Chevy Rods

[Chicken Wing]

Hey guys, now Ive already got myself a set of argo rods and yes they are amazing, but I cant help but wonder if the grass is greener with these guys:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nice...yZ107063QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Titanium rods are always exciting, but these are for a chevy small block, length is pretty good, im confident you could grind the journal to that size but what about the offset?
Lex, you mentioned using SBC rods in your project, and you purchased a carrillo set, how did you go about making them work?

Thanks guys, Jozef.

Oh, I cant remember if we were allowed to post hyperlinks here, axe it if you need to Lex, thanks.

 

[Lextreme II]

Those wont work. You need small journal version and they are hard to find and cost alot more. After you get them, you still need to mod the rods in order to make it work. The final cost will be very similar to the Argo Rods.

 

[XR8tt]

Eagle make titanium Honda rods with smaller journal but cost to make them fit adds up..
Spool rods are about the cheapest I know of, they don't make specific 1UZ rods. Nearly every other Jap engine though...
Possibly could use one of these with custom pistons ??
http://www.spoolimports.com/content/SPOOLCONRODRANGE.asp

 

[Zuffen]

Argo roda aren't that expensive and they fit correctly and are proven.

By the time you buy and modify any other rod you will have spent more than the Argo's would cost.

 

[Chicken Wing]

Yeah i think ill just stick with the argos, after a little bit of research it seems its not worth the effort, and if the effort was even applied i doubt im going to top argos quality anyway.

I got one of your group buy sets Zuffen, not direct from you but I gotta thank you anyway!

 

[Zuffen]

Wing,

That's what Forums are supposed to be about.

Helping each other.

 

[Jaco]

I can`t help but wonder why do you want to change the rods?
I think the std rod with arp bolts can take most of what we can give it.
Mabe if you are planning 2bar boost or 8500+ rpm.
Has anyone broken a std rod?
Is it a weak point in the motor?

Ive boosted 4age motors 2.4bar at 8500rpm with stock rods.

 

[Zuffen]

People have broken 1UZ rods.

They are good for around 600hp if you don't rev it too hard (that is over 7,500) as the revs kill them more than brute power.

Calling them a weakness is all relative to the strength of the rest of the motor. These are one tough engine and the rods just happen to be the part that may fail first.

Melted pistons are also on the list of things to break but usually due to bad tuning.

Pleanty of people on this Forum get more than 600hp out of an unopened engine but they also have excellent tunes for their engines.

 

[Chicken Wing]

There have also been a few revisions to the xUZ design itself.

That is, post 1995 the rods got mysteriously smaller, and are notoriously weak especially under boost, (TRD had to stop sales of their TRD supercharger kit as people were breaking rods from factory).

Check this out: http://www.lextreme.com/rods.html

Ive got a 3UZ, meaning skinny rods....and required a new set to reach my power levels.

All depends how far you want to go...

 

[Jaco]

Thax for your input.
I know the pistons in`t that strong, simular to the series1 4age.
freind of mine broke his pistons in sthe same way that those in the link that Chicken wing sent. I agree forced induction needs presice tuning (a fine art)

About the rods getting thinner, toyota did the same thing in the 4age engines, with the later 20v motors having a rod so thin i`m afraid to look at it! yet they can rev 8500 all day. Maby they are made of stronger material, or has some sort of treatment to strengthen them.
But looking at those pics i would`nt trust those rods.

 

[Zuffen]

Jaco,

You need to look at the intended use of the engine Toyota put the rods in.

The 20V was built for boy racers to thrash whilst the UZ series was for Tokyo taxi's and hauling around big heavy sedans.

That's why the heads on the UZ aren't conducive to high revs as they were never intended to rev to 9,000 where it was expected the 20V would see the red line almost daily.

We're asking an engine t do what it wasn't designed to do and have to work with what we have or can change.

 

[Jaco]

I was onley trying to piont out the relationship between rod thicness and strength is strange.