What are the best pinto con rods for a 8,000 rpm engine 175 bhp?
What are the best pinto con rods for a 8,000 rpm engine 175 bhp?
Any steel rod will do the job. There are a lot of good China rods on the market. Between 200 and 300 €/set.
Please note, a Pinto will not need to run 8000 RPM to make 175 Bhp. But steel rods are a save way off building Pinto's. I always suggest to replace rods and pistons.
As a matter of facts, there is little filling at 8000 RPM. Engine will go nose dive at this kind of RPM. Unless you got a very good head that can make 200 Bhp + you will not make 8000 and stil have cylinder filling.
If you are building 175 Bhp with a turbo, you will end up with less than 6500 RPM for max power, any standard rod will do the job. If you live in USA you can buy 92mm Forged VW T1 pistons. Fit the VW bronze bush in the Ford Conrod and you got a nice floating pin and a cheap piston, strong enough to handle over 200 Bhp in turbo application. I know over boring is not a good idea with turbo's but I guess you go low boost turbo. The VW piston slightly shorter, with the right skimming or steel Cometic gasket, you can get the CR where you want it.
They where good enough in my Honda turbo engines and still good enough in a few rally Pinto's still running for quite some time.
There are many makes, not so called China rods but they are all China rods, sold more expensive. I'm not saying they are all build in China but the one we can afford usual are.
An other affordable conrod is DP in Greece, any size, any length at a very good price. Same for his pistons. If I can't find it off the shelves, I use DP.
you wont have, rods are more likely to break in an N/A application, rods only break when being stretched, lots of RPM or snapping the throttle shut at high revs creating a massive vacuum about the piston, turbo applications dont subject the rod to the same tensile loads.
with a turbo and high power/load/boost at fairly low rpm you are more likely to bend a weak rod, but that would need to be a fairly extreme application
That was my understanding, but I'm just a home mechanic hack, so good to have it confirmed by someone who knows better! Also useful to know that my tendency to map progressive boost rather than all in all the time has added benefits.
All this talk though is just making me itch for a bigger turbo. Think I am going to have to keep an eye out for some thing suitable over the next 12 months to drop on next winter, assuming it all goes well this year.
I've also used these rods in my Pinto NA end Honda NA engines and no problems. Right, the Honda was only running standard 9000 RPM but after a valve failure (2 times) the rods where still ok. The same error seen more than once with standard Honda rods and 100% sure snapped and hole in the block.
If these rods would really be so bad, we would see lots of pics from snapped rods or failed rods. That's not the case. I've seen lots of low quality stuff failed and pics on internet. From cracked cylinders, worn out Pistons after 5000 Km (like the one they sell today for Triumph and MG), low quality valves (included the one sold buy some well know Ford suppliers) etc...
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