[Jazz]

Does anyone know what HP stock Pontiac rod will take.
( the later 400 rods ).

[carcrazy]

Some have run them in 500-600 horsepower motors and not had a problem. Others have had issues at stock HP levels. Personally I would never take the chance much past stock HP. Too many great low cost alternatives out there these days!

[geeteeohguy]

Watched a friend's bone stock '67 GTO blow a rod and take out the cam and block at about 1100 rpm pulling out of a driveway.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Back in the old days, we had very few choices when it came to connecting rods. You either tried to find the VERY strong but VERY expensive 455SD rods, sold your children to buy a set of Carillo rods, used aluminum rods knowing they WOULD work harden or rebuilt the stock rods with good bolts. Today, you can buy a set of FORGED 5140 replacement rods about the same price of magnafluxing, resizing and replacing the bolts in stock rod not to mention they're STRONGER as well.

[WARPed]

as said above - replace them if you are in your motor anyway. Even the rot-gut 5140 rods are still light years ahead and so close in price to doing anything to the stock rods that it would seem silly not to.

[p4msi1]

Well, I don't run stock rods now, but through the 90's I did. Ran mid 12's at the track and would street race weekends. 125 nos shot on the throttle and another 175 on a button 10.50's@ 127.I did this for years and as a matter of fact in the last year we street raced we upped the nos to 250 and 250. that same 455 block and crank is in my son-in-laws' car running 12.0@118 today. ARP rod bolts and 80 psi oil pump is my secret. Never spun a bearing and never broke a rod. On the opposite side, I built a 455 with crower rods with agressive tune and 2 years after, spun a bearing. My point is this, in most cases its not the parts but the bad tune. Proper build, proper tune = happy engine.

[PONTIAC DUDE]

It's not the HP that determines the ability of the rod to stand up.

Stroke
Compression
RPM
rotating weight
load
etc.

For the added protection at $259.00 a set, the aftermarket I-bean STEEL rod is worth the price of admission.

http://store02.prostores.com/servlet...0-Stock/Detail

[Half-Inch Stud]

If we all were gunning for maximum HP @ 5250 RPM (picked a "low" number) then I think the PMD iron rods would play a very long time.

CAP Feature: The Iron Rod Cap is STIFF enough to stay round to such "low" RPM.
Rod Feature: Strong In Compression, can take the POWER loads. Can Stay round.

Drawback: small bolts, with Nuts, Mandatory to limit RPM.

DEVELOPMENT: Has Anyone looked to Tap the Iron rods for larger Rod bolts, nutless?

I know it's a bit silly, but those rods were made from a consistent Armasteel production-controlled alloy, and are plentiful.

[steve25]

Tapping a cast iron/ armasteel rod for threads will create so many sharp edged staring points for cracks that I would bet you would have rods failing at half the amount of power / rpm that they can handle with bolts!!

Unless I was building a motor these days that made all of its power below 5400 rpm and was packing the cylinders NA, that would be when the stockers are OK LONG TERM.

Pontiac motors where only put into production after they had passed the test of running at 4500 rpm for 24 hours, a additional 1000rpm should be no long term problem for them when a constant peak rpm above 4500 is held only for a few seconds.
That being said, these few seconds add up over the years and these days if you can not afford to stuff new fordged rods in a build you should hold off untill you can!