Originally Posted by robertstell
I just bought a set of 5.7 eagle rods and have been looking for pistons, all I really see are .030 pistons for a 6" rod. Sorry for being old school, but whats the reason everyone seems to want the 6" rod. please enlighten me on my ignorance. I will get rid of the rods if its in my best intrest. I do have a .030 350 block and 3.48 crank that I was going to use..... but hell, where do I go from here?
the 1.724137931 rod ratio (rod/stroke) is not even a factor if over 1.6:1 with the 5.7 rod to 3.48 crank being 1.637931034 you will never see the difference. with the longer rod, you will could have slightly less torque down low because the rod is standing up straighter and will have a little harder time pushing the crank @ lower speeds, thus less torque. but, your longer rod will dwell longer @ tdc and create a little more torque. whether it is usable or not is in the engines design with the heads cam and induction. with a shorter rod, the load will swing a little easier down low but adds a little more load to the blocks cylinder wall. with the longer rod, this loads the crank more. tit for tat,
you won't see a huge difference unless you are putting this in a mud truck or something very heavy and then that has more to do with proper induction and cam sizing than rod ratio. I have to go with RM here. hp up top has more to do with induction and rod ratio hardly never makes any difference in real power.