whats all needed to install rod bolts and about how long would it take to do?

 

Get some Katech rod bolts. pull the engine. take off the oil pan, take off the windage tray, replace rod bolts. Reassemble.
I took my engine out for the heads and trans upgrades, and a bunch of other good stuff and did my rod bolts too. Took it out on a sat was driving around town the next sat afternoon. this was also working on it just in the evening a few hours after work. so if you have the time to do it all at once maybe 2 days.

 

i would personally not change the rod bolts with the motor still in the car. it would be very hard to check if the rod is out of round.

 

i agree, im not a fan of changing rod bolts without resizing the rods. any good engine builder will tell you that. the rod will be out of round when you change the clamping pressure by changing the bolts.

 

i think katech is actually advertising that you can do it with the motor still in car. but i still would not do it.

 

cracked cap pm rods, folks. These aren't like the old rods where you could take a little metal off the mating surface and resize them. The cracked cap also guarantees the cap & rod are going to go back in the same spot.

 

tell me again you cant resize these rods, how many machining classes have you had? you resize them and run larger OD bearings. and it will still change clamping pressure and oval out the big end, ask me how my rod bearings were already showing excessive wear for 1000 miles.

 

katechs here,and was changed with the engine still in 2years ago..since then have gone to a bigger cam and spun it high and wot blast on the highway/dyno etc...No problems at all

 

congrats, its just not a smart idea. its a little more forgiving with cracked rods because of the locating characteristics, but it will still wear the bearings prematurely. IMO if your going to change the rod bolts, true the big end with the new bolts and run new bearings.

 

re placed bearings with clevite 77

 

would you also have to balance the rotating assembly with new rod bolts?

 

^^^ it would be a good idea, but if you don't have the money to pull the motor out you will not have the money to balance the motor. the weight should not be that much off, so the rotating assembly will last a while, off course not as long as it would if you did not touch it.

 

Ditto, I've seen GM powdered metal rods get over .001" out of round just by going to ARP's. I wouldn't run that ****.

 

how much hp and rpms can stock rod bolts handle in a 2000 engine?

 

me too, they were worn just as bad as the 77k stock bearings i took out of it after 1000 miles.

no, most factory assemblies are balanced to within around 10 grams, which is accatable for stock applications, i have seen stock LS1 assemblies balance out to within 3 grams, so changing rod bolts wont have that much effect on it, however if it does, it wont cause problems

mine were .0015 out of round when i took it apart. i imagine they were around .001 before i put 1000 miles on it, and the hammering opened them up more

not much over 6000 RPM's and around 400 at the wheels.

 

it is usually the piston that goes first, not the rod. and no don't change pistons with the motor still in car.

 

You do realize that if you try to resize these new cracked style rods that you will have to take so much material off just to get the surface smooth that it will change the length of the rod dont you? And if i recall almost any machine shop does not prefer to try and resize the powdered metal rods anyway.

On a normal machined cap, its not much of a problem to parallel the surface and hone it out...but nothing about the mating surface on the LS rods = smooth.

 

^^^ i dont think so, when you install new rod bolts like arp or katech, they have much more clamping force then the factory units. and once you torque them they might get out of round. why do you think you need to align hone the mains when you stud them ?

 

im sorry but are the main caps cracked as well???? I dont think so. have you seen how much material would need to be removed to make them smooth? then maybe you should call a machine shop and ask them how much they would charge. i can tell you any good machine shop will question you as to why you want to do it and warn you not to. PM rods to not like machining much.

 

i have a set of arp's im going to put in a motor as soon as i find one.