l26 would be fine but realize that they are more hit and miss than the older l36. the tooling was wearing out. main galley alagnment from both ends of the block suffers greatly the newer the motor build date. its one reason all the die casting dies were reworked for sand casting...cheaper than repairing the production die casting machinery.
if ya were goin to sub 2.8 territory with a chance at spraying it id shoot for a cast rod l36....ive seen enough l26 carnage to know that i really dont wanna push one more than a nice mild DD setup.
i dunno 'bout yew...but i dont like the idea of PM rods that are designed to fracture....with a lovely chicken neck beam that'll snap if you look at it wrong....
