[levisnteeshirt]

i was reading about rod prep in Grumpys book ,,, he describes shimming the cap .002 and machining the rod for .002 over. ( of course the shims aren't there when they bolt the motor together ) This is suppose to help with deflection of the cap at high speeds and keep bearing crush correct.

Any tricks out there anybody else knows ???

Eh for sure , i've looked at some of the cheap stuff on Ebay. There is some 4130 I beam rods on there now for 150 bux rated to 600 hp that are even bushed. Anybody try a set of these ?? I've saw more of that stuff fail than stock rods though. Looking for every advantage possible - price and performance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SBC-...62QQcategoryZ33623QQihZ025QQitemZ380123726335

Gotta balance price with quality though for sure. Prolly gonna be doing a 388 to about 72-7300 rpm.

Gotta wonder if whatever i do get , should they have the machining procedure done to them that Grumpy talks about ???

 

[71SS454]

I'm all about cheap parts, but those are way too cheap to trust in an engine. That price will barely get you a set of ARP bolts and the bushings for the small end, let along the supposed forging itself. I'd buy some better rods, because if you skimp on rods and one lets go, now you need to replace enerything again.I'd run these with no reservations:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SCA-25700&autoview=sku
but I don't know about your rpm level. For that I'd run something like this:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SCA-25700716&autoview=sku
or for added ease of mind:
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=CRO-SSP93300B-8&autoview=sku

 

[levisnteeshirt]

i'm a shopper

i like to shop too much ,, those scat rods look better for sure

 

[JRouche]

Tricks, they are held close to the heart for alot of engine builders. I dont have any tips. A good set of measuring tools and a quality bearing supplier will get you were you need to be.

I measured every rod (large end only) in the raw, with the cap clamped. And all the crank journals. Wrote down everything, marking the rods with a sharpie pen cause I get mixed up sometimes.

Looked at all the numbers and swapped around the rods to the various crank journals to "match" them up. And really, we are talking about tenths. They were all within a couple tenths which in my world is pretty tight. And they were decent pieces, I think it was a Cola crank and manley rods. Bout six bills for the rods and another six for the crank. And run of the mill clevite bearings.

I gotta dig up my build papers, I may be off in the numbers. Now Im interested, what the heck were them numbers!!

 

[JRouche]

Ok, found the right folder. I have the whole car build up documented in three folders..

So, the crank rod journals measured out from 2.0995 to 2.0993. But the thing is only four measurements were at .0993" Thats out of 12 measurement numbers I have here. Yeah, three for each journal, all around the journal. But of the four small numbers they were only on two of the journals, so it was consistent, I dont think my measuring practices were off. The other two journals were right at 2.0995 all around..

But anyway, thats only two tenths. Not bad as far as I know for a $600 crank.

Now the rods.... Lemme flip a page to see. Now, those numbers are a lil bit off. I got a spread from 2.2240 to 2.2245. Never below or above those numbers, actually more of them at 2.2245. But thats still 5 tenths diff.

So I put the larger ID bore rods on the larger OD journals of the crank to help offset the diff.

And I did measure the bearings too, just for the heck of it. Clevite 77 bearings, that was what was available in 1996 when I assembled the engine. They all measured out to .0615 across the board.

So, my measuring skills arent the best. I took care to make sure all the surfaces were spotless, and it was consistent, I was comfortable in my living room on the floor, thats where you measure the new car parts right?

And after all that shes still just a 350 driving to the store for bread and milk Oh well, its all fun for me. JR

 

[levisnteeshirt]

'preciate it

hmm ,, you brought out something i never considered ,, matching the best rod to its best rod journal ,,,

and about the living room thing ,, i'm divorced cuz the ex didn't think the oven should be used to cure JB weld in the proper fashion

 

[JRouche]

hmm ,, you brought out something i never considered ,, matching the best rod to its best rod journal ,,,

and about the living room thing ,, i'm divorced cuz the ex didn't think the oven should be used to cure JB weld in the proper fashion

Yeah, I dont know why I did it, just thinking while I have the numbers written down I should at least do something with them. Prolly not needed. I was mostly just measuring to make sure they were all cut correctly, I know mistakes happen.

Oh the living room build. I was single at the time and my girlfriend would come over and see parts laid out all over the living room on towels and just shake her head. But, she still married me. Prolly thought she could change my bad habits. Silly girl. Oh yeah, got a nice 3 car garage to do the car work in now. Guess she changed me NOW!! If I were to go to town betty crocker style and use the oven for some powder coating she would flip out LOL JR