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This is a pretty cool idea and can see how it would help with piston rock and wear! Would love to see a back to back dyno with only change would be the rods
“The two-piece con rods are heavier than standard items, creating additional inertial forces that will increase substantially as the engine revs faster, so there's a good chance that even if there are low-end gains, they might come at the expense of high-RPM horsepower.”
This would be my biggest concern how much weight do they actually add and how that hurts the rpm’s it can turn
the LS is a popular drop-in engine for tuners, it's not optimized to take maximal advantage of the Thunder Rod design, and eventually the company hopes to see what it can do with purpose-designed cranks, cylinder heads and pistons.
You will never see an LS engine on a dyno with these in it. Anyone want to bet?
The only thing those do is take the long rod advantage out of a long rod engine. For example a 400 small block compared to a 350. Theres a reason people made long rod 400's and not short rod 350's.
There's no difference between this and a piston with a very tall compression height but no extra skirt length.
I wouldn't spend a dollar on it, but I would wait for more results. The fact that motor wanted so much ignition timing is a sign that efficiency is being sacrificed. The reciprocating weight is a huge negative too. I'm just not seeing the advantages.
if this idea had merit Formula 1 would have done it a million years ago.
Last edited by DualQuadDave; Nov 16, 2022 at 07:32 AM.
At best these are absolute B.S, but its looking more like a SCAM. They haven't built an engine, or a test bed, or anything like that, they have made some CGI animation in Pro-E, and a WAIT LIST, that's it. Absolute scam.
I love how it says it will eliminate piston rock when it will put a MASSIVE torque moment on the piston as it goes up and down. Gone is the side-load, now we have SIDE TORQUE!!!
as mentioned earlier, seems like this is more of a truck/moving weight type thing vs a go fast type thing. most likely severe trade offs above 5000 rpms
Very interesting concept. Time will tell, I guess. Ya never know. I was rebuilding my 1947 Martin twin cylinder two stroke outboard, and it has POPPET INTAKE AND EXHAUST VALVES! IN A 2 STROKE!!! Cam ground on the crank! Who knew???!!
Very interesting concept. Time will tell, I guess. Ya never know. I was rebuilding my 1947 Martin twin cylinder two stroke outboard, and it has POPPET INTAKE AND EXHAUST VALVES! IN A 2 STROKE!!! Cam ground on the crank! Who knew???!!
Interesting. My newer Stihl equipment has the same setup in a 2 stroke, but I never would have guessed it was around in 1947.
Interesting. My newer Stihl equipment has the same setup in a 2 stroke, but I never would have guessed it was around in 1947.
You know what they always say, Scott. What's old is new again. Interesting read for forum members, should you pursue it, is a read on M.E. George Martin. Martin outboards came out in 1946. Here I thought the auto industry was cutthroat!! Check out Carl Kiekhaefer, Mercury outboard founder, who also invented the paper air filter element! He ran the Nascar team for Hudson and the Flocks, Tim and Fonty, of "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" fame. Kiekhaefer is a REALLY interesting read!!!! Sorry for off topic rant......
One of the Japanese car manufacturers developed something like that. I remember reading it briefly before. Not sure if it’s the exact same thing or not.
I think it’s a interesting idea. I would be skeptical about durability with more moving parts. If anyone ever sees any dyno data, please share it here on ‘Tec
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New 2-piece rods for LS engines 
