[Larry Hill]

If a 400 "B" block is used in place of a "RB" 383, 413, 426, and 440 blocks the rod will be to short center to center and the compression height of the piston would be short. The rod and piston would be wrong.

Rods have a service life. I think NHRA should resend the use of "custom length" rod in Stock at the end of the 2014 season, for the FE Ford engine. If a racer has a new set of rods of "custom length" they will get two years service life from their investment.

NHRA has a chance to right a wrong that affects all of us that race stock. If you don't believe it affects all just think of this real life scenario.

Indy 2013 Stock. 180 entrants 128 qualifiers, what 52 cars can you out qualify? Lets say you are #129 and everyone is legal. Above you on the qualifying sheet are four FE Fords, all have the approved rod. All four are in bottom half of the field, just a few hundreds of a second in front of you. Part of the reason they are ahead of you is that every time the crank is turned from 2.437" to 2.200" the surface area of the original is approximately 10% bigger than the new finished size of 2.200. So if my math is correct the FE Fords have a 10% reduction in surface area and a big reduction in friction.

People who had a hand in getting the "Custom Length " rod approved by NHRA knew they were cheating the system. The worst thing they did was to cheat me and the other racers!