Thread: ? about stock sbc rod bolt's

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Since the rods are out and the bolts easy to install go ahead and do it for peace of mind. And since you are buying new ones you might as well step up to the stronger ARPs.

At your rpm range and intended usage you would probably never have a problem with the used bolts as long as none of them have been over-streached in the past. If you are the first one to ever take this engine apart that is probably not a concern.

My opinion is that too much emphesis is being put on installing race strength parts in mild rebuilds that will rarely, if ever, see the sort of abuse that requires these excessively heavy duty items. Lord knows that the aftermarket advertising campaigns and the magazine builds have done an excellent job convincing us over the years that our engines won't live even going to the grocery store without all new high zoot internals sold by their advertisers.

Just ask yourself how many trillions of miles the millions of small blocks built sine 1955 have traveled with "stock" components. Many of those were high performance solid lifter engines intended to be run hard at high rpm. What do you suppose the failure ratio between the number of rod bolts that have let go and the total number of miles driven by all small blocks since 1955 is? You probably have a better chance of hitting the Power Ball every day for a week or more than to break a rod bold while driving down the road at less than 5500 rpm. More than likely even then it would be something else that initiated the failure.

Just my opinion,
Tom