Turbo LT-1....now bent rods

[EFISYSTEMS at aol.com]

Hi,
        I have personally bent a stock rod in a 383 chev with a 5.7" 
rod.....Kinda poor rod ratio and was making way too much immediate boost in a 
6300lb vehicle with a stock stall converter and 3.42 gears AE afr was 10:1 
and after that was 11.5:1(under boost, If this had been in a faster 
accellerating application I doubt it would have happened).  Obviously I was 
getting on the throttle hard so I could do the transient AFR's and after 
quite a few of these I detected a ticking sound coming from the 
engine...coudn't pinpoint it,,,,checked the trans and flexplate,killed 
individual cylinders, finally pulled the pan and started checking 
bearings,,,,everything was cherry until I noticed a shiny line on one of the 
cranks counterweights, it had shortened the rod(when it bent) just enough 
that the counterweight was slightly hitting the pin boss of the 
piston......decided at that point that if it would bend a rod then the next 
thing it would do with better rods is probably break a main cap, so out it 
came and got billet splayed main caps, lunati 4340 crank and Oliver rods,  
has over 25,000 miles on it now and still going strong.....just some feedback 
for the "shit happens" file.  ttyl
-Carl Summers
p.s.  As for the bearings being burnt up, anytime I see that, it is from 
improper rod and/or main bearing clearances and/or from the wrong wt 
oil.....that 50 wt oil and .0026" rod clearances and .003" main clearance (in 
this particular app)provide a much needed cushion for extreme environment 
applications. hth's


In a message dated 10/10/99 12:40:49 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
frederic at xephic.dynip.com writes:

<< Subj:     Re: Turbo LT-1
 Date:  10/10/99 12:40:49 AM Pacific Daylight Time
 From:  frederic at xephic.dynip.com (Frederic Breitwieser)
 Sender:    owner-gmecm at esl.eng.ohio-state.edu
 Reply-to:  gmecm at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu
 To:    gmecm at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu
 
 > Has anyone ever seen a rod buckle?  I have seen them bent in a half moon 
when
 > the rod bearing went. I have also seen rod and main bearings melted.
 
 I've never seen a rod buckle, though I've have seen two distint pieces
 scraping my cyl bores :(  But you are right, usually the piston tops or
 the bearings are the first to go.
 
  >>