How many of you guys are running big cams with stock rod bolts on a older LS1 ?

Ive been throwing around the idea of finally sliding the ms4 in I bought almost a year ago without changing the rod bolts, what you guys think?

 

do it mang.have a big one on my m6 but since our track closed 2 yrs ago havent rev it 2 7k rpm .

 

not me i done when i had the small cam.....seen too many "spun a bearing"threads.....

but alot have done it...I guess its a peace of mind thing.....

90 bucks arp bots
oil pan gasket 20 bucks


engine thousands....


the kmember isnt that bad to drop.....

 

well my short block making over 600 rwhp is on stock bolts, and it is a 1999 car. been spinning to 7200 rpm for the last season with a t-rex cam and no issues. all in the tune and if you drive it every day or on the weekends.

 

RPM is what does it. Just get a nice power under the curve cam so you don't have to spin it to 7k+.

 

I honestly think it is a "feel safer" factor for most. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to gaurentee that a rod bolt won't or can't break, but I know many people running good size cams, including myself, with stock rod bolts and spinning to 7k with no problems for multiple racing seasons.

 

You never seen any "Didnt spin a bearing" threads. You usually only ever see the bad threads. I doubt most any of the problems you see on certain topics affect more than 5% of poeple

 

^^^ LOL , when you play you break things. It just goes along with playing. Some play harder than others and dont break things and some dont have that kind of luck. I saw 3 different engines last week with broken rods, ok well two I saw the carnage photos of, one I'm selling an engine to the guy. Its called stress and fatigue and the oem parts are only made to handle so much.

 

I've been spinning my G5X3 powered SS for 5 years now to 6800. However I feel i've tempted fate long enough the motor is out so I have a set of Katech's to drop in.

 

There is really alot of debate about this if you search. The ARP's are a little bigger and heavier and even ARP recomends to resize the rod ends after installing their bolts. A lot on here are running them successfully without resizing though The Katechs on the other hand require no resizing and are almost the same weight as stock and are a direct replacement. They are pricey though and when I looked at them last year they were on backorder. If I were going to do it bolt in stock bottom = katech and rebuild = ARP.

 

thanks for the input guys, looks like on my next off days the cam may be going in.
I dont drive the car much and when I do its pampered most of the time,so the amount of time its in those higher rpms are alot less than alot of other cars so im hoping I'll be ok..