Re: Rod Reconditioning or Not?

[Tom Watters <tomwatters@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

No bent rods, seem to have been torqued twice.  Once original, once on a 
re-bearing.

I agree on the wrist pins.  Was going to have them check them do a 
look-over when I have them tell me what they can do with the block.  A 
couple were more loose than others.

The car's a cruiser, gettin on it from time to time, and maybe a pass 
down the track or two on a club night. 

--Tom

Steven 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?
>
>
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