Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO-relic
ARP bolts,
dimples on face of small end, big end from hardness tester
worth it for what you get
$100 for the cores, $100 for heat treat, $200 for shot peen/mag/resize, $100 for the ARP bolts.
$500 for MADE IN USA rods.
although that was 2019.
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What are we doing here ? This is not 1982.
You can not heat treat mild steel into good steel. And even IF you could those rubber rods are spindly in comparison to the cheapest offshore 5140 steel rods.
450 $, check over and be done with it.
Spend 300 $ more and get a Molnar rod which you will not have to put another dime into and will handle more horsepower than any OEM block can handle.
These engines done right cost FAR too much money not to mention the time it takes to do it all yourself to try and make a rod that was not done right in the first place, right. And it can not be done anyway.
NOS is not the thing that has sent the most of our wonderful Pontiac blocks to the scrap yard. Its trying to race cast garbage rods without a clue.
I watched a racer I knew take a 455 out of the junkyard, knurl the pistons and slap a big cam, headers, T1 and a 750 on and try and race. And laughed when he blew a rod out of the pan so hard it dented the frame.
Fools like that ruined blocks.
Its not the early 80s. Cast rods belong in stock engines. Rubber rods, even heat treated belong in nice numbers matching show cars that do not get driven much.