Just read an text that I saved some time ago that agrees with your post:
The longer stroke and shorter rods will increase the side loads on the cylinders, so I prefer to keep as much metal in there as possible. After boring the block will have to be honed. Some shops use torque plates. The small Ford isn't plagued by the bore distortion problems of, say, the small Chevy, so it's not really necessary to use torque plates.
Copyright 1998, Dave Williams. All rights reserved.
Hope you don't mind this, Dave.
Door handle first when cornering