Does he really have "Stock pistons and Stock Rods"....or does he have Nhra approved replacement pistons and rods...which are forged pistons and rods...?
This was back in the early 90s. The pistons were J&E but were same weight, same compression height, same dome design, same ring package as stock factory (351 Cleveland). He'd buy 12 at a time so he always had exact replacements should he have a problem. Rods were stock Ford castings, hand picked, weight and length matched, shot peened, running ARP bolts. Again, he'd have a couple spares weight matched too just in case. This engine held National records in 3-4 different Stock Eliminator classes: D,E,F, and M (IIRC with a 2bbl for the M), and I would swear on a stack of bibles there was never any cheating on his part. He'd even have extra tolerance built in on things like valve angles, seat angles, displacement, volumes, etc. just in case the NHRA inspectors messed up. So yes, this was as stock as NHRA would allow at the time - which was pretty much stock factory with some exceptions. He currently races SS/EA and it usually top ten material.
Regardless - it never had clamping issues with a rod and those bolts were on and off dozens of times during the season.
