Don't know if this is old news or not. Ran across a website for R&R Racing products that is offering aluminum rods for the /6. No specs on the site, but I did order a catalog, (and hopefully pricing) from them. Will post when more details available. In the meantime, here's the address for the home page....

<A HREF="http://www.keynet.net/~rrracing/">http: ... racing/</A>

Roger

GTS225@aol.com

Roger I looked at the picture and I wonder if this for a cast crankshaft or for a forged crankshaft ? I ordered a catalog too.



damuel@kalama.com

hey i was wondering if either one of you fellows have got your catalogs yet? and if so do they have a listing for a 198 rod? if not i'm curious to are the 225 rods they have for the steel or cast crank?

buddy_37@hotmail.com

Darren I haven't heard anything yet. I'm sure that it will take about a week to get the information. If this is a custom rod??? maybe they can make it 7" or longer. I would also like to know the weight of the rod.

damuel@kalama.com

Hi
I rang them and they say they make the rods as custom pieces so you can have whatever length, pin size, journal size etc etc that you want. They are pretty expensive(especially with the exchange rate from NZ)at $95 each for six or $87-69 for 12. All of which leads to what would be the specs of an ideal alloy rod for a Slant Six?. How about a blown Slant Six?. Anyone got any ideas?.

richard.e.moore@paradise.net.nz

hey thanks for the information. funny you would ask about the right length for maybe a blown slant 6. thats what i'm considering building. i have a ati front mount supercharger that i'm planning on using with a slant. i would like to know what would be a ideal rod length to go with a custom piston if anyone has any idea's about that? if i build this i will buy these rods for sure because i don't think stock steel rods would be reliable enough for the long haul. actually the price sounds really reasonable to me considering they are custom rods because the last set i bought for my small block mopar was over $600.00.

buddy_37@hotmail.com

I had a look at back copies of Slant Six Racing News and in #20 there was an article from I assume Doug Dutra with some good info on rods and pistons. The article talks about using a theoretical 7.25" rod, 225 crank, