02WS6Bird

iTrader: (2)

ARP need resizing from my understanding. Katech Inc makes the OE replacement heavy duty rod bolts

kossuth

iTrader: (12)

Many just swap em over and have never had a problem. Many say they need resized, I'd like to know why people say they need resized. I've put a few motors together in the past and don't see why the bolt would make a difference. In a traditional motor the rod and cap have a machined surface where the cap can slide alittle. The shoulder on the bolt is what holds it in place there and yes you would have to resize the rod in that case. On the LS1 cracked rod it pretty much can only go in one way because every rod cap is unique to that it's matching rod. If somebody can explain it to me I'm all ears

mr2guru

iTrader: (16)

I was thinking along those lines also.

cam

iTrader: (9)

I just swapped in Katechs yesterday. I have the engine on a stand so its easy but i didnt see any ferulles at all. The engines a 99 so I dont know if that has anything to do with it but i measured the stock bolt length vs the Katechs and they are identical overall and from the shoulder to the bottom of thread. I pulled out the stockers one at a time and lubed up the bolts with supplied lube then did the 30 lb' torque down and loosen process twice then torqued them to 50 lb' and that was that. Then I read this post about ferrules and got me wonderin?

Tasty lookin bolts I must say.

kossuth

iTrader: (12)

Your motor might not have the ferulles in it eithor. They stopped doing it on the 98 motors but if you have a left over 98 bottom end (happens all the time) then it's possible you didn't have the ferulles. If none of the old rod bolts had em I'd pull one of the new bolts out and take a look and see.

Relativelyfast

What is a ferulle? I'm going to do this swap soon too.

cam

iTrader: (9)

After reading this thread today i did some more searching and my stock rod bolts had grooves/waves all the way to the shoulder which are apparently the same as 98 bolts which had no ferule so I feel safe. I checked for sure there was no ferules in there musta been an early run 99. All good

02Z28

iTrader: (11)

How will it mess up the bearing?

cam

iTrader: (9)

BLARG! After speaking with Jason at katech I popped one of my rod bolts back out to have a peak and dang it all there is ferulles in there. Now I cant seem to get the sucker outta there. Figure I should yank em out while I'm at it.

I'm all ears to anyones ideas on how to remove them? They're stuck in there tighter than a @#$%&*

02Z28

iTrader: (11)

I used the old rod bolts to pull them out. Threaded them in there a few turn, then used pliers to pull it out.

Relativelyfast

again, what is a ferulle?

bichin95redta

"Are the arp "cracked rod" rod bolts a direct swap or is resizing needed?"

They are a direct swap....simple cap screw design. I may be wrong, but I do not think it is possible to re-size a cracked-cap rod.

I have read two, totally opposite opinions about swapping rod bolts. Some speed shops say it is perfectly fine. Others say that, even if you do not remove the cap, the very act of relieving the torque on the cap, causes the big-end to change shape. This causes the rod bearings to torque up to the crank journals with differences in dimensions, than when they were originally torqued at the factory. Everybody knows that the LS1 has oiling problems. Cam bearings fail prematurely more often than you know. You don't neeed this happening to your bottom-end.

Yes, many have replaced just the rod bolts, and have had no problems. There are many speed shops that refuse to do this job, or, at the very best, will not guarantee results.

Lithium

iTrader: (47)

not my pic...i wish it was atleast lol. But yeah those are them.

02WS6Bird

iTrader: (2)

so for the Katech rod bolts are the ferrules to be removed or left in?

cam

iTrader: (9)

Hmm I cant see how my bolts would work they slid quite easilly by hand out past the ferulles. Only thing I could thread into is the rod itself but i dont mind your bolt idea if i can find a SAE bolt thats a whisker larger and it bites into the ferulle enough that might work. Dunno worth a try.

I was thinking about jerry rigging up some kind of puller. Regardless whatever I do i will post up how i get them out for anyone elses curiosity.

Still wouldn't mind hearing other ideas in the meantime

92zcamaroperson

iTrader: (18)

So for arp rod bolts it has been concluded that they are a direct swap and the ferrules must be removed right?

Does katech make main bolts? And if I use them do I have to get the block line bored like I would with the arp studs?

cam

iTrader: (9)

The consensus as i see it is to remove them. Some guys haven't and had good luck but from what I gather it cant hurt to remove them but it can if you leave them in. So i'm taking mine out

The Katech bolts are slightly larger diameter than the stock bolts and do not fit through the stock ferulles ( little sleeves in pic above ) so the Katech bolts push the ferulle down. It doesn't push it nearly far enough to get into the threads and damage them but it may affect the final torque value as there is some resistance to push them down. Mine had a little concave effect on the top of the ferulle afterwards.

Greg_E

iTrader: (4)

What supplied lube was that? The instructions say to use 30W oil. I mistakenly used ARP molylube when I installed mine. I happened to go to the ARP site, and saw that torque specs are different depending on whether you use 30W oil or the molylube (molylube requires less torque). I contacted Katech, and they told me that they had no specs for torqueing their rod bolts using molylube. They told me to remove the bolts, wash the molylube out of the threads and use the 30W oil. That came from the president of Katech.

cam

iTrader: (9)

Mine came with a tube of lube. Not moly just some thin high pressure grease of some kind. Figured if they went through the trouble of putting it in the package it must be the stuff to use. Guess I will find out soon enough