Dr. Jeckel

iTrader: (12)

I took the rods and pistons out of the 5.3L I bought and on most you couldn't tell where the break was, but on two of them it looks like when the rod was broken it didn't break clean. The engine had approx. 160k miles and yes the bolts were tightened down. Anyway, pictures below.




Crank and bearings looked really good. I wanted to keep the stock rods and perhaps the stock pistons, just replace the rings, but now I'm just thinking about replacing the rods and pistons with forged. I guess I could also buy another set of rods for about $100 and pick the best ones out of both sets, but I'm not sure if that is a good idea. One thing is for sure, I do not feel comfortable keeping these two rods for the turbo setup.

NemeSS

iTrader: (127)

thats the way most of the gm rods look, it doesnt really affect anything.
unless they are not locating correctly, then they could be mismatched.
u dont want that. if going for max effort turbo might as well just pay for hbeams now.

BigRich954RR

iTrader: (1)

No the caps are mismatched. For a turbo build put the money out for H beams now Trust me Ive bent a few and cracked a few stock ones. I was lucky they were mill secs from breaking in half an totally killing my block/heads/crank. pure lucky it didnt take every thing out.