i was lookin into this also, but i dunno if its worth it. i will only spin mine to 6700.... allthough 6700 on 01 stock rod bolts ok?

 

i second the question on what about a 2000 ls1? thats what i have with 8750 miles. should i change the rod bolst before i put it in my mustang with a single 80mm? im staying at 8lbs of boost

 

I know its an old thread but here goes my .02 maybe the people having good luck on their stock engines with just swaping the rod bolts with out resizing dont have issues because maybe the bearings already have 001 or 002 of wear so when the arp bolts increase the clamp force it just puts the specs back to stock.

Any ways I have done 3 ls motors and always resized there have been at least 6 out of the 8 rods needed resising.

 

I put Katech rod bolts in mine and havent had any issues at all.

 

I have been searching for a while and haven’t quite found what I am looking for.

I am fairly new to engine swaps and this will be my first LS build. I have an LQ4 that I plan on running with just a cam for a while but will be running FI eventually. My plan is to build my motor up for the FI while it is out. I am going to be changing out the cam, pushrods, lifters, springs and possibly going with roller rockers or at least the trunnion swap. I probably won’t be seeing much more than 6800rpm. This will not be a DD, but will be driven regularly in the summer and will see several trips down the ¼ mile track.

I am still in the planning stages of my build and want to have as much figured out before I start buying parts. I have never rebuilt an engine and want to make sure I know what I need to do. I know I will not be doing the one bolt at a time thing. I am trying to stay with-in a budget so if I do not need to spend money on unnecessary parts I won’t.

I just had a couple of things I would like a little clarification on:

My first question is how much can the stock bolts hold, same with the mains? There are a few numbers floating around here and was wondering if anyone had any definitive numbers or guidance on the issue. Should I replace the bearings, rod and main bolts while I have the motor tore down. Or, as long as they are with-in limits, should I just keep the stock ones?

Second is that I have read on this forum and others, the LS engine have “Fractured Caps” rods. From what I have read, this allows you to replace bearings and bolts without having to hone or replace rods? Along the same line, the FSM says rods cannot be filed or honed, but it seems that some people are doing it. Is this something that a machine shop would be able to do or would I be better off getting new rods if need be?

Any information is much appreciated.

 

I'm wondering if i should put some katech's in or not. I have a '98 and i'll have H/C/I in but with the cam i have makes power up too 6200 rpm soo that would be the highest i would shift it.

 

Do you do your own work on your car? Are you planning to do it while the engine is still in the car?

You'll have to unhook the motor mounts and pull the engine up a little with a cherry picker so you can get the oil pan off and clear the k member..

Then replace the rod bolts one at a time and torque it down before moving onto the next bolt. might as well do poly motor mounts while you have your engine unhooked... It's quite a project, but if you have the time and tools its not that hard..

 

I wouldn't worry about the mains they're pretty stout. And it's not so much the Hp that kills the rod bolts as much as rpm... Generally if you're spinning 6800 or more then you need to be careful.

The Ls engines use cracked caps which means they rods are cast and then the caps are literally cracked from the rod making each one specific. So it is very important not to mix up the caps and not file them down. However on a proper line boring setup the rods can be line honed, and should being honed when installing better bolts. This is because the increased clamping power from the bolt will distort the bore.

With that said if you go with arp bolts you WILL need to line hone it and order the correct bearings for the larger holes. With katechs the bore distortion is not as much and you can run them as is. To the best of my knowledge no one had ever had issue just swapping in katechs but people without honing have blown motors with arps.

Lastly I would never open a motor and not install new bearings, they're cheap enough and good insurance just make sure you get a good brand like clevite.

 

Hopefully this isn't beating a dead horse but I don't understand why the ARP bolts recommend the rods be honed and the katechs don't? Torque is torque right? If both are being torqued to to higher than stock levels wouldn't they both distort the rod?

Earlier in the thread it was listed that the ARP's are torqued to 40 ft*lbs and the katechs are torqued to 50 ft*lbs. If this is correct, then wouldn't the katechs actually distort the rod more than the ARP's? What am I missing here?

 

All I know is, after spinning almost every rod bearing, I had the crank ground, threw on new bearings, checked clearances with plastigage, put in katech bolts according to their instructions, and haven't had trouble since

 

I've debated whether or not to throw the ARP rod bolts on there. If I do that I'll go with the Clevite P-Series .002" OD oversize bearings, since that's generally with how out of rod the rods are after being torqued down. But I'd need to measure either way.

The bearings are $28 and are Clevite PN #695-CB1776A. The ARP Pro-Series bolts are awesome. Together, they cost a lot less than Katech, and you know it's right once you bolt it back together...

 

the katechs do distort the rods. this has been documented. if you care about the longevity of your engine you'd check your tolerances regardless of what the manufacturer claims.