Anybody have trouble with the eagle sir rods, with arp bolts? I'm putting together the 383, and torqued the rod bolts to 50 lbs. Only got .003 to .0035 strech. I called arp, got one of the gals on the tech line. She told me to raise the torque at 5lbs at a time till I got .006 but not to excede 65lbs. Well at 65lbs I have .0055 and .006. I called back tonight and talked to a fellow, soon as I told him about my problem, and he found out about the eagle rods, he went MUM. Won't even talk about any problems with there bolts. Said to call Eagle. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

Can't see how Eagle can help...

A screw is basically a lever turned around in a circle. Apply x amount of torque to it, you get y amount of force applied along its length. Very simple. Y amount of force applied to a given material should result in z dimensional change. Again, very simple. Doesn't matter whether the fastener is clamping steel, or butter, or nonobtanium, the result should be the same.

65 ft-lbs on a rod bolt seems a bit much. Don't be surprised to see the mating surfaces of your rod and rod cap dented from all that force.

 

What did you lube the threads with?
If you used the molly lube included with the ARP bolts, 50 ft-lbs should give you the correct stretch.

I used eng oil for lube and torqued them to 65 ft-lbs like my stroker kit supplier said to do. One of the rod bolts felt a little funny as I was approaching 65 ft-lbs. I took the rod back out and found the rod bolt head starting to seperate from the shank! The shank portion was wedge shaped and sinking into and distorting the rod.
I never got more than .005" stretch on any of the bolts.

On my 383, I had to machine the rod near the bolt head and a little off the bolt head itself to clear the cam. This apparently weakened the rod/bolt enough to cause a failure at <65 ft-lbs.

When I called ARP and told them my story, they said that they don't publish a torque spec when using eng oil as a thread lubricant; and I probably ruined all the bolts and should replace them.

I now looking for a set of H-beams that will not need any clearanceing..

 

Well I talked with a rep from Eagle today. He said to back them off and measure them. If they go back to what they were unloaded, they'd probably be ok. PROBABLY, ! on a 3000.00 engine. I looked at a set of lunati rods today, no clearencing needed, but 600.00. I'm most likely looking at a new set of bolts at the very least. Also was told you can't measure strech with a mic, have to use a rod bolt checker. Looks like to me a mic would be more accurate than a rod bolt checker. Any thoughts on this? Oh yea, an arp bolts you have to use arp moly lube. Nothing else will do. So moly lube is NOT all the same. Thanks.

 

I was using a mic. May explain, somehow, why my readings were low.
Might have something to do with the rod stretch gauge contacting the bolt at a small point at the center of the head as opposed to a mic contacting a relatively large area.

I also heard that, if the bolt wasn't overstretched, it would return to its original dimension, and would be OK to re-use.
I didn't want to take a chance on a stroker eng. figuring the increased stroke would strain the rods more than normal.

I bought a brand new ARP (134-6003) rod bolt kit.
I later changed my mind decided to use the H-beam type rods.
I'll sell ya the rod bolt kit if ya want it. Package is unopened..