[blykins]

Necessary....no. Nice to have....sure. If you go to the trouble of building a nice stroked small block, might as well add a little extra insurance. I always put main studs in my blocks anyway, and the blocks should always be checked if not align honed, so it just makes sense to spend an extra $100 and strengthen the bottom end a little. The way I see it, it has to help reduce cap walk.

At the very least, make sure your rotating assembly is very well balanced and throw a good set of ARP studs in the mains.