Forged rod brand choices

[superDorifto]

24k gold rods...... woah thats an odd thought.....

doesnt arospeed make a set of jdm style gold plate rods already? available in 5 anodized colors...

[Nathan]

Get Pauter ya tool...I'm sure crower is great too, but I can attest firsthand to the awesome quality of pauters. Really, once you get them you wont even want to put them in the engine, just fondle them like they are jessica alba. Oh, and the notching the block thing is bull****, they clear fine.

[Draginzuzu]

If a group buy went down I would be interested. Im sure theres alot of people who would jump on the rods if the price is right instead of prep'd factory rods.

[Florida240sx]

I'm good for a goup buy.

[95_240sx]

I think Fiznat just started this thread because I told him to buy crowers

I will say, whenever we can, we use crowers in ANY motors that we build. We have had the same set in our 1400hp supra for 3 years now. I have had the same set in my 240 for 3 years and been through a motor. When I blew the last motor it curled the ring lands up and the pistons slammed into the bottom of the head, hard, to the point where we had to replace the head because of the marks/dents in it. However, the rods were still perfectly fine, same thing they were on the blueprint sheet.

Rick

[Jeff240sx]

I will say, whenever we can, we use crowers in ANY motors that we build. We have had the same set in our 1400hp supra for 3 years now. I have had the same set in my 240 for 3 years and been through a motor. When I blew the last motor it curled the ring lands up and the pistons slammed into the bottom of the head, hard, to the point where we had to replace the head because of the marks/dents in it. However, the rods were still perfectly fine, same thing they were on the blueprint sheet.

See.. this is one of the few posts where it's not an idiot with his brand loyalty is pushing a product. A rod is a rod is a rod. 99.9% of these fools wouldn't know the difference between crower and pauter. 98% of them wouldn't know the difference between pauter and stock.Talk to your engine builder, or someone who works for a shop about this. Otherwise, you get name-brand nutswingers telling you to buy BrandX because it hasn't broken. Well.. at 300hp, neither will BrandY, BrandZ or BrandA.-Jeff

[TrunkMonkey]

See.. this is one of the few posts where it's not an idiot with his brand loyalty is pushing a product. A rod is a rod is a rod. 99.9% of these fools wouldn't know the difference between crower and pauter. 98% of them wouldn't know the difference between pauter and stock.Talk to your engine builder, or someone who works for a shop about this. Otherwise, you get name-brand nutswingers telling you to buy BrandX because it hasn't broken. Well.. at 300hp, neither will BrandY, BrandZ or BrandA.-Jeff

i'm not sure how to take your post.

i don't think brand loyalty has anything to do with it in this case. you're talking about 2 of the best companies in the business. no one has yet to say that one is better than the other. as far as quality goes, you can't go wrong with either.

me personally, i would go with pauter over crower without question. my choice has nothing to do with the rods, but with customer service. a few years ago i was planning an engine build for my SOHC. i called crower and got the run around for half an hour. i tried to email them and didn't get a response for days. i called pauter and the owner (iirc, his name is jeff or john) answered the phone. he talked to me for half an hour. he took the time to answer all of my questions and gave me advice on my plans. the thing that stood out the most was that he never once tried to sell me anything.

like i said before, you can't go wrong with either rod. but there are other things us name-brand nutswinging brand loyalists take into consideration other than the name of a comapny.

-demetrius

[TrunkMonkey]

btw, in some engines you do have to modify the block to use pauter rods (iirc, the KA is NOT one of them), but they will tell you this ahead of time.

-demetrius

[fiznat]

Got my parts in. Thought I'd include a comparison pic with the stock rods as well.. The rod I had is a little bent haha but I think you can get the idea:

[Craving4Boost]

how long did it take to come? did you order directly from them?

[huguetpj]

Hey fiz. So those are Crower rods? What brand pistons? Specs? How much and were can I buy them?

Sorry for the buch of questions.

[fiznat]

Oops sorry. The rods are Pauter, the pistons are Ross (8.5:1 CR, .020" over, 'moly wristpins and thick ring lands). Together I paid $1,100 shipped. The Pauters were in stock where I ordered them from so I got them in only 3 days. The pistons were drop-shipped from Ross and only ended up taking 5 days since Ross just recently made this piston an off the shelf item (price has gone down because of this as well).

[Craving4Boost]

whoa 8.5:1? planning on some serious boosting?

[fiznat]

Yeah course... back to where I was, probably plus some. I figure with this second time around 500rwhp shouldnt be too much of a strain.

[wild_maxx]

thats very nice. i kinda want to take out my stock rods and get a set of those. although my power goals arent as high are your. good luck.

[huguetpj]

And you bought them were?

Michel from ka24de.com has them for $1.190 + shipping.

Hell yeah... go for 500WHP. This time around I'm going for 400. But just because I can't fork out the dough for a standalone or emanage ultimate even, so I'll settle with my blue emanage. But I'll build my motor to handle it when the time comes to shot for the stars again.

KAT Costa Rica style will be back...

[fiznat]

I actually got the parts from FlatlanderRacing.com. Couldnt pass up the deal. I checked with ka24de.com and they are no longer offering the Ross pistons for some reason, even though they are listed on the website.

