I know the time and money to build a good engine and 195 for a set of rods ....You just know its going to all end in tears Yes..... suck it and see on a budget build, would not be me ....but as already stated with Standard rods you know their limits and either build/map to suit or spend the money and get the right bits ....build it once-build it right
The OE rod is designed to be durable over 100k miles without warranty issues and to reduce friction for better CO2. Those are just some reasons why the OEM is willing to pay and justify the extra manufacturing cost to have that hole to the gudgeon pin. There are durability benefits for engines used for endurance or extensive track use as well which is what appealed to Nige. It is an option though for IE rods and if you are not that fussed about long term durability it will still work. I also have a guys with 700bhp+ street legal drag cars with Eagle I beam jobs, without the rifle drilling and no problems.
This is exactly why I have gone WITH riffle drilled option on my IE rods when i put my 1.8T engine together(present one in Lupo), as i knew i will be asking for big revs from this engine and also sustained at that when on track.
It must help with longevity of small ends for BIG miles as extra oil can only help things that's for sure
LCR owners have developed small end rattles. Which points to wear through lack of lubrication. Not ideal for extra hot pistons doing hard laps on track. Makes me think about Brian's comment on small end seizure? [emoji57]
cant the other 6 bolts be sent off for tensile testing to see if if there even close to ARP spec's, then this might show a little light on the root cause of the failure?
Well if anyone is interested in 3 left over VMI rods and bolts for testing let me know. I had the Rod from Cyl 1 let go on sunday I was on my way to the Westside show on Sunday and dropped to 2nd gear at around 5krpm and gave it a boot full on the lowest setting of 0.8bar boost. Revs rose for a split second before a large bang and sounds of a gravelly nature while I pulled over to inspect the damage. Holes in the block and I can clearly see a broken rod bolt through the hole. The engine was still running on 3 cyl when I keyed off. Inspection to follow when it doesn't incur a family time penalty. History. Low mileage (40-50K) engine with a thorough strip down and cleanse. All plastigauged during assembly. That's Me and Nige with pretty much the same failure from same part. I'll know for certain when it comes apart. Gurds
Sorry to hear this. How about another forum whip-round to fund any such testing?; I'd be happy to contribute.
Same as Nige's setup. I was in the USA when Nige's ones failed so I purchased some ARP2000s while there. I hadn't got round to fitting them and was planning on swapping them out before the next track day. Didn't think that local road driving wouldn't really be an issue. Gurds
