[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by bird72

Also decided for my new done HO heads, to do the bottom end right.... was going to freshen up the low mile 4 bolt bottom end I have, as it is low miles, but decided to get some good rods to replace factory. Pro balance and do it right. Hopefully my forged pistons are fine for re-use, should be. Any rod recomendations?

why rods? Stock rods are good for 6,000 and 450 hp..., ( the 1970 455 370 HP engine had over 10:1 CR as I recall.. STOCK Rods) put new rods and then old heavy pistons back on?
on a stock, to mild build stock rods are fine, and the >> cheap forged rods <<<< ( SCAT,CAT) always need more balancing and resizing.... Buy some lightweight pistons and spend money on balancing IM (HO) !

[bird72]

Originally Posted by Formulabruce

why rods? Stock rods are good for 6,000 and 450 hp..., ( the 1970 455 370 HP engine had over 10:1 CR as I recall.. STOCK Rods) put new rods and then old heavy pistons back on?
on a stock, to mild build stock rods are fine, and the >> cheap forged rods <<<< ( SCAT,CAT) always need more balancing and resizing.... Buy some lightweight pistons and spend money on balancing IM (HO) !

I have TRW forged now and they should be good, about 5K miles on them, well, see. This short block was balanced before and runs very nice with D port heads now.... rods though? Kinda a Just Cause deal, same as 4 bolt caps I fitted, studs would have been smarter and cheaper. Yes stock rods with good bolts are fine, what I have now... the HO heads I am putting on are off a 72 TA a guy has here locally, now he runs an aluminum set up non stock. The original HO engine he broke a rod, cracked the block, while flogging it so there is one TA that will never be number match again. And it was 450 HP ish build, so stock rod failure happens with full tilt use occasionally.

[njsteve]

I see the forged rods as insurance. And they were comparatively priced to having the old factory cast set completely redone and buying new rod bolts, too. Forty year old cast iron can have unseen stress flaws just waiting to find the most expensive part to take with it. (your matching # block). The rod set I got was perfeclty weight matched right out of the box. On my prior HO, i did reuse the forged pistons that the prior builder installed. It worked out fine, as they didnt need any further massaging for weight, since they were previously balanced.