HOw much do shops charge to resize 8 HBEAMS?

[NXBOY]

If I got to resize one rod, i'm going to resize all of them to get all eight to middle of spec. non on the outside. I hav'nt found a shop around hear that will do them. when i tell them there already too Big at parting line, I GOT a feeling some might not touch them for that reason? I will be willing to ship

[Schurkey]

I don't know why H-beams would be any different from any other rod.

Too wide at the parting line is going to be tough to solve without taking a lot of material out. Are you sure they're "too big" there?

[rustbucket79]

They are a PITA because you need to pull the dowels to cut both sides. As mentioned you aren’t correcting an oversize issue at the mating surface without ruining the rods.

[1972ho]

Try Buddy Rice engine machine shop in Oklahoma City I know that shop can do it they bored out a set Carrillo H beam rods for me from 1.850 to 2.000 rod journals size.

[NXBOY]

I just would like to be safe on crush. I read that more at parting line is ok, but there was a special process machining done to them. Adding dowel pins sounds like my only safe way to use these new rods. I want to do my engine right and sleep at night. They used to make a BB Chevy bearing oversize shell for big end rods. No luck now. $600 paper weights?? I can buy 1 new rod and still have the other rods a little out all the way around, atleast there round. .0002 bigger then outer tolerance aloud, but rather have more crush if i'm going to spend money. So can the straight up measurement be tightened up like .0005 to get more crush?

[jed]

Which is better .0005 less crush and the bearing being more relaxed in the housing bore or .0005 more crush with the bearing being tighter in the housing and stressed and distorted??

[PackardV8]

Do your rods have locating sleeves which would have to be pulled to resize them? Having to pull the sleeves to nip the rods is a PITA.

I discussed this with a Clevite engineer and he emphasized some rods just can't be made round without shortening them too much. His take, make the C/C length identical, make the vertical dimension all the same and where you want it within the spec and fuggediboudt the parting line.

Anyway, my machinist can hit whatever vertical spec you want, make them all the same length and will give you a special Speed-Talk price.

[bentvalves]

If I got to resize one rod, i'm going to resize all of them to get all eight to middle of spec. non on the outside. I hav'nt found a shop around hear that will do them. when i tell them there already too Big at parting line, I GOT a feeling some might not touch them for that reason? I will be willing to ship

what do you feel would be a fair price for this operation x 8?

[NXBOY]

Signs of getting old. I got the places and the numbers switched. I took two apart and there one thats .0005 out of aloud tolerance measured straight up and other 7 is .0002 out. BEEN a couple months since measured. FIRST was told not to even measure or worry about 90 degrees or parting line. The two I measured was .001 or a hair more on parting line. GOING To take back to buddys shop and remeasure them all. I mostly concerned with enough crush for 800 hp and 7200 rpms. SOUNDS like big at parting line can be a good thing , but kings SAID i have IDEAL ECCENTRIC BUILT INTO BEARING. Seen there test and too much eccentric does hurt oil film strength. THERE Tech manager said not to use them if there bigger then spec. If all 8 have same parting line diameter, ill probably have resized to get the straight up diameter in middle of TOLERANCE. But don't care for this making the rods oblong and not knowing how bearing will react. WITH bearings in P.L. was 6.5 and main clearance up was 2.6 thou. I wouldn't want to pay more then $250 with shipping charge or I might as well save up and buy new and cross fingers this time. Just hate rezing new rods that looks like was honed after built the first time also.

[Mark O'Neal]

Welcome to engine building.

[NXBOY]

Well what bites me is I got a lot of things showing I got rods with 8620 bolts and added the 2000 bolts and had to rehone to get them round making them big?? Isn't that what would happen if you did add 2000 bolts with higher torque specs.

[mt-engines]

I've seen some cheap rods not change with a switch to arp2000..

I've seen cheap rods on the loose side.

