Thread: ? about stock sbc rod bolt's

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Got a ? about stock rod bolt's, this week i had my stock rod's from my 350 sbc reconditioned and pressed onto my KB piston's, but i believe that i forgot to tell the mechinest to put new ARP rod bolt's in before he did the work. So now i have reconditioned rod's pressed onto new KB piston's, with stock rod bolt's. The ? is will these stock rod bolt's hold up to the range of 350 hp. in an engine that will problebly never see daylight over 5500 rpm's. The engine is 350 sbc .030, with S/R torquer head's, and around 9.2:1 c/r with a miled cam.

Originally posted by bowtieorbust
Got a ? about stock rod bolt's, this week i had my stock rod's from my 350 sbc reconditioned and pressed onto my KB piston's, but i believe that i forgot to tell the mechinest to put new ARP rod bolt's in before he did the work. So now i have reconditioned rod's pressed onto new KB piston's, with stock rod bolt's. The ? is will these stock rod bolt's hold up to the range of 350 hp. in an engine that will problebly never see daylight over 5500 rpm's. The engine is 350 sbc .030, with S/R torquer head's, and around 9.2:1 c/r with a miled cam.

you should replace them, but if the stock ones are new i would use them.

Well if you use them, as I always like to say " When the parts start flyin, don't come cryin "

You should be able to swap out the bolts with the pistons on the rods. To remove the old bolts I clamp the rods in a vice between two blocks of wood and tap them out with a hammer. To insert the ARP bolts I position the rod over a half inch hole in a metal table and tap them in with a hammer. Easier if the piston is off.

Or you could use the crankshaft as a mandrell, torque both bolts up to torque specs, loosen 1 nut off and tap out the bolt, then replace it with an ARP item, torqe the arp and then do the same to the other side. Buuutt !! I probably wouldnt do it this way, because I would allways be wondering if the rod big ends were still round or possibly distorted. It just comes down to a case of what your willing to do.

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

(Brovo) 39Deluxe for that sound advice, i feel even more at ease now with my stock rod bolt's, even though after installing #1 and #2 piston the bolt's torqued up so far just fine. It's just that when i tried to sink the third piston in the hole, the bottom oil scraper ring some how managed to get wedged between the piston and the cylinder and bent it. Leave it up to a junky ring compressor.

that reminded me 39 deluxe, when i first started round tracking i blew up more motors than i care to think about, with to much comp. and to many rpms and i kepted on buying bigger and better stuff, untill i finely got the comp. and rpms right, but by then i couldnt afford the best stuff anymore so i ended up running junk stuff the rest of the yr., but you know once i got everything right i couldnt blow that motor up. that old junk held up just fine. what im trying to say is if everything is wrong then nothing will hold up , but if it is right then you dont need all of the high dollar stuff.

Here's one of the best investments I ever made bowtieorbust. I never had pistons go in so slick in my life.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...6.jpg.orig.jpg

Here's the finished short block assembled with stock fasteners.

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/...achmentid=2983

For an overview of the complete build folow this link. I'm still waiting on the heads to come back from the shop.

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/...6&page=1&pp=30

Sorry for all the links but for some reason I can't get the pictures to show up by doing a copy/paste in the IMG box.

It has been a lot of years since I put together an engine and I learned a lot about what is available today in the process. I just hope I got the combo right for a nice running mild performance engine for my truck.

My next engine project for the '59 Vette is going to be much more high performance and I won't use any fasteners over. But I intend it to live through some open track days and I'd love to take it out to Utah and get it salty. That new vintage class looks very interesting.

Tom