chevyls1

iTrader: (29)

i figured that you guys on here would know best. one my friends told me not to use the arp bolts on the rod caps. i am doing the bearings so i figures to do the bolts while i am down there. he was saying that the bolts that are in there stock already are broke in so by putting the new bolts in it may cause a problem with them beeing to tight. would you replace them or not?
thanks for the advise i know it is stupid question but i want to be sure.

lmt0705

iTrader: (7)

ive never heard of a bolt being broke in, an upgrade to a rod bolt is never a bad idea, I would check with your local machine shop or maybe someone else can chime in about having to have the rod bores rehoned when replacing bolts due to taking the rod bore out of round. the only way they will be too tight is if you over tighten them. any bolt you buy will come with a recommended torque spec

Asmodeus

people change rod bolts in the car on LSX engines all the time. Lots of stock replacement bolts. The stock bolts are weak and won't be reliable to spin over 6500 in a pre 01/02 car.

change them.

ArcticZ28

iTrader: (14)

Be aware of whether your existing rod bolts have the ferrules or not. If they do, you will have to remove those before you put the new arp bolts in.

JPH

iTrader: (2)

Must Resize Rod, On The Big End When Installing New Bolts!

ls1muscle

iTrader: (16)

The 98-99's do not have ferrules. Some 00's have them, some don't. And then the 01-02's all have them.

wrong

JPH

iTrader: (2)

arp bolts you should have them resized, katech bolts have no idea.(never used them)

chevyls1

iTrader: (29)

Have The Bolts Resized?

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

You must have your rods re-honed for use with ARP bolts. I had a friend spin a bearing because he just put in ARP bolts and didn't have them rehoned. The problem (as mentioned above) is they will be out of round when you put the new ARP bolts in.

ls1muscle

iTrader: (16)

Alot of people haven't spun bearings with arp bolts. But, because of the differences between the dimensions and weight of the bolts, I went with katechs.

JPH

iTrader: (2)

correct. i don't know any engine builder how takes out a cycled rod bolt, and installs a new one without resizing/rehoning the rod.

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

Thats because they did it right and had the rods machined.

chevyls1

iTrader: (29)

should i just not even do the bearing then. i was not going to do any work to the rotating assembly. i just thought that since i was down there i would do them, but if it is going to cause problems i won't

chris-m

same question, guy i bought my ls1 from supplied me a set of arp rod bolts free of charge. if its going to cause problems i wont bother fitting them?
can someone explain resizing/rehoning the rod to suit arp fastners please?

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

Its certainly not worth the labor to resize a rod, it requires total engine disassembly. For a couple hundred bucks more you could replace the whole rod, not just the bolt. Many many people have sucessfully replaced the rod bolts with ARP or Katechs without resizing. Infact I dont think ive ever heard a verified story how doing so caused a single problem.

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

I just told you one. I saw it with my own eyes. Do I need to take a picture?

And it is not going to cause "problems" putting new bolts in. Just take your rods down to a machine shop, hand them the bolts and rods and tell them you want to replace the bolts with the ARP and they will know what to do. It is not expensive.

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

Sorry for overlooking your post....

Anyway, how do you know that it was caused by the rod bolts and not simply from spinning the motor to the moon. Perhaps teh caps were completely removed and didnt realign themselves perfectly even though a cracked cap should. Maybe the torque was off just a touch and the bolts loosened?

More than one person with very precise measuring equipment were unable to detect any deformation between stock, arp and katech bolts. Its the nature of teh beast. We are not using old SBC rod bolts that are pressed in. These are regular cap head bolts. If youre putting the same thread in with the same load, the deformation should be identical. A tool and die maker even verified this.

But anyway, even though im still highly skeptical about it until i read a lot more info on the case, I have now heard at least one story claiming a rod bolt caused bearing failure.

ArKay99

iTrader: (1)

I changed mine about 1.5 years ago and have about 7k miles one the car since. Many, many trips to 6800rpm's, and no failures. I used ARP's and followed their install directions closely and used a newly calibrated torque wrench. Due to my propensity for being **** I did a 'break-in' on the new bolts. For the first 200 miles nothing over 3k rpm's, then for the next 300, nothing over 4k. Oil pressure didn't change also. I haven't even thought about them now until a thread comes up like this. BTW, I've read more threads where the bolts were not changed and rods spun, than not, so I would tend to think the occurance of a bearing failure afterwards may have to do with other factors, maybe in concert, with the rod bolt change.

chris-m

as a newbie what do they actually do though with your arp bolts and your rods?
thanks

redtail2426

iTrader: (10)

did someone say Katech?? katech katech katech.i love these threads