http://popularhotrodding.com/enginem...racing_engine/
Here's a good read for many of those who think or led to believe that short rod motors don't work well...they cite things like "excessive side loading" and friction losses...well that's true...they will be higher proportional to RPM, but under 6500 or so not enough to worry about and with the right (reead: BIGGER) heads and valve timing, for moderate rpm motors (below 6800 or so) desiring a wide (not peaky) powerband, they make for formidable engines not to be taken lightly.
Excessive Side loading and friction....I would only take 'Excessive' to mean beyond the physical lubrication and thermal properties of the
oil....haven't seen that yet in any of my stroker motors.
Jon Kaase has 2 of the last 3 Enginemasters contests, motors that produce the highest average torque and horsepower across a 2500-6500 RPM powerband on 93 octane pump gas.
He won at 470" cube limit with an FE ford, the 410 limit with a Windsor and the 510" limit with a Pontiac....the one common denominator of all three winning motors???? Big strokes with Short rod ratios, killer heads and camshafts. He could have built them with bigger bores, longer rods and shorter strokes and got to those cubes any number of ways...yet he chose the "less popular" way.
For those of you not familiar with Jon Kasse, he has been the premiere IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock engine builder (815 cubes, 1700+ hp normally aspirated) for about 30 years now.
opinions vary....but I've been in the Kaase camp for over 10 years now..I've heard all the "expert arguments" but I just keep building them big stroke, big heads and whatever rod will still keep the pin within the ring pack.