Jeep Strokers

working 98 block stroker with 4.2 crank and 4.2/707 connecting rods. All bottom end stuff bolted in and torqued. One of the connecting rods has a longer bottom end cap than the others even though its weight matched to the others within a gram or two. When I put the girdle on with the usual spacers...that one rod comes within 0.030 of the girdle...all others 0.035 minimum. I can't add girdle spacers...it starts to interfere with the oil pan baffles...even with some massaging from a ball peen hammer. Is there a standard minimal clearance between the rod cap and girdle...I don't want it to hit when hot....can't imagine anything moving 30 thousandths though. Don't want to file while installed and I would rather not remove that end cap and grind it down unless totally necessary...just looking for some guidance...thanks

As long as you have the clearance then I'd say you're fine. I built a stroker with my buddy in an engine that has the main bearing girdle and told him it would need to be spaced. He spaced it out, but not enough to begin with and had interference that caused him to tear down the engine 4 times before he realized what it was, had some horrible knocking that you dont wanna hear in a brand new engine.

I’d recommend a min of .050 clearance.
It’ll take time and patience but you’ll get there.