Huh, I'm pretty surprised you blew that many engines up. What actually failed? 3,100RPM is 55MPH in a gas dump truck, and they don't blow up from that. There's an old trucker from Texas on another board, he said that guys ran the 4.120" stroke 292 wide open all day and thought they were some of the best engines they'd run. His personal truck was a GMC with a 371 olds, he said he ran 3,800-4,200, and never let it get below 3,600. Also said he did a basic rebuild every 100k or so, and that the engine was still good years later when the truck was wrecked. Boats with I-6's, SBC's, and BBC's all run over 3,000 at cruise, no apparent reliability problems there, either. I need the 4.10's for towing, they really aren't that deep, anyway. 2,200 @ 50, a little over 2,400 @ 55, little bit under 2,700 @ 60. I don't drive on the highway a lot, so it makes more sense to let it scream there once in a while than to lug it everywhere else. Still looking for an old auxiliary trans to split shift+OD. (700R4 I don't think will take my planned 20K GCW too well
) My father's '10 has a 3.07 in it and a tall tire, for him that works great. Not what I'm after, though.
I didn't say disk brakes weren't a good thing, I may very well add them to this truck for pulling heavy trailers. The brakes actually work real well, though; as of right now the high void rear tires + rear brake bias is the limitation, by far. I actually have a clip on youtube.
'65 Chevy C-30 brake check (four wheel manual drums) - YouTube The biggest thing, though, IMO, is paying attention and anticipating what is happening, or could happen. I had a guy pull out in front of me the other day, I was only going 35 or so, but was something like 50' away when he set up for the T-bone. Because I was paying attention, I saw him run up to the stop sign and figured that he was probably going to blow through it. And he did. I was ready for it, and the only damage was to my dried out bias rear tires, which made a neat little blue haze behind me. The truck had absolutely no trouble stopping. Had I not been paying attention, even if I had all the brakes in the world, I would have ran through him. By the same token, take me in my, say, 250' 60-0 truck (being real generous there), and "Bill" in his shiny new 150' 60-0 truck. Bill's in an alternate dimension, following the same car I am. The car is a Corvette, and can stop in 100'. Say I am paying close attention, and following 170' behind him. I see him as soon as he begins to stop, and I'm ready for it and lay down on the brakes. I don't hit him. Bill was 50' behind him, not paying attention. By the time he notices what's going on outside of his phone, the 50' has already been closed. Now, since the resulting distance between where the car will stop and where he will is -50', I think Bill's truck is going to need some attention, along with the Corvette. By the same token, If I'm 200' back from traffic when it does a 150' 80-0, and I'm paying close attention, me and my drums are probably still fine. The guy on his phone tailgating someone with disk brakes probably isn't. A new truck still (generally) takes longer to stop than a car. Now, I realize that in LA I might not be able to follow @ 200' on 405. That's one of the many reasons why I stay away from there.
I don't think I could take LA.
Again, not knocking the disk brakes. The dissipate heat better, and heat=friction=brakes. They work better, I won't argue that. But, just because you have them doesn't mean you're safe. And, just because you don't, doesn't mean you aren't. Know your limits, stay within them, and stay alive another day. My two wheat pennies.