racerdude5
Well-Known Member
Pros and Con's of each?
Personal Experiences?
Reliability and Performance Differences?
Personal Experiences?
Reliability and Performance Differences?
Is there a particular difference between the rods for full floating pins and pressed pins?
For all the screwing around you can buy an aftermarket rod. Don't waste your time bushing a stock rod.
So here's the question. Full floating or pressed fit for 6500 rpm 318 at about 400 HP? Which forging? Magnum vs pre-73 273/318 vs pre-73 340 vs post-73? I'm on a budget so it's crucial to keep cost to a minimum but I still want the best that I can get for the money.
So here's the question. Full floating or pressed fit for 6500 rpm 318 at about 400 HP? Which forging? Magnum vs pre-73 273/318 vs pre-73 340 vs post-73? I'm on a budget so it's crucial to keep cost to a minimum but I still want the best that I can get for the money.
Here's a question.....are the pistons already cut for spirolocks/snap rings? If yes then float the piston, (see if RRR will give you a set of his 273 rods he'll never use) if not, press it. For your stated goal, my opinion is it's a coin toss, your stated rpm is not all that great, nor is power level. I get low coast/budget, I don't see $325-$350 as being "inexpensive", and even with "NEW" rods you should still have the big ends checked for size. I know you can spend a whole lot more than that and I have. I was not letting coast be my guide, I was going for a whole lot more than 6500 rpm and 400 hp.
If I were you, I'd look for a an unmolested donor, pull the rods; date codes/size on the bearings will be the tell of prior work, have the big ends checked for size and if in spec put it together, I'd start with the rods in the "teener" you already have.
FWIW, my own "mean teen" as I call it, got put together with 273 rods that were pulled form one engine and poked into another, only passing thru the wash tank along the way; Desk Top Dyno said it made 450 hp and I bounced it off a 7400 rpm chip more than once.
Just my opinion............
To screw around and correctly rebuild a set of rods is almost as much as new rods. And you still end up with STOCK RODS. That's crazy. If you think any OEM put connecting rods in their basic passenger car,
surface transportation they did not. They used what they engineered to make it past warranty and then build in a factor and called it good.
Don't step over donuts to pick up dog poop.
OP asked for opinions, I gave him mine.......I grant you that Mother Mopar didn't spend lots of money in design, materiel, construction of their rods....in comparison to other factory offerings though, they are are stout....I am of the opinion that if the big end is checked and is in speck to yield a good crush, there is little need to go any further.....I have never seen a broken rod bolt, I've seen broken rods, but not bolts. A mag inspection is a good idea, but I have also by-passed that on more than one occasion with no ill effects. A while ago a member from Oz posted a question about how much a stock rod could take.....he claimed he was pushing upwards of 700 hp on a stock rod in a boosted turbo application....I commented that I thought he had already defined for us what a stock rod would take.......he could have been lying, who knows....what I took away from all of it was that hp is not your first enemy in engine death, it is rpm, YR you yourself have stated in the past that anything less than 8000rpm is nothing........so the OP's 6500 estimate is just off idle to you and I think is well with in the capabilities of a stock rod.
Again, my opinion......
Money should not be the reason to not buy aftermarket rods.
You gotta have it (money) first, for it not to be a reason...................
Damn. If 50 bucks you don't have, because I can go on the web right now and find rods for 350 bucks and you'd be lucky to CORRECTLY rebuild a set of stock rods for that, then you need to go golfing.
OP asked for opinions, I gave him mine.......