno with 110 oct. fuel made 728 ft lbs at 4500 and 758hp at 6700. havent had any issues with it and its been together for 2 yrs and just tore it down for inspection and it looks great. We have just recently ported the heads to max wedge size, add a indy 440-15 tunnel ram and alky fuel injection and bumped the compression to 14.25to 1 and ran the car (69 dart) forthe first time and grenaded the trans at the 330 ft mark and still went 6.60 @74mph in the 1/8 mi. the 4.5 stroke is a monster with huge torque.