Something to think about from another perspective.

You may not have needed anything better than stock connecting rods with some beam polishing, shot peening, and ARP rod bolts.

Your self-imposed RPM limit with a short stroke engine is why I say this.

The forged pistons will handle the possible detonation and increased strength to live through the faster acceleration rate of the piston when making more horsepower.

”typically”, you’ll never break a stock or worked over stock rod in a small block if you keep it less than 6,000 rpm, as that was a stock operating range for a hi-performance 350....

It is when you start revving an engine to higher rpm than normally accepted stock limits that rods are likely to fail. Rods typically fail on extension, during the exhaust stroke.

The other reason why rods usually fail is hydro-locking or extreme detonation; aftermarket rods will fail the same as OEM in that way.

Under compression, even cast rods are very strong, look at stock Buick rods in the turbo Grand Nationals which safely turn 5500rpm. Those stock CAST rods can take over 450-500whp as long as the rpm is kept down. Higher than stock RPM, water ingestion (blown headgaskets), and horrible detonation are the killers of all rotating components.


A good cam with a 112 or 114 LSA, ~215-220 @.050 duration, and .480-.500 lift. With as many cam failures I have witnessed, going to a hydraulic roller setup is highly recommended.

polishing the piston crowns and the chambers and edges of the chambers will keep detonation at bay with the correct timing curve and the right air-fuel ratio with your fuel injection.

It sounds like the comp cams billet cam cores don’t have enough meat on them to cut them for a 45 degree bank angle. I don’t know if the SADI cam cores that Mark has will have enough room to cut them on a 45 degree bank angle.

Talk to Mark @cutlassefi to get you setup with a custom hydraulic roller cam, whether it be a billet or SADI core, I bet he can fix you up one way or another.


I just received my custom ground SADI cam from Mark for a 39 degree bank angle 455.

An SADI cam core will allow you to run a bronze or melonized distributor gear. A billet cam will require a Bronze gear and it will wear, slowly, but it will wear.

Pm’d you.
But lots of bad info here. Stock rods don’t only fail under suction, they can also fail under compression/power. And polishing etc is a waste of time. They’re still softer than they should be.
Use a good I beam rod with the big bolts, that’ll make the biggest difference. And a 4032 forged piston is good for 4-5# of boost but most dont recommend anything more than that. If you’re approaching 10# it’s best to do a 2618.

Agreed! Too many folks build a nice setup and then cheap out on a converter. A good converter can transform a mediocre performing car and combo into an impressive and fun setup.

I have personally used PTC and I have excellent experience with them. I want to give extra Kudos to Kenny Ford at PTC. They can design a converter that may flash at 3-3,300 rpm, but it can cruise at 2,000 with virtually zero slip at low throttle, in other words, very efficient and made correct.

Also, I recommend stepping to a 10 inch converter by PTC, built to your cam, rear gear, car weight, trans gearing, and expected power and what type of power adder you are using. PTC is also great about adjusting or re-stalling their own converters and other companies converters to get them to stall like you want. Support the small companies like this who do great work and make our cars faster and add smiles!

A higher-stall, quality converter can make a huge difference on a stock engine, and it can make a world of difference on a modified engine.