Was just wondering what the rod length for the 390 was. Aren't all the connecting rods from 390, 406, 410, 427, and 428 the same length? Also I have a little story er.. minor irritation to tell you about. There is a kid from this town that has a 70's chevy pickup. It is a 1/2 ton, 2wd, longbox. Everytime he sees me after we have been partying (usually in the late hours of the night or early hours of the morning) he wants to race. I am not going to race him after a few but plan on asking him in the future. Now I am not scared to lose but I think with my current setup he has me beat without actually racing. Here is his setup (to my little knowledge of a vehicle I am really not that interested in), 454 probably bored .030 over, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, Edelbrock carb (performer series) probably a 750, cast iron heads, casting number on heads ?, I think he had the exhaust runners in the heads polished, I think he has the Performer RPM cam, I think he has domed pistons in it not sure about comp ratio though. He can put an engine together but just talking with him he doesn't know much. He will take any kind of advice he gets and seems to have gotten lucky with that but then again as the saying goes "Anyone can make a chevy run, but it takes someone who has been around to make a Ford run". Other than this I believe it is mostly stock. I will try to get anything else on it to you guys. Now I know it seems like I am trying to finds out any secrets but here is the deal. Sure my truck has good power but with the 3.00 gears I think as far as 1/4 mile goes I would just be wasting my time, now I do think I could pull away pretty easy on top end. He has a turbo 400 automatic tranny with a TCI rebuild kit in it I believe, I have a never rebuilt (going to in the future) C-6. He has 3.73 gears and I have 3.00 gears. I am in the process of trying to find a way to get 3.50's in mine. I think then that it would be more possible to beat him. But alas, I am broke and am trying to way out the options of going to the junkyard and finds some good 3.50's and either rebuilding a trac-loc or (I don't think mom and dad will see the point in a new $327 dollar Trac-Loc form Randy's Ring and Pinion) or maybe spending what little dough I have and buying a new ring and pinion from Randy's ($167) or from Genuine Gear ($137) and getting a master install/overhaul kit from one or the other ($80 to $86) for either an open diff or trac-loc depending on what I do for a diff. Any ideas??? I would much rather go with new gears and a new Trac-Loc but that route doesn't look to good right now. I am also getting various opinions on whether or not to use a Trac-Loc or an open diff. This is really my only vehicle and I have heard that a trac-loc is nice when you get in a bad spot (plus both tires spin and I hate how just one tire gets bald during burnouts and smoke shows). Then I have heard that they are really squirrely on ice and you really have to watch it on icy roads compared to an open diff. I know I have been in plenty of spots where if the other tire would have had power, I might not have needed to chain up or , rock the vehicle, get a buddy (if present) to push. This vehicle doesn't really see any offroad use, (sometimes out in the rolling hills to a party.... nothing extreme though). I live in montana and we do get some pretty descent snowfall sometimes and yes I just had to chain up to get out of our driveway (had about 2 feet of it saturday out around Roberts. My parents live 6.5 miles out of town on our ranch and about 4.5 of it is gravel road. Yes I have had to bust drifts but when it gets to the point that I will just end up getting stuck or putting it in the ditch and damaging my pickup then I usually leave well enough alone. I don't need a trac-loc most of the time but it would be nice at times. What do you guys think? Sorry for rambling.

 

Geez! That was long.

The rod length for all FEs 390 cu in and over is 6.488".

Good luck with your buddies chevy. It sounds like he is making pretty good power. You will probably need some more work to beat him. You never know until you try it though. See how much you are lacking and go from there. I've beat some BBC trucks that looked to be packing some power but I have lost to some bigtime sleepers!