Alum rods ?

[richie 2]

SBC 10 sec. bracket motor...anybody have sucess with alum. rods? pros/cons please?

[voltdr]

Aluminum rods do not belong on any bracket racing engine. Too much maintenance for running any typical bracket program. A good set of steel rods will last so much longer and allow you to race instead of taking your motor apart.

[1320racer]

what he said.

[Bill Baer]

Originally Posted by richie 2

SBC 10 sec. bracket motor...anybody have sucess with alum. rods? pros/cons please?

If you define success as the rods breaking !

Pros: Inexpensive, bearings always look great, light weight, can cushion the crank somewhat in nitro , nitrous and blown applications.

Cons: They break! you need to stick you car in neutral so you don't engine brake (drive them down) because that can cause them to break this also wears out the car's brakes much faster.

I would replace them every 100 passes in a natrually asperated application.
and once I gave a set of 100 pass old rods to a friend he called the manufacturer who told him that they "would be just fine" long story short, he kicked one out and ended up on his head.
In alcohol funny car I know some teams replace the every 15-20 passes

So unless your running Nitrous, Nitro or a blown applications stay away from aluminum rods for a bracket car.

[Dragsinger]

Aluminum rods have a service life. While you hear of racers running them for "hundreds of passes" that would be a low stress application and risky.

On the other side, a modern, quality steel rod has an almost unlimited service life. Thousands and thousands of safe runs.

Bottom line, an Aluminum rod holds no performance advantage while a quality steel rod operates for many years without issue.

Do some research with some for the name brand bracket race engine builders, you will not see aluminum rod in any of those engines.