took the new car to the track

[Speedster]

that looks very nice.
and i too am kinda fond of the 68-69 chevelle body style.

[hsutton]

Soooooo, 7800 rpm too much? Lots of guys are doing it with great sucess. Yeah piston speed means friction. But there is an upside to it. A higher mean piston speed also pulls the piston down from top dead center faster, creating a more acute pressure drop in the intake runner. Thus increasing velocity of intake charge in the runner. Anyway, what I'm getting at is a 4.25 srtoke and 7800 rpm is not necessarily a bad thing. At that piston speed a heavy piston does not do you any favors. Trying to nearly instantly change the direction of the piston does try to pull them apart. Bottom line is, at that rpm, use good parts and a good machinist. Just my humble opinion.

This is a big block, not a 350 cu. in. small block and should have plenty of torque to pull less gear. My son's car ran 9.31 with 3.50 rear end gears and no juice @ 3550 lbs. Anbody turning one 7800 is going way past their power peak and they aren't likely to be any faster, especially with the nitrous on. We tried a 3.89 gear, thinking it would run much better, the result was a best of 9.277 leaving at 5500 rpm on the tranny brake. A whole 3 1/2 hundreths over the 3.50 and footbraking. I'll take less wear and tear every time. With the juice on the car ran 8.237 @ 168.70. If your turning one 7800 your wearing out parts, if it even stays together. You might get away with it if you have real good aluminum rods and your oiling system is perfect. My friends 440" BB didn't like 7800 rpm at all. His first engine had trickflow 4340 rods and the second on had 4340 Manleys, both are now deceased.