is machine work needed for rod bolt swap???
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11 Second Club
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,089
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From: West Linn, Oregon
is machine work needed for rod bolt swap??? So I guess the first question is would I need machine work, then what would the average cost for it be?
OK so I am trying to get my pricing and schedule together for some changes over the winter, and I am upgrading the heads and cam in my car. With that I may be spinning the motor higher then the 6300 that the stock rod bolts like to hold up to, so I was also thinking about upgrading the rod bolts.
Would I need to have the rods machined?
Someone told me that I could pull one bolt at a time and torque down the new one without breaking the rod apart so no machine work would be needed and others have told me that I would have to pull the pistons and rods and have the rods machined and new bearings installed because the rods would be out of round when unbolted. I have no problems having the machine work done if I need to, but I just need an idea of what has to be done. I also see this project snow balling if I pull the pistons, since then why not bump the compression, then do this or do that, I see it getting out of hand quickly...
Any experiances with this would be helpful, thanks...
OK so I am trying to get my pricing and schedule together for some changes over the winter, and I am upgrading the heads and cam in my car. With that I may be spinning the motor higher then the 6300 that the stock rod bolts like to hold up to, so I was also thinking about upgrading the rod bolts.
Would I need to have the rods machined?
Someone told me that I could pull one bolt at a time and torque down the new one without breaking the rod apart so no machine work would be needed and others have told me that I would have to pull the pistons and rods and have the rods machined and new bearings installed because the rods would be out of round when unbolted. I have no problems having the machine work done if I need to, but I just need an idea of what has to be done. I also see this project snow balling if I pull the pistons, since then why not bump the compression, then do this or do that, I see it getting out of hand quickly...
Any experiances with this would be helpful, thanks...
They should be reconditioned when going to an ARP bolt. They do clamp harder so it distorts the big end of the rod and the machine work for the factory bolts is no longer adequite.
I believe the LT1 PM rods are resizeable. It is the fractured cap PM LT4 rods that at one time were not, BUT now that the aftermarket offers fractured cap rods they also offer oversized OD bearings to make fractured cap rods resizeable by simply going bigger. I have no specific knowledge that the aftermarket bearings for resizing the aftermarket fractured cap rods will work in the LT4 rods, but I am aware of no issues that would stop it.
In normal rod resizing a small amount of material is removed from the mating surface to make the hole smaller so they can rehone it to size. A fractured cap rod does not have a machined mating surface, it is just as it sounds, they break the rod big end and that rough break mates much more securely than two flat surfaces. But this means you can't machine those surfaces and make the rod opening smaller, so instead they go bigger and use thicker bearings.
In normal rod resizing a small amount of material is removed from the mating surface to make the hole smaller so they can rehone it to size. A fractured cap rod does not have a machined mating surface, it is just as it sounds, they break the rod big end and that rough break mates much more securely than two flat surfaces. But this means you can't machine those surfaces and make the rod opening smaller, so instead they go bigger and use thicker bearings.
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ive spun stock bolts to 7200...6800 shift points...never spun a bearing...hoestly if your only gogna go 6800 or so go for it...make sure you keep fresh oil in it and decent oil pressure...most ive ever done is refresh a stock bottom end with new bearings and rings and they have been fine for years ofracing.......
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 458
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From: Keller, Texas
ive spun stock bolts to 7200...6800 shift points...never spun a bearing...hoestly if your only gogna go 6800 or so go for it...make sure you keep fresh oil in it and decent oil pressure...most ive ever done is refresh a stock bottom end with new bearings and rings and they have been fine for years ofracing.......
6300 should be no issue with stock rod bolts. btw slowformula nice setup
