Are SB stock rods Hp sensitive or RPM sensitive?

[Jesse Lackman]

What do you think?

Are the stock rods hp sensitive or rpm sensitive? I know hp is related to rpm but say you had a 400 hp engine and ran it high rpm (7500 rpm) would the rpm kill the rod? Doesn't more hp (without more rpm) just stress the rod more in compression? And won't high rpm (no matter what the hp is) cause more stress in tension? And then, isn't it stress in tension that creates the problems?
In our IMCA mod we ran 4.56 and 5.13 gears and were turning much less rpm then most. We had no engine problems. I set up a spread sheet in which tire diameter, engine torque from a dyno test, and various rear end ratios could be input. Pounds of force at the tire contact patch would be automatically calculated. We then picked the gears that put the most torque to the ground. It seemed to be in the ballpark. The only time we might have run over 7000 was when the driver and car owner (I wasn't there) made 20 laps in second gear! They wanted to drop some torque and were to lazy to change gears. I'm a dirt track outsider and to me, running more rpm just to kill torque seems weird.


------------------
http://www.revsearch.com