Normally you get what you pay for. But then again saving 200 bucks on a set is greatly offset in required machining to fit.

[n2omike]

I bought a set of Scat I beam rods and had the bolts upgraded to ARP 2000 series. All the seller did, was swap the bolts. Had my machinist check them, and they were all over the place and terrible. Catastrophic failure waiting to happen. I had him fix the rods, but then decided to send them back... and upgraded to a set of Olivers. Someone ended up getting a nice set of Scat rods with good bolts and perfect sizing... This was around 10 years ago.

Point is, trust NOTHING and check EVERYTHING. I'm no machinist, but have acquired all the quality tools needed to check any machine work I have done. Luckily, I have a superb 'one man band' machinist who is the only guy I trust to work on anything I have... and I still double check everything. He is 74 years old, and a local record holding Super Stock racer uses him for his block work. He has basic machines, but has the skills and experience to get great results. Old addage is machine work is 80% operator and 20% machine.

I do have another perspective machinist 2.5 hours away that seems to have some promise when this guy decides to retire. Current guy only does what he wants... with who he wants... and enjoys his more relaxed workload. Luckily, we get along very well!

It use to be, there was a TON of crappy work out there, and sloppy machine shops got away with murder... as the average person cannot tell good work from bad. Plus, it's easy to blame errors on the customer. An unskilled or uncaring employee can screw over a LOT of customers before they are discovered. Machine work is definitely not an item to 'bargain shop'. I would pay 5x the price for GOOD work. Again, trust nobody and check EVERYTHING. Even the GOOD guys make mistakes sometimes.

Good Luck!

[NXBOY]

THis is a name brand rod, reason I went with them is their good reputation on machine work. Being at the 800 hp mark and wanting to be able to spray a couple hundred a few times I'm trying to do it right. I'm buying a stretch gauge , not sure I want to do that before final assembly to the bolts. I just feel If what it looks like that I got rods with 2000 bolts thrown in or rehone , if thats the case I didnt get what I ordered. I went through a popular vendor who showed they had them in stock, but after buying found he didn't. VENDOR saying only 30 days to return and manufacturer first told me to just resize them. Tried to sell me more with slight discount. THEY were dropped off at balance shop and it took 6 months to get done. Its been a little over a yr. so I had my doubts but it did take a while to get them so more like a yr since recieved. I had alot to learn about rods big end and the eccentric of the bearing combined with the eccentric of some rods. Was told by KING BEARINGS recently I needed bearings with less eccentric because of the wider parting line of rod. I KNOW these rods would run a while most likely, but thats not very good practice. I was worried when first got them and the bags were ripped open and huge blue bags were used and boxes all greasy, and the biggest thing I saw was the last part number was added with a RED Marker a letter A (THE FULL PART NUMBER FOR 2000 bolt) rod., thats not factory the way their marked.I CALL the manufactuer right away and he says sometimes they take them to shop and add the bolts. I just wanted to be sure they did this, since I trust them more. I've never had time to measure a rod yet. I heard one rod company say adding 2000 bolt to 8620 will distort the rod. NOW there saying they didnt change the rod the vendor must have and hes saying he didnt and said how does he know they havn't been passed around lol. ALOT OF EXCUSES. I LEFT a message with a higher up and he never gave me a call back like i was told for two days. When stuff likes this happens I like to , on my part to upgrade the part so some how I make it feel like i gained something in a expensive way. BuT since motor is balanced,a stronger Rod might be out of question unless I rebalance. I GOT pics of box and other things mentioned. MIGHT add to thread. STILL hoping for a good phone call, I don't what the problem is in returning them, Manufacturer never used the past time limit on me. I'm A little guy I bet that makes a different.

[vortecpro]

Two questions:

1. Is it bad to be big at the parting line?
2. How big is it at the parting line in relation to the spec?

To answer your question I charge 175.00 to resize those rods. Keep in mind balancing the big ends can change the size, depending on how hot they got during balancing.