[epokh]

Well, after reading about yet another rod pukage(rseabrooke)....I guess I'm gonna unassemble my freshly assembled block and shell out the money for some of those beautiful bastards.....damnit!!.. another delay, at this rate I should be boosting by 2050

[Jeff240sx]

me personally, i would go with pauter over crower without question. my choice has nothing to do with the rods, but with customer service. a few years ago i was planning an engine build for my SOHC. i called crower and got the run around for half an hour. i tried to email them and didn't get a response for days. i called pauter and the owner (iirc, his name is jeff or john) answered the phone. he talked to me for half an hour. he took the time to answer all of my questions and gave me advice on my plans. the thing that stood out the most was that he never once tried to sell me anything.

Online, I see about $745 for a set of Pauter rods. And it's about $595 online for Crower. I paid $450 for mine buying through my engine builder. So, it's a $200 premium for Pauter. Next up, customer service. You get the rods. You install them. Done. No customer service necessary. What would you spend 30 minutes on the phone discussing rods for? There is 2 bolts, a wrist pin hole.. that's about it. Sorry, if I was buying a television that can and will die, possibly under warranty, I'd rather pay the premium for a Sony for the warranty and customer service, than buy something cheap. A rod.. no warranty, no way to install it wrong.. I can't see possibly how CS would be involved in a purchase like this.However, I agree with you, there isn't a functional difference between the rods. They are both great, will hold ~1000hp, ect. Just one does it cheaper, and the reason it gets my vote.-Jeff

[huguetpj]

And my question still remains... were can I get some Crower rods for the KA online? Haven't been able to find them. And going through any engine builder here is outta the question.

[Florida240sx]

Yup.Give us some links please. Fiz did you call Flatlander or could I just not find them on the site?

[fiznat]

Florida, I had to call and actually talk with the guy there to get the deal I got.

[Florida240sx]

That's what I was thinking.Thanx Fiz.

[Jeff240sx]

http://www.240sxmotoring.com for $699. I haven't price-checked rods in 2.5 years, but didn't think they went up that much.Still.. go to any engine building shop with a KA rod, and ask for a set of Crowers that match that rod. If you'll be using a piston with a larger/smaller wrist pin (one brand has a switch, everything else is stock sized iirc), give them the piston, also. The reason for the price difference? If a set of rods is $500 today, 240sxmotoring has to have a set or two on the shelf at all times, tieing up cash and warehouse space. So, you will pay for that, with a 50% premium. An engine builder - especially those who build v8s and use Crower, go through hundreds of full-sets per year. That's thousands of rods, and when they need a set, they call Crower with the specs, and get a set from them. No money tied up, no storage. So, ordering a set through them you'll just pay a small fee to them for making the order. That goes for any other brand, I'm sure Pauter and Eagle have the same relationships with other engine builders.And for those people waiting for Eagle rods to come out.. just go to an engine builder with a rod, they'll take specs, and have a custom set cut for slightly more than any off the shelf set. This is what piston/rod manufacturers do.. custom stuff. My JE pistons were custom cut...-Jeff

[nissanfanatic]

Quote »The rod I had is a little bent haha but I think you can get the idea[/quote]It is? :p Just messin...

Like most people, I am pretty much always on a budget... So I am prolly going to go with what is the cheapest at the time. I doubt that either will ever break with my goals of 400whp daily...

[fiznat]

http://www.240sxmotoring.com for $699. I haven't price-checked rods in 2.5 years, but didn't think they went up that much.

Yeah I was wondering where you had found them for so cheap. Didnt want to call you out right away but yea- after looking around for a little bit I found that the prices between Pauter and Crower were pretty much the same... maybe Crower bieng slightly cheaper in some cases.

As far as the usefulness of customer service, for the small price difference between the two, I'd rather hedge my bets and go with the smaller place with good customer service. Who knows what will come up-- maybe down the road I might need just one or two replacement rods... or maybe I need specs or additional hardware. I hate dealing with large companies that could care less about my patronage- for me, paying a little bit more is worth it.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

It might be a little OT but I am wondering about a few things. Aside from the strength issue are there any other advantages of forged/OEM rods, are they lighter do you see any HPO or torque gains etc? Also what is the difference in aluminum vs titanium rods? What about crytreating them? I know my parts but I am still knew as to the subtle differences in materials and I really am new at the whole crytreating process. BTW I am looking to turbo my S14 but not until I give it a must needed rebuild first.

[huguetpj]

One last question, fiz. May I know why you did not go with the Supertech pistons that ka24de.com offers? Just because of the deal you got from Flatlander or was there any other reason?

Seems to be 2 questions after all.... would it be possible for you to get me the same deal from Flatlander racing? It's a bit hard calling people from here to do so myself. If you can, hit me up on my email pedro.j.huguet.vaughan at intel.com

[MarkEmark]

It might be a little OT but I am wondering about a few things. Aside from the strength issue are there any other advantages of forged/OEM rods, are they lighter do you see any HPO or torque gains etc? Also what is the difference in aluminum vs titanium rods? What about crytreating them? I know my parts but I am still knew as to the subtle differences in materials and I really am new at the whole crytreating process. BTW I am looking to turbo my S14 but not until I give it a must needed rebuild first.

As far as I know there's no such thing as aluminum rods, at least, there aren't for the KA.

All of these rods are forged steel....carillo makes fully machined rods which are the best (it goes forged, billet, fully machined) in the line of quality.

There are chrome-oly (steel) rods too that are lighter than regular steel, and of course, titanium is the lightest. Not sure about any hp/tq gains, but lighter rods lower the reciprocating mass inside of the engine and allow you to rev higher, and probably easier (as in the advantage of getting a lightened flywheel).

[nissanfanatic]

Most everything that is a "forged" internal is some type of forged aluminum alloy. Then you have high end titanium stuff which is prolly some type of alloy too.