Re: Rod Reconditioning or Not?

[Tom Watters <tomwatters@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Rich,

How much were they looking for them to be re-conditioned.  I havent 
priced them in quite awhile.

The last 440 I built about 5 years ago, The engine went thru oil and you 
checked the gas, but the rods were true without any need for change.  So 
just reused them.

I've seen small block re-conditioned rods for as low as $100/set 
before.   The small block eagles are much more than that.

--Tom

Rich Kinsley wrote:
> When I built my engine I found that the cost of reconditioning the old 
> rods was barely cheaper than the Eagle SIR6123CB rods. Plus they were 
> 115gms lighter, 50% stronger and came with the ARP fasteners included. 
> Seemed like a no-brainer to me.
>
> Rich Kinsley '64 Dodge Polara 4dr 318poly w/goodies
>
> =====================================================================
> Steve Charette wrote:
>   
> > Tom,
> > 	I would not arbitrarily replace the wrist pins - they are either
> > good or bad.  I've personally never seen a lot of bad wrist pins.  And 
> > if
> > the rods are bent, you can usually read that in the bearings on 
> > tear-down.
> >
> > 	As far as rod reconditioning, I would base my decision on how you
> > plan to use the motor.  If it's just a cruiser, it's probably fine.  If
> > you're beating it up and down the 1320, I'd definitely have them
> > reconditioned and install new bolts.  Rod bolts are only good for 3
> > torquings - each time they are torqued they stretch a little and after
> > repeated stretching they work harden and are prone to failure.
> >
> > 	That said we used to build what we called "grenade motors".
> > Basically pull it down (383, 413, 440, didn't matter), clean it up, 
> > berry
> > brush the cylinders, swap banks on the pistons, and put it back 
> > together.
> > Screw on a high volume oil pump and go racin'.  Funny, we never grenaded
> > one.  Fastest one I had ran 11.40's in a 3200 lb Fleet Special with a
> > hydraulic camshaft and a six-pack, of all things - shooting ducks all 
> > the
> > way through 3rd gear.  A couple of weeks after that we were pitted in 
> > front
> > of Mr. John Tedder hisself and after looking the car over he said "you
> > should get rid of that six-pack".  I had a cast iron manifold and a 750
> > Holley center section in the truck that we had cannibalized for parts 
> > for
> > the six pack - we had the 4bbl up and running before first round of
> > eliminations.  We won both bracket two and "King of the Hill" that day.
> >
> > 	I'm gonna have to find that picture and put it up on my Facebook
> > page :)
> >
> > 	Anyway, if you're going to have the rods completely reconditioned
> > (new bolts, straighten, grind the caps/resize and the whole nine yards) 
> > you
> > may want to compare prices to a set of aftermarket H-beams.  I've been
> > buying them on eBay when I can get 'em cheap ($250-$300 is my target 
> > price
> > range).  Have had equally good luck with Eagles and Scat.
> >
> > SC
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tom Watters [mailto:tomwatters@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3:23 PM
> > To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Rod Reconditioning or Not?
> >
> > When I disassembled my '65 Block, #6 rod had spun bearing. I have a 
> > spare
> > rod from another engine, in sme condition as the other 7 rods that I 
> > have.
> >
> > I plan to turn the rod journals crank before I put it back together.
> >
> > Should I just replace the wrist pins and use the rods as-is, or must 
> > they be
> > re-conditioned?  The block has about 80K miles on it.  The extra Rod I 
> > have
> > was reconditioned about 2000 miles before it was taken down.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> >
> >     
>
>
>
> Rich Kinsley '64 Dodge Polara 4dr 318poly w/goodies
>
>
> ----
> Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic.  Thanks!
>
> 1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
> http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html. 
>
>