How many of you have managed to swap out the rod bolts from underneath the car. What kind of improvised tool was used to remove and install the bolts? Did they hold up?

Thanks

 

Jer.k in the reno therad in western reagon did it and has had no problems..he used arp rod bolts PM him to see find out exactly what and how he did it..

 

Drop the downpipe, starter motor, drain the oil, remove oil pan, then simply unbolt the original bolts and put in the new ones. I'd recommend using a rod bolt stretch guage.

With that said, mitsubishi rods and rod bolts are setup I would presume for the right clearances given the right torque. If you throw an ARP fastener in the stock mitsu rod, and torque to ARP's recommended stretch, would this effect bearing clearances?

Finally, I've never believed the stock rod bolts need changing. I've never seen any actual proof that any significant # of failures exist for rod bolts breaking.

disclaimer: I'm an amatuer mechanic so don't take my word for it.

 

Perhaps he plans on spinning the engine for extended periods of time and wants a bit more security with the ARP units. Or maybe be plans on revving to about 10,000 rpm so I could understand him wanting to upgrade for that reason. An inexpensive upgrade at that.

 

Just plan on replacing the bearings at 70,000 miles. I don't plan on reving beyond 8000 so I might even replace the bolts with OEM torque to yeilds. I just dont want to reuse the torque to yields in there

 

The ARP's are torqued higher than stock. If you torque them higher than stock I'd recommend line honing your big end bore on the rod, its standard practice. I you want to run the ARP's call ARP and see if you are allowed to torque to stock specs with motor oil and that the thread pitch is the same as stock (line the bolts up). Thread pitch (not so much) and thread diameter (moreso) affect clamping pressure given the same torquing values.

Its accepted practice to never reuse a TTY fastener. Buschur had a customer motor let go way back in the day when the customer took a risk and wanted to reuse the stock rod bolts. A little past halfway down:

http://vfaq.com/mods/kill.html

 

IMO thats what I'd use on stock rods. If you were swapping out rods I could see going ARP's, but new rods will come with ARP's anyways.

The one 4g63 refresh I did I used ARP's. By the time I line honed the rods I wish I had just ran stock fasteners. I ended up putting $120 into the stock rods/pistons for a daily driver that I sold and some kid crashed anyways.

 

Ive replaced rod bearing b4 (evo8), and the stock "rod bolts" look like studs with nuts .
So how does the studs come out and change them over to bolts ?

 

why would you replace the rod nut anyway ? and your answer is no you can't take out the stud unless u take the piston out.

 

You can take out the factory stud without removing the piston. See the Buschur thread on this topic.

You don't "line hone" or "align hone" the big ends of the rods. Align honing is a process used for the main bearing and caps. You would resize the big ends of the rods if necessary, which is a process that involves shaving a small amount off the cap so that the big end bore is too small, then honing the rod back to the proper specifications to allow the right "crush" on the bearings.

The reason that you might replace stock factory rod fasteners is simple -- almost every stock motor with rod bearing knock is due to the stretching of the factory rod fasteners, which allows the bearings to spin or be beat up. Stronger fasteners are not designed to hold "tighter" -- their metalurgy is formulated to resist stretching under the higher loads caused by higher revs.

 

I got a great deal Lucas racing to remove my pistons, rods and hone my block still in the car. So basically i have built 2.0 and now I can crank the boost up

 

So you are saying that most cases of Evo's with spun bearings is because of the stock fastener? I'd have thought oil issues or junk in the oil would be a more likely cause most of the time?

 

Well, oil issues are usually caused by lack of maintenance. Stretched rod bolts are caused by abuse. Normal driving doesn't cause either. So, it depends on your plans.