I was originally going to use 5.7'' rods in the 406 with a Crane 274H06 solid cam. I hear when using these longer rods that a rod bolt will come in contact with the cam I think its the #7 rod? So I thought ok, I'll just order a small base circle cam, turns out Crane only makes small base circle cams for roller cams. I dont want to run a roller cam, so I wanted to get some second opinions on grinding this rod bolt down. I wont be spinning the motor past 6500 rpm and I will probably hit the track 6-10 times a year.
My setup is
Holley 750 DP, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, AFR 210 heads, 10:1 Hyperutetcitc pistons, Cast crank rods. What I need to know is can I get away with grinding the rod bolt? and if not can anybody reccomend a different cam with a little more lift for some more top end horsepower, I want to run power brakes, and power steering if at all possible.

Any good performance machinist can clearance the rod for you.

You can change the LSA on the cam grind to gain clearnce. Means you need a different maybe custom cam.
Or retard the cam. Depends on what's hitting.
I changed LSA from 112 to 110. Turns out almost all of the change was on the exhaust. So a slightly smaller but similar lift cam hit on one rod where the old cam was fine. Retarded it 4 degrees and rechecked everything.

noname,
Just grind the darn rod bolt. Its been done hundreds of times with no problems. You will not remove enough material to affect the balance. By the way, do all of them, I have seen as many as 6 hit the cam depending on lift and duration.

Thanks guys I've been having problems with my machinist, mainly not getting my parts ordered right, I'll ask him why he doesn't wan't to and if I don't get a logical answer I'll take it somewhere else, and if I do get a logical answer I'll still probably have him grind them down, BillK I've read a lot of your posts and you seem pretty knowledgable , keep in mind these are cast rods.

tl,
I just did a set for a customer the other day. Completely stock GM rods going in a 383 truck motor. Took about 10 minutes on the belt sander. You really dont take that much off the bolt to hurt anything. I have seen them in low 10 sec. bracket engines that have run for many seasons. There is a diagram in one of the books I have around here. I will try to find it and post a copy.

keep in mind these are cast rods. I've never seen a cast rod in a chevrolet, only Pontiacs.

(whateveryournameis),
Bill is right, just grind a little off of the head of the rod bolt. This is a VERY COMMON thing to do when 5.7 rods are used in a SB400. As Bill says, just grind all of them and eliminate any worry. Grind the head of the bolt, which faces the cam, at about a 45deg angle. Usually, about .030-.040 is all that is required. It is too easy to do this at home yourself, but if you just don't feel comfortable doing it, then ANY machinist who is worth anything at all can do this. Not only that, but ANY machinist who has EVER done machine work on SB400s should be extremely familiar with grinding the rod bolt heads!!!

Originally posted by DZAUTO:
Not only that, but ANY machinist who has EVER done machine work on SB400s should be extremely familiar with grinding the rod bolt heads!!! Exactly. If the machine shop doesn't know what you're talking about, take it elsewhere.

On a side note, I'm running 5.7s in my 406 with a Comp 292H and I have no clearance problems at all.