Connecting Rods
1)What's the difference in H and I beam connecting rods? Whats the advantages and disadvantages of each and what applications should they be used with?
2)I keep seeing 5.7 and 6.0 rods but I'm not sure which would be used if going w/ a 383 stroker crank.
3)What is bushed pistons pin and pressed piston pin? Advantages and disadvantages?
4)What forged steel is better to go with because I have seen 5140 steel and 4340 steel
2)you can use either length just get pistons to match
3)not sure which is better
4)If I am not wrong most ppl just go with the 4340 because it is strong enough for most anything one mill build
Everyone keeps saying this is good up to X horsepower, Its not the horsepower, Its the RPM you need to spin to get there, If you make 425 horses by 5800-6000 RPM, Stock rods with ARP bolts are fine with a good balance job. A lot of money is wasted on rods, cranks and such that is not needed, I would go with Forged Pistons though...
On a performance build I would just go to bushed rods, pressed require some special equipment to assemble and all shops should have it why pay extra for them to go through a little more difficult procedure when it has no benifits. Put it this way stock stuffg is pressed, performance stuff is generally bushed.
Given equal cross sectional area and the same material, the I-beam and the H-beam will have equal tensile and compressive strength. The I beam design will have superior bending characteristics. The H-beam may be stronger in torsion but your pistons do not impart much of a torsional load unto the rod.
Most all high end max effort rods are a variation of the I-beam design, Oliver, Crower, Lunati etc.
Last edited by TT632; Apr 28, 2008 at 01:06 AM.
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Never mind stock block rebuild I reread your post and seen you are thinking +nitrous.
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Any of the 4340 forged rods from Lunati, Oliver or Eagle will work beyond the power level you want.
6" rods are fairly common with 383's. I have 6" rods in both my 421 and 383.
No disadvantage with bushed rods, only good.
Go with one of sponsers here if they support the LT1. Check for negative feed back.


Crower, Lunati Pro Mods, etc...
