I asked the same thing about the 292 a while back. Some hot-rod guys seemed afraid of running them "hard", but I couldn't find anyone that really said they'd blown one up from running it too hard/fast t back up that fear. Here's a quote from our own Crenwelge;

"I never owned a 292, but there were a bunch of them around here hauling rock with end dumps when they built IH10 around here in the 60's. They ran them wide open all day long and claimed they were the best engines they had ever run. I was hauling grain and feed ingredients during this time with a 550 GMC with a 370 cu. in. engine that was actually an Olds 371 block. I stuck a set of rings and bearings in it about every 100k miles. My shift points were 3800 and 4200. I sometimes over ran the 4200 down hill but I never let it get below 3600. It was still a strong running engine when I wrecked the truck in 1968."

I haven't seen any real reports of anyone not running 55MPH in a 2-ton truck, and that's already about 3,100RPM. Running something harder/faster will shorten it's life, sure, but the 292 built it's reputation in big trucks running wide open, so I don't think you need to worry too much about a healthy one.

Going from 29" to 32" will be roughly 10%, and 4.57 to 4.10 will be another 10% on that, which is my setup. I can run 70MPH @ 3,100RPM, and my normal 55-60MPH is a relatively sedate 2,400-2,700RPM or so range; works fine for me.


Some of my crap:
1963 C-30 flatbed dually 292/SM420
1965 C-10 LWB fleet 250/column shift 3 speed
1965 C-30 9' stepside 250/SM420/4.10 gears (my DD)

Website I made for my crap:
http://www.66submarine.com