Just wondering how far some of you guys have pushed a stock bottom end besides the pistons. I have known of some that took some major punishment including my own. Others looked like someone detonated a "daisy cutter" inside of it.

a good buddy of mine had a 406, all stock cast bottom end, factory 5.7 rods, good fasteners, and a good light ross piston. he ran consistent 10.80's in a 70 nova. definately impressive, but walking on seriously thin ice. he called nos and asked how much nitrous would be safe, and they basically said "please step away from the bottle". it ran for a good three seasons, no problems. he finally sold it to build more motor, it's probably running today. it does show the durability of stock parts, just a bit too risky, imo.

I read in a book, i Think it was called Somthing like Chevy small Block Performance On a Budget or somthing like that. Any way this author had been building engines and decided to see exactly how much power could be made with factory parts. I believe that the crank was a factory forged unit though. Any way this engine took enough nitrous to make over 1000 hp and then the block cracked. There is no way this would last on the street or even in a race car but it does give some idea as to the strength of factory parts that have been preped.

aaaaah David Vizard's "High performance on a budget with chevy smallblocks"

i love that book, its my hero.