Re: Steel rod life expectancy
You can buy a used set of Carrillo or Lentz rods from a cup team for next to nothing (couple hundred bucks).
I had a set of used super speedway Carrillo's in a 9200 RPM 358 and put countless passes on them with ZERO problems. I even dropped a valve, and the rod didn't miss a beat. I sold them to a friend of mine who still uses them in a bracket motor.
I moved over to Manley aluminum rods and broke one after 18 passes. I have GRP rods in a new motor, but am thinking about going back to a steel rod or moving up to a titanium rod, because aluminum rods seem to be ticking time bombs (much more so than a good steel rod).
A lot of guys use aluminum rods, and don't mind the maintenance. I'd rather have an engine that can suffer some "miscalculations" and requires fewer teardowns.
Just my .02.
|