Rods and Pistons, What would you do?

[Ted in Olympia]

A while back I purchased a set of JE pistons off of ebay.  They came with bearings, stock rods and rings all installed.

I also have a set of 455 Olds rods I was going to use.  I was going to polish the beams and balance them.

Well I got a new scale today that weighs to the nearest .1 grams and just for fun I decided to weigh the pistons/rods I got off of Ebay.

All are with in .3 grams of one another, the packing oil could put it off this much.  Remember this is the rods, rings, bearing, all together.  They all weigh 1737.7 to 1738 grams.

Now I think that I may not want to screw up a good thing, someone balanced these pretty close.

Are the Olds rods worth the extra cost and trouble?  This will be a 9.5 to one motor with a big old solid cam I just got from Sean.

Thanks for your help.

TED

 

[cadillac512]

  Hi Ted
      Have the stock rods been resized with aftermarket bolts? If not,and you have the 455's already,I would resize the Olds stuff with ARP's and use them.If the Cad rods are resized with good bolts,I would set the rev limiter(you have one right? at 5500 and run 'em. But you know me...... lol
      Terry

 

[Ted in Olympia]

The have bolts but I don't know what bolts they have.  And I would only assume the they have been resized if they are balanced.  But that would only be a guess.  In other words I know nothing about the rods, only that they weigh the same.

My cheapness is just coming out also.  Maybe I will do all the free labor to the olds rods and see how they come out.  I would hate to worry about the 5500 RPM limit, this is one reason I'm putting together a new engine.

Thanks for the feedback.

TED

 

[cadillac512]

  Looking at the 455 rods next to the Caddy stuff really shows how tough the Olds stuff is in the critical area around the bolt head.No comparison,and if you're going to want peace of mind above 5500 I would do the Olds stuff for sure.Even cheap me wishes the new motor for the T had a set in it......but don't tell anyone I said that. :shhh:
  Terry

 

[Sean]

I don't hink I would mess with polishing the olds rods. There were some polished and some unpolished ones in the turbo engine. Only a polished one bent. It ran all last summer near the 650hp mark and at least once to 770hp. I think with a better tune they will even survive a little more. :twocents: