Richie is a little anal about engines and such which is wierd considering he had Frank work on his car… LOL jk. But I don’t worry too much about all this “it could possibly be out of round” stuff.
Truth about our motors is they are not really well balanced in the first place. so replacing rod bolts and such is not too big a deal. We all got the same off the shelf parts assembled by robots and factory workers who are always more worried about whether they are getting laid off next week more than if Richie’s LS1 is gonna toss a rod on an over rev.
This is why factory freaks exist. Every once in a while it actual all comes together as intended. There was a guy who experimented with a factory block, hand assembled, balanced, and blue printed. With all factory parts. It was technically a stock LS1. Put down 400+hp on an engine dyno
I can bet you 100% when my new long block went in, it was making over 400hp on a engine dyno as well, considering it put down 351rwhp/355rwtq through 1 3/4 hooker headers, a shitty pace setter Y pipe and the stock catback.