young, broke and stupid 440 build

If it runs smooth, I would not bother balancing it for what you want. And I would not worry about the rod bolts one bit. Those rod bolts are not the new stuff being torqued past yield. I did a cheap rebuild, hone with torque plates (just enough to clean and straighten the bores), rings, bearings, seals, brass freeze plugs, 268 duration cam, valve job, and a double roller timing chain, reused the rod bolts, on a 60's 383 back in the late 70's. Put it in my 68 Formula S and ran it everywhere. Easily wound up to 6K many a time and put a lot of miles on it as a daily driver. Still runs fine. If your balance was off, you'd know it.