I read the artical "454 Big Block Engine - Budget Stomper"

I have a block out of a 70s pickup with a crank.  The block is bored .030 over, and there are so many options on rods and pistons, they are confusing me.  "Connecting rod length?" Uhh.... Long enough without smashing piston through the head? I dont know. All I know, I want forged rods and forged pistons.  

If ya'll could help me out that would rock.

Also, I cant afford the fancy aluminum heads, I will be using run of the mill stock ones.  (I dont have them yet) What should I plan to do before assembly?  

The plan is to put it into a 78 Trans Am clone, without spending more than I have to for a strong running engine.  Is it a street car?  Yes, but I want it to basically have no manners.  Burnouts and stop light to stop light basically.  Eventually I would like to hook up a 200 shot, but that will be a little while.  

Forgot to mention, needs to be able to run on pump gas, and it will not have any type of forced induction  

Connecting rod length makes little difference to the performance of the engine. Even the stock length rod (6.135 in. center-to-center) makes a 1.53:1 rod to stroke ratio, which is around the safe minimum in most builders' "books."

Even stock rods are forged, and they can handle quite a  lot of abuse. Some people believe that the bulkier truck rods are stronger and then with some prepping and modifications many have a lot of confidence that these rods would handle upwards of 600 horsepower. The prep I mentioned involves polishing the beams, lightening (balance pads of course), and installing new (should be wave-lock) bolts.

The piston compression height (distance from the center of the wristpin to the top of the piston 'crown') changes when changes are made to either stroke length or connecting rod length.

Nitrous requires wider ring gaps, less compression, wide lobe separation angles, more intricate exhaust modifications, etcetera. Even a 200 horse shot isn't anything to just throw on and laugh at.

Ideally the cam for this engine should have a 106° lobe separation angle. Probably 270-275° at the seat and 223-227° @.50, but you may choose to spread the lobe separation if you're more concerned with power production with nitrous and or you improve the breathing capability of the stock heads significantly. This would entail installing larger than stock valves, getting a good three-angle valve job done by someone that knows what they're doing, and performing a mild bowl blend to remove any obvious obstructions to the newly opened-up valve throat.  

Ok, so I should just keep the stock rods?  

The spray is the exception, not the rule.  I want to build it to be as powerful as possible without the spray, and then have the Nitrous bottle mostly for show and a rare race when I need a little extra help.  

I am not sure exactly why aluminum heads are better, can you help shed the light on that? I will someday like to get some good aftermarket heads, but they are VERY expensive (As you know).  I want to stick with the stock heads for a little while, but I know the valve train needs to be upgraded for the performance cam and higher revving engine.  

Because the stock heads would only be a temporary, I dont want to invest too much into them....

As far as a camshaft I was going to run a Comp Cam, Mechanical Flat Tappet, Advertised Duration 274/ 280, Lift .568/ .578 (part number CCA-11-677-4)

So what kind of compression ratio should I go for?  Dome pistons, or flat?  Minimum, what do I need to to my cylinder heads to make them work with this cam?  Then, cost versus power increase, what else can/should be done to the heads?  

Keeping the stock rods may be a fine idea. You may be able to find some cheap Chinese Scat rods that would serve you well if your machine shop really suckers you for resizing, replacing bolts, bushing for floating pins, etcetera. Otherwise, the stock rods will most likely stand up to a little bit of nitrous...

You can about imagine that when a company is working with a whole new casting instead of a factory one designed 40 years ago they can make vast improvements. Of course there are some limitations created by how "user-friendly" the aftermarket head should be.

The obvious is that aluminum is much lighter, and the weight advantage is right on the nose of the car where it's most beneficial. In some aftermarket heads you can find a small but still efficient combustion chamber to help get compression without using huge domes. If you attempted this with OE heads, you would use old closed chamber heads that shroud the valves terribly and really killed power.

In most cases the decks and ports are cast extra thick, giving more room for porting, milling, and other modifications if you choose to do so. With these extra thick ports more metal is available to shape the port to be as efficient as possible, which can lead to major improvements in fuel quality entering the cylinder and velocity and corresponding increases in airflow.

You would need to eliminate the exhaust valve "rotators" with thick steel shims (.300" thick) to get the installed spring height correct for a healthy aftermarket cam such as that. Retainer to guide (especially valve seal) clearance should also be checked and the stock guide boss may have to be machined down.

Use this tool to estimate your static compression...
"Static Compression Calculator"

You will most likely need a 'medium' dome piston since you will shoot for open chamber OE heads as they make the most power, these will be around 118-122cc, making it a little difficult to get any compression with a 454 cubic inch engine.  

So, how does compression relate to efficiency and throttle response?  

I know this sounds like a noob question, but I just never found out.  

Also, why do you want less compression on a forced induction engine?  Just to keep from blowing the head gaskets?  Too me it always seemed like they would kinda be the same thing...

Also, when someone says they have a compression ratio of 10:1, what does that mean?

I want this engine to RESPOND.  Throttle response is more important than overall horsepower.  

Compression will always improve efficiency and power throughout the rev range, thus improving throttle response.

Increasing static compression not only makes the engine more thermally efficient (what it's most commonly known for) but it also improves combustion turbulence and consequent flame front propagation. It increases exhaust-gas velocity, which makes for a cleaner burn at low speeds and can help draw fresh charge in early in the intake cycle. All of these things eventually mean making more cylinder pressure and making more power.

It's so commonly known that big cams usually mean high compression and the purpose is that the compression helps the engine regain some low-end and improve combustion quality at low speeds where the big cam profiles would normally negatively effect these speeds.

With forced induction it's very easy to be on the verge of stable combustion, especially if there is some octane limits present (a desire to use pump gas for example). Lowering static compression a point or two goes a long way in increasing octane tolerance. This loss in power from reducing compression can actually turn into a net power gain if the engine can tolerate more boost pressure on the same fuel.

Static compression is a measure of the cylinder's entire volume when the piston is at bottom dead center compared to the volume that the same piston/cylinder makes when moved to top dead center. If the engine has a 10:1 compression ratio this means that if the cylinder is completely full at bottom dead center, when the piston reaches top dead center it has compressed whatever was in the cylinder to a volume ten times smaller. Another way of looking at it is if the entire cylinder is approximately 1000cc when the piston is at bottom dead center, and the displacement of the engine per cylinder is approximately 900cc, then the engine has a 10:1 static compression ratio because 1000-900 is 100cc, which is the volume above the piston at top dead center. If there is 100cc above the piston at TDC and 1000cc in the cylinder at BDC then 1000/100 = 10:1.

Maybe a picture will also help...