Shot peening and connecting rod polishing

[Fotowntalon]

I hope he meant $30 per rod, $30 for 4 rods, including time to shotpeen, re-honing, and reworking the bolts.. either someone is taking a labor or doesn't know what they are doing.

 

[biglady112]

The $30 was for ARP rod bolts. There was no work needed on the rods I had machined as the ARP's went in just like stock. I guess you have never heard of people installing arp rod bolts in from the bottom of the car with out taking the motor apart.

I may have forgot more than most people ever learn over the years, but as many of these rods I have had in my hands over the past 13 years they all sure appear to be stamped steel/cast to me. And I have seen plenty that have been broken. The markings look identical to my Suzuki Samurai rods sitting here. Are you guys telling me my Samurai has forged rods?

 

[RWD4G63]

The $30 was for ARP rod bolts. There was no work needed on the rods I had machined as the ARP's went in just like stock. I guess you have never heard of people installing arp rod bolts in from the bottom of the car with out taking the motor apart.

I may have forgot more than most people ever learn over the years, but as many of these rods I have had in my hands over the past 13 years they all sure appear to be stamped steel/cast to me. And I have seen plenty that have been broken. The markings look identical to my Suzuki Samurai rods sitting here. Are you guys telling me my Samurai has forged rods?

I don't know about your Samurai, but stock 4g rods are most definitely forged. Stamped steel would look wayyyy different, and cast steel would have a very thin parting line, and our rods have a very wide one. They also ring when tapped with something metal. Cast rods won't do that.

 

[biglady112]

You guys keep pretending you know what you are talking about. I have had both a broken and cut stock rod, broken and cut forged H beam steel rod, and broken and cut forged aluminum rod in my hands. I have seen the difference first hand. I am moving on. That is the bad thing about having 60,000 members on your board, everyone is an expert because the internet tells them so.

 

[bastarddsm]

Lol. Who shit in who's cheerios today. I can't comment on forged or cast rods, but here's what I do know. $58 to resize 4 rods, and swap a piston sounds really cheap. With most shops getting $60+ an hr, they are spending only an hr on the whole deal, which is no where near long enough to do a good job.

Also, biglady, you make it sound like they reconditioned the rods with pistons attached. I hope thats not what your saying.

I'm pretty sure ARP rod bolts cost more than $30, maybe not but I thought they were like $50 10 years ago. We all know you can put them in without having the rod resized, but your risking the journal being out of round. When that happens usually it spins a bearing, junking your crank and rod.

Finally, polishing and shot peening will increase the strength of the rods. It helps on the order of about 25%, What it helps the most is the fatigue strength, meaning the rods stay stronger longer. It was traditionally used on V8 stuff that had cast iron rods, and good rods were prohibitively expensive. The extra strength and durability was just enough to get them to last in a hot street motor.

So yes it can help on our rods, but whats the point. We have many many people over 500whp on stock rods. In oem form they are plenty strong enough for 90% of the people out there, why fix something that's not broken. Finally, if you are really going to push it and get above 500whp, why not spend a few extra dollars and get something that will handle anything that you can throw at it?

I'll continue to run my eagle rods and not worry about a small tuning error oiling down my tires, and possibly killing me.

 

[biglady112]

My price was $35.xx after tax.

Here they are on extremepsi
EXTREME PSI : Your #1 Source for In Stock Performance Parts

I never once negated the fact that shot peening is an improvement. But with the options we have for the prices we have, just buy a quality rod. I have run reconditioned factory rods a handful of times. But if you can't make them live near 500hp or more out of the box, you aren't going to make them live by shot peening them.

I threw the receipt away, but it was $58 out the door MONDAY for four rods to get prepped and the swap a cracked piston. I live in Denver, so that probably has something to do with it. Of course there are places I won't go in town because they are sky high. We have never had a failure come from this particular place however. Everything is top notch we get from these guys.

If you replace the rod bolts one at a time, the rod cap never breaks loose. How your entire journal gets messed up on a running engine must be over my head, but my statement about some of these people speaking out of their ass still stands. I have been building and racing these turds since the 90's now, I have certainly been around the block. And unlike probably everyone in this thread, we actually travel the country and race with our dsms and have VERY stringent service intervals for the four or five cars we play with. I have never done arp's in the car to my own engines, but been in the garage when friends have and the car goes on its merry way when the oil pan goes back on.

I speak all these things from actual experience. We have had to some very backyard type stuff on the road in the middle of no where. I always laugh when people talk about a white glove engine room(recondition with pistons still attached, no big deal actually as we only need the big end freshened up). We have had to rebuild an entire engine in the back of a school bus in the middle of the night in the windy and dusty texas desert, using nothing more than regular tools, sos pad and steel wool and a mini parts cleaning tank. That car was torn down at 9pm and made a 180mph run at the Texas Mile by 10am the next day. After we had to do a headgasket first thing after it fired up. Not to mention munching a transmission at the Bonneville Salt Flats and taking two spares, swapping the best of what we had on a tarp sitting on the salt, with nothing more than air tools, a screw driver and a hammer.

Now off my rant. Please just make sure everything is straight and square if you intend to use factory parts. You are just wasting money of you intend to polish and shot peen. Unless you polish them yourself and you have nothing better to do and want them to look good so no one will ever see them.

 

[92awddsm]

You guys keep pretending you know what you are talking about. I have had both a broken and cut stock rod, broken and cut forged H beam steel rod, and broken and cut forged aluminum rod in my hands. I have seen the difference first hand. I am moving on. That is the bad thing about having 60,000 members on your board, everyone is an expert because the internet tells them so.

I appreciate you telling all of us that we don't know what we are talking about. If you are gonna talk down to people, just don't speak at all.

 

[herms99gst]

This was just a topic that i was intetested in. After looking into it the cost is pointless. It makes more sense if you are refurbishing a 350$ + rod. Im just going to resize the rod bolts and install my 2g pistons for a nasty streetbuild. W