So I just recently decided that I'm going to give myself a goal of 440-450 whp and 390-400 wtq with an fp red or black. I would like to try and give my friends 636 street bike a run for its money. I'm pretty sure that typically the weak point is your connecting rod bearings. I was wondering if I dropped my oil pan and upgraded my connecting rod bearings and did head studs at the same time would it be worth it? Would the upgraded bearings and head studs help my car put the power down more reliably? I would really like to not have to build my block, but if that's what it takes I will do it. I'm at 78,000 miles, plus or minus 3000 more when this could be done if that helps at all.

 

Rod bearings...do you mean rod bolts?? Headstuds though would definitely be a good idea.

 

I think you mean rod bolts not bearings. people use stock mitsubishi bearing s in built motors they work fine under any power level. Head studs are a great idea, but the bolts I am up in the air on, I always see rod failures before I see the bolts go.

 

Haha, yes. I meant rod bolts. I don't know what I was thinking. I thought those were what usually let go causing the connecting rod to "vent" your block. When you say rod failure do you mean the actual connecting rod snapping/cracking in half then? I always thought it was the rod bolt snapping. I know head studs are a good idea. I'm more or less asking if the combination would strengthen my engine up a bit more.

 

If you were doing something like an HTA86 or a 6262 and wanted to rev out to like 9k on stock block Id say maybe rod bolts wouldnt be a bad idea. But on a Red or Black if you only plan to make around 400/400 you'd probably not need to do em.

Bad idea to do them? Not necessarily. But if somethings gonna go wrong its gonna go wrong lol.

 

Headstuds yeah, they will keep it together. As for the rods, the oem should be able to handle it.

 

Head studs are a must if you want to run that much boost, but as far as just rod bearings or bolts for that matter go you should be good up to 550-600 whp.

 

If you plan on revving above redline I would do the bolts. If you stretch the stock bolts then you can either spin a bearing or have a rod fly apart and vent the block. The rods break from too much tq produced in the lower rpm regions with fast spooling turbos.

 

Another thing to consider is removing the balance shafts since they spin 2x's the speed of the motor and can cause issues when revving above stock redline. Do it all at once.

 

When you say revving above redline you talking about the actual redline on the gauges or like rev limiter? Also what is stock redline or rev limiter. I swear mine was removed. I have accidentally revved mine to like 8000 when I first got the car.

 

Anything above 7K you should consider BS elim and rod bolts. RPM is hard on parts and the BS spin at double engine speed. Because of this I have yet to install my large turbo because I will want to rev to 9K and without doing these mods I am afraid the motor will explode. Once I install the rod bolts, cams and elim the BS I will swing it to 9K in 4th at the track and shift at 8-8.5K between gears.

 

That being said guys. How stable is a stock motor with head studs and no other upgrades? Safe to 500whp?

 

It depends on a lot of things really. But, most will agree that if you're making over 450wtq on a stock motor, you're on borrowed time.

 

Fill the block, run the kiggly HLA regulator and a crank scraper + crankcase ventilation kit. Arguably the TOP budget mods along with MAP dogpoint studs and the ARP rod bolts, full BS elim kit. New bearings and balancing of rotating assembly + fluidampr also helps...

 

Put rod bolts also and change the bearings