GRP Aluminum Rods

[steve hurt]

Has anyone heard of any issues with GRP rods this summer? I know of 7 or 8 motors that have kicked one with under 40 passes on them...They all have the same charactaristics....a peice of the rod/cap is still held together by one bolt while the other is laying in the pan with lots of iron and alum....kind of like it lost its torque and backed out.....Just curious
thanks

ALso, has anyone ever used Groden Rods? good? I have GRP now but not sure what to replace with over winter. thanks


Steve

[396chevelle]

I purchased my grp rods last year. I have about 70 passes on them no problem yet, but I don't make a lot of power.

[Chris Uratchko]

There's a lot of folks out there who will claim a broken rod, but if you ever see the destruction, take a look at the crank journal. ANY scaring, and it was a super heated bearing failure that caused the rod to fail..... now if the big end is still hanging on the crank, and the journal isn't burned up, then you can start looking at other issues.... Myself I have never seen an aluminum rod fail on its own. I've heard stories but never seen it.

Myself I use MGP rods. He uses better bolts than what is generally in a premium aluminum rod, and his rod material is much stronger, and proprietary. Furthermore, his customer service is second to none. Michael Giannone, the owner is who you deal with directly and he's not just some hired sales clerk..... he knows his stuff.

[Tom McDunnah]

Has anyone heard of any issues with GRP rods this summer? I know of 7 or 8 motors that have kicked one with under 40 passes on them...They all have the same charactaristics....a peice of the rod/cap is still held together by one bolt while the other is laying in the pan with lots of iron and alum....kind of like it lost its torque and backed out.....Just curious
thanks

ALso, has anyone ever used Groden Rods? good? I have GRP now but not sure what to replace with over winter. thanks


Steve

If it were me I'd be looking at the assembler,clearances,and the driver and I;ll tell you why, Me I haven't seen alot of failures but seen some,proper maintaince of rods bearing clearaces and rod stretch are also factors, as well as bolt torque or stretch methods of rods bolts


1st and foremost I hope no one takes this wrong.

Checking clearances is critical on any race engine,
Using the bolt stretch method is suggested from the rod manufactures,the reason is useing the bolt stretch method is alot more accurate,vs just useing a torque wrench.
If you pay good money for rod bolts, why not take advantage to the benifits.

Bolt stretch method and the Angle method have been along time, prolly as long as the wrench!! Torqueing procedures have got way out of hand,just using a torque wrench is good enough,,,maybe on some things,but not rods,especially aluminum rods.

Next thing is oiling issues, this causes things to come apart too, not enough oil to maintain the bottom end, Oil pumps pans, windage,blockage,to thick of oil, screens,drain holes, these all play factors.

Drivers, this is one of the most common things I have seen

Drivers click it into neutral and kill the engine!!! Thats not good, that burns up more shit, transmissions to boot, I can go on here about that, but I am not.
I personally think if someone was doing that, shutting the engine off, leave it in D don't put it in N there is a reason, putting it into N will cause the tranny to go from 7000 to 8000 rpm to 25000 yes 25 thousand rpms
not too good in my book. I will cause catrostphic failure, the tranny can, and will explode.It also kicks rods out of Engines,thats a fact!

Next time read the directions on the rods, if you don't know ask someone that does, there are alot of Rod companys out there they are all pretty much good.

But on that note too,,as I have already said,,you Pay For What You Get

85% even higher of rod failure is the assembler the other 15% is the others, thats my opinion

It depends on what type of racing you are doing and how long alum. rods last. some say 60 to 100 runs in 1/4 mile thats the chances you take.

I don't really know the answer to this,
I prolly missed some things here,anyone else is more than welcome to chime in here.

Hope this helped and its my opinon here guys and past experiances.



Tom :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: