jtearp

Through a rather unfortunate set of circumstances the motor is out of my car and being rebuilt. Its an 06 z06 with cam, ported heads, 102 intake, ported throttle body, and long tubes. I was definitely going to put a set of forged pistons in, but was wondering if I should put forged rods and a new forged crank in the car. The car made 590 wrhp and should make similar when put back together. How much power will the stock rods and crank reliably hold? I assume the rods are the weak link. Its a NA motor and with the compression it makes if I did a power adder later if would most likely be nitrous (don't see myself spraying more than 200 or so though). Would this be a time bomb waiting to go off or would it hold together? Thanks for the opinions.

FYI - the car will be mostly street driven (driven most days when the weather is nice) with an occasional trip to the drag strip or track day event.

RGT

Stock rods and crank should be fine for your application. I would not go with more than a 100 shot though.

snappy28

Why would GM use titanium rods if they were weak. Titanium is hella expensive and seems to be a bit exotic than the old cast rods that used to be in my LS1 and LS2 engines.. What am I missing here?

FNQWK

i went thru the same. kept stock rods/crank but went with diamond nitrous pistons. i also have 100 shot on tap.(never sprayed tho,except on dyno) i was told i would be fine

Bill Dearborn

Titanium can be very strong but they can also be fragile. If they have been damaged you should inspect them closely. If you search on Titanium Rods you can find a Hot Rod Magazine article that discusses them and forged steel, and forged aluminum and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Bill

jtearp

Thanks for the input thus far.

FNQWK - did you stud your motor when you did the rebuild. That is the other thing I am debating. Also, what compression did you go with? I was planning on sticking with 11 to 1

Landru

Mass.

jtearp

So what are the advantages of sticking with the stock crank and rods? I have been looking around and it looks like I could sell my stock crank and rods and not be out that much money to have everything forged.

1.8t

OT for the thread but how did your motor fail?

walhan_qtr

I am debating the same thing. Im keeping the stock crank though. Vendors what are your thoughts? new forged rods or keep stock rods? what are the limits of the stock rods?

RichieRichZ06

Many people use the stock crank and rods for H/C engines. I know that Katech likes them and has yet to ever see a Ti rod failure. We debated using the stock stuff, but opted for a Dragon Slayer crank and Callies rods with Diamond pistons when Katech built our engine.

Vito.A

The quality of the billet/forging (process control and metal purity) is just as important as the type of material in a forged rod. The OEM titanium rods are Eagle forgings and they are definitely not top quality race parts like Oliver or Callies.

However, if they are in good condition, you can add bronze bushings to the wrist pin end and ARP bolts and they are a good rod for most applications.

If your budget allows, buy a set of billet steel Oliver rods with WSB bolts. They are the best available. The only problem is they are heavier than the OEM titanium rods and it will be very expensive to internally balance with a stock crank. Each slug of Mallory heavy metal will cost $100-200 and it will take several. It is almost better to buy a Callies crank and sell the OEM crank rather than spend a fortune on balancing.

So, if you decide to go with billet steel rods you should also replace the OEM crank with aftermarket.

Hope this helps your understanding.

jtearp

1.8t - I had a collapsed lifter, and when the pulled the heads found a broke piston. Then just to top things off the the machine shop found a crack in the sleeve.

Corvee

Which cylinder cracked and where is the break in the piston?

jtearp

Corvee - it was the number 3 cylinder I believe. And the piston was broke around the edge. It was missing material from about 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock position about the width of the ring.

Corvee

Same thing happened to mine - broken piston and cracked block but No.7. I resleeved the block - Darton.

Jim

walhan_qtr

i will be using darton sleeves on mine too. what pistons, rods, crank did you go with??

jtearp

Darton sleeves is what were put in my block as well. I am going the all forged route on the rods and crank I am pretty sure.

Corvee

All forged: JE pistons, Callies rods with stock crank - balanced. As mentioned in the other post, you are probably better off with an aftermarket crank (i.e. Callies with matching rods) by the time you pay to properly balance the stock crank. I also replaced the valves with solid stainless (intake and exhaust).

walhan_qtr

Thanks for info. I was talking to the machine shop about balancing those new rods with the stock Crank, and they said they have done it before and it shouldnt be that hard? I just dont know if I want to pay $1000+ for a new crank I am only shooting for 750-800whp so the stock crank should be fine from what I read here. I still didnt make my mind yet, and thats why im reading about the different setups that people have done If it was really an issue, I will just do pistons and keep the stock rods/crank. but again how good are these stock rods? I would rather pay more money now than having to rebuild the engine again in a year or so. I will be spraying a 100+shot but it will not really be used on the streets or track very often. only when needed