The engine can stay in the car for everything, it doesn't need to be pulled at all, the labor will remain the same.

 

well gravy for them then, if they are doing the heads and cam i would think it wouldnt be that much extra, because its not that much extra work to drop the engine vs doing H/C in the car, makes it hella easier with it out, but if you have someone do it all you gotta pay i guess.

 

if i had a tubular K member i might do rod bolts in the car, but wouldnt consider it with a stock k member, the time you spend working around stuff, you could have had it out on and so much easier to work on. but i just like to have room to work rather than stuff in my way, its nothing to drop the engine out of these cars.

 

In stock form, I voted 6500.

I'm an old-school rodder and, to me, anything over 5000rpm is scary. But the way technology has advanced over the years, engines nowadays can perform some really amazing things.

If you go to anyone that specializes in Gen III's, they'll tell you the #1 cause of trouble are the bearings and issues with the rods - 9 out of 10 times it's either because someone made the motor howl at the moon too many times, or due to improper installation/hardware fatigue.

 

Since you are doing rod bolts, spin that bitch to 6800

 

I spun my stock 98 shortblock to 6900 rpms for many many many miles. Damn near every stop sign or stoplight commanded a 6900 rpm shift shortly after taking off. Eventually died from a broken valve spring. Bottom end looked great when everything was taken apart.

 

You can't change the rodbolts with the engine in the car, oil pan has to come off. I would put that $750 towards a forged rotating assembly later, no sense wastin the $600 labor charge twice. I would be more worried about the bearings then rod bolt stretch

 

I vote 6,800. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

Maybe YOU can't change rod bolts with the engine in the car You're right the oil pan does have to come off, but the engine doesn't have to come out to do that, just put the car in the air and lower the k-member until the pan slides out.

 

and the point of only lowering it enough to get the oil pan off is......... to work around everything that you wouldnt have to if you spent 15 extra mins unhooking it and drop it all the way out???????

damn we got off topic here huh

anyway im glad to see you putting bolts in instead of cheaping out and pushing your luck...... now you will have more peice of mind while shifting at 7k cause it sounded like you wanted to anyway.lol

 

6500 seems the 'high' end of safe to me.

 

i spun my cam only car to 7200 RPM on a daily basis.

 

I'm pretty certain 6500 is in the middle of safe. My rev limit is 6500, shift set at 6300 on the bottle, but shifts roughly at 6450. You want to shift shortly after peak power for best ET.

 

Exactly. And when I discussed my setup with Mike @ New Era Performance he told me that he expects to see my car make peak HP around 6600 rpm's. So if the rod bolts can help me spin to 6800 then I can at least shift 200 rpm after peak as apposed to shifting before peak.

And for the guys debating on whether you can change the rod bolts with the engine in the car, here is the write up on that:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-internal-engine/675343-rod-bolt-install-write-up.html

It can be done with the motor in the car. But that is a moot point in my case because New Era would rather pull my motor since it'll make the heads and cam install easier and not mess the cars alignment.

 

well not exactly...to accurately determine shift points, you need to get a dyno graph and work out the numbers. Check what your HP level is at say 6800, determine what the RPM drop is after shifting, and see much HP your making after the shift. Ideally you want your pre-shift HP to match your post shift HP. This typically requires MUCH higher shift points than most people are willing to run BTW but thats what happens when you run pro-stock cam profiles on a street motor...

 

If it is going to break at 6800 it will eventually break at 6500.........my h/c/nitrous car spins to 6700 regularly and I sometimes nail the rev limiter at 7000 Is it good for it.......probably not......I understand it could break, but It has been going for a year and a half like this and I know others that are a lot harder on their stock bottom end cars and have not had a problem.

 

If it was my motor i would forget the rod bolts. I bought them for my 2000 and i talked to 3 different engine shops and all of them told me to leave the stockers until i rebuild the whole bottom end. I have always been told you need to resize the rod ends when you break them loose so why change bolts and run the risk of ******* the bearings up?

I bought new bolts....they still sit in the package until my rebuild. Its your car...do what you want with it.

 

This is actualy a good thread to learn from. Look at the numbers in the voting. No one agrees ..LOL so what conclusion can you draw from that? >>>>>>>

You just cant say what will happen. Start spinning the factory engine to the upper rpms and you run the risk. But thats why its called a risk and not a definate.

Keep your oil clean is about the best thing you can do and then pray you didnt get a motor built on a bad day. I sprayed a 100 shot twice on the dyno and ran a 224 cam and broke mine after a year of thrashing it and shifting at 62-6400. Other have gone way beyond that for a long time and not had issue. Its a roll of the dice, just know your taking a chance.

 

my limiter is at 7000, my shift point is 6800, my peak horsepower is about 6550rpm. On a good day (weather wize) the car doesnt make the shift till right on the 7k mark (automatic). I wanto put it even a bit higher, Just dont always feel the need to take it up that high all the time, exept when duty calls.

 

Here's the thing. When I brought this up with Mike @ New Era Performance he basically said that it's not a bad idea to upgrade the bolts but at the same time he thought it was a waste of money. He says that he has set the shift points between 6500-6800 on a few hundred pre 01 cars and hasn't heard of any issues yet related to the rod bolts.

BUT

I did a search here and saw several threads where the general concensus is that 01-02 are good but with 98-00 cars when you spin 6300+ the bolts stretch and the shortblock fails sooner rather then later. I know that eventually my motor will give and at that time a forged 347 or 383 will be bought from LME. So I guess now the question is this:

Should I spend the $750 on rod bolts now and spin 6800 with some piece of mind or should I put that $750 in the bank as my first deposit towards the forged 347 fund and hope I get two full seasons before the shortblock goes?