[Don Chapman]

These are great rods, was just wondering how many runs some of you have on them?
Obviously HP level of your engine would determine when you want to replace them. Please post your max RPM level, engine size, stroke and Hp level.

[Elarson]

Call Bill. He'll tell you his recommendations for your particular combo. Piston weight factors into it too. In our case (lots of nitrous, 8000+ rpm), 100 runs and out they come, regardless. I'm sure they'd hold together a lot longer, but it's not worth the risk. They still have life left in them for a lower HP application, though.

FWIW,
Eric

[Elarson]

Just got to thinking....Bill has a booth in Indy this week for the IMIS-Indy show. You could go there and have a chat with him......

Eric

[WDCreech]

We had a set in a old 9.90 iron head 469 for 10 years. Between us we put 1000 runs on them. We recond them once or twice though.




Marty

[1qikta]

Believe it or not Bill answers the phone at BME. He is a very easy guy to talk to. That is after you get over the fact that he answered the phone.

He will prob want you to ship your set to him to put a time frame on them.

[goatasaurus rex]

most of us will never approach the rods duty cycle limit regarding horsepower/useage.

[RAIV-Z]

7800RPM
413 CID 4.18 bore X 3.75 stroke
~500 HP at the rear wheels

At least 10K street miles. Not many quarter runs though.
The rods are from the late 80's. Engine was just freshend up, called BME to see if I should reuse the rods and they said at this HP level, the rods didn't know they where out of the box yet.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Bill Miller inspected my BME-396's (750 grams, 2500Hp), said they were so old that they did not have any cores laying around & their modern replacements are about 100grams lighter, so they had no match for my 1 rod with a scored BBC big-end.

I told Bill my application was 10.0 ET or slower with xyz slugs/pins/6500RPM, so he said they would last forever in that Street/strip application.

Either I get all 8 resized for the PMD Rod journal, or I find a single BME-396 (750 grams) with a BBC Big-end. Or get a set of 8 to match my crank. 6.625" HIS

[bobzdar]

I will have to call. I have a set of 6.625" that I was contemplating putting in a road race car, but not sure how they'd hold up. Supposedly they don't handle decel well? Don't know, but the HP/rpm would be way below what they're rated for (450hp, 6500rpm). From what I can gather, they're around 35-40g lighter than the lightweight I-beams out there, want to couple them with the lightest pistons I can find and an aluminum flywheel for maximum responsiveness...

I'm trying to think if I've ever heard of a BME rod breaking...

[440GP69]

The BME-396 series rod in our Blown Alky setup around 1800hp lasted over 2 years and we took the engine apart from vibration and found a pin ripping out of number 8 piston LOL, all the rods were perfect, when we ran Venolia rods we'd rip the caps off of those on decel, Blower motors are really hard on rod caps on Decel at 8500rpm but the BME's keep on ticking, I still think that because they are Forged instead of billit and extremely light weight that allows them to live a long time, i wouldn't hesitate to use them in anything except maybe nascar

[Don Chapman]

So far great stories about the strength and longevity of the rods. Keep them coming.
I will be calling BME about the rods I have. I had heard before some had 1000 passes on their rods and WDCreech confirmed that.

[RUDOLFSSON]

Tons of use.. street and strip. My combo makes 900+ fwhp est.

[jotrout]

This is an interesting thread to me. And I am hijacking the thread because I am approaching this from the Street vs. Racing forum. The research I've done here on PY about aluminum rods shows that folks are either all for them, or are suspect of running them in a street engine.

I acquired a new but older set of BME 396's, for a future 474 build with ported D-ports. I talked to Bill and he said they weighed 720gr-750gr range. He couldn't be sure if they were the old style or the new style 396's without handling them for measurement. BME changed the design of the 396's at some point, and there are a couple of different flavors of these Pontiac rods apparently.

I also have a new set of old Howards, that I was going to use. They have a good reputation also, but I took away from these forums, that the BME's perform and hold up very well, as evidenced here by the racers.

My mild street build will be in the 500-525 hp range with heaps of torque - 520ft lbs +, through 5,600 RPM's. With the mild climate here in California and the low 2,000 street driven miles per year, and I should be good for a long time.

1/2 Inch Stud, sorry to hear about your dilemna. Good luck.

Joe

[GREATGTO]

You cant beat BME's in my opinion, I just put a set of 426's in my new engine..

[Elarson]

Fatigue life of aluminum is a function of the stress level and the number of cycles at that stress. If the stress level is low (such as in street use), they'll live practically forever. It's when the stress is high that they have limited life (big HP, big rpm). About the only thing they're not good for at all is NASCAR-type racing. At 9000+ rpm with the foot to the floor, they would not survive a 500 mile race.

Eric

[bobzdar]

I'm looking at 45 minutes to an hour of constantly running the rpms up and down, still a bit on the fence with that, though rpms will be (relatively) low.

[Bruce Meyer]

I was told by my machinist to never use aluminum rods in a road race car. The problem is heat build up. As an aluminum rod heats up the strength goes down.
Drag racing is not a problem because the rod cools down between runs.
I would definately ask the manufacturer first before using them in a road race application.

[GREATGTO]

A lot of people run aluminum rods on the street and I'm sure they see some heat buildup without any issues, best to call Miller and get his opinion for a road race application..

[Dragncar]

Greatgto, how much do your 426s weigh compared to 396s ?
Whittmore told me he like the 426s a lot more than the 396s.
But I know a guy that has over 400 runs on a set of 396s. Light 69 GTO, runs 9.60s. But he only has 570-600HP.
I have been thinking about running BMEs on my splayed cap 462 with a 65 pound crank and real light Ross fts if I can swing the cash.

[GREATGTO]

Originally Posted by Dragncar

Greatgto, how much do your 426s weigh compared to 396s ?
Whittmore told me he like the 426s a lot more than the 396s.
But I know a guy that has over 400 runs on a set of 396s. Light 69 GTO, runs 9.60s. But he only has 570-600HP.
I have been thinking about running BMEs on my splayed cap 462 with a 65 pound crank and real light Ross fts if I can swing the cash.

I do have the weight written down at Bills shop but I cannot do an accurate comparison because my 426's are longer than standard pontiac and have chevy ends, where as my 396's are 6.625 with pontiac ends. You should just call BME so he can give you a size to size comparison 426's to 396's, if both mine were the same size I would do it but they are not.. For what its worth the 426 rods look a lot meatier than the 396 forgings and with he rod bolt upgrade they are good over 3,500 hp so that says something.