I'm thinking about building a 2.2 engine with a 94mm crank and 153mm rods. I want to start buying parts pretty soon so I'm resurching what parts to get. I was thinking Wisco 1400 HD pistons and was thinking about doing aluminum rods they used to be pretty popular but I don't see people using them anymore is there a reason why not to use them? This will be a street engine with occasional track days.

 

stay with steel rods for a street motor. Aluminum rods need to be checked for length fairly regularly based on type of use they see. Unless you want to pull apart your "street" engine every 5-10k miles...

 

Plenty of street driven evo's with aluminum rods with 20K+ miles and no issues.

 

This

 

Exactly. This topic has been discussed over and over again on this board. People continue to spew misinformation.

I have an aluminum rod mod on the street. Two seasons with zero problems. I pulled the engine this winter to refresh it and found that the rods were perfect. They went back in with some new bearings.

 

Ya I tryed to search and keep finding diff info. I have seen some with 30k and no issues but other people saying not to run them on a dd street evo.

 

Just sharing info not saying what you should or shouldn't do.

"I want to be very clear though that I do agree with Ted that these arent something you throw in just to say you have them. I think thats a horrible idea and a waste of budget. The people that use these are making 650+whp and have the intention of using it semi regularly. I dont think its something that would be wise for use in a daily driver, unless by daily you mean drive it to the track and back or you intend to run it at full power alot on the street."

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ave-now-2.html

 

Only reason i would use aluminum rods is if I was going to build an engine that was going to see mostly track conditions and rev 9500 plus. The alum does act a little like a shock absorber on your bearings, but I just don't see the benefit of alum rods on a fairly conservative 500-700hp build that is going to be street driven and see some track time. Alum moves around a little more with changing temps so I would make sure your oil is up to running temp before u put any load on them. Looks like this has been discussed in some older threads as well.

 

Main reason was I was looking to keep my internals light. Was also looking at the carillo rods or r&r rods. Not in aluminum. I beam or h beam. Also looking at the k1 94mm 30 lbs crank

 

Since I got quoted in this thread and everyone seems to be building our SLR2.2 these days, allow me to share some insights.

Steel has been good both on bearings and rods to 850-900-whp. Most of the cars we have at that level either dont have enough turbo to keep going, fuel system, or both. The only car that we have torture tested this particular combo is the Tx2K Evo. It makes 1100whp and runs mid 50s for boost. It is not a street car and sees limited mileage since it gets it 1/2 mile at a time. That being said we have plenty of other problems before we get to the rods. We do not reuse aluminum rods. They are inexpensive enough that if a motor comes apart that far we get new rods. While we still havent had one fail in service from power nor rpm, the threads in the rod bolts will be the eventual weak link I feel. Smallest part of the assembly is the most important and why we dont reuse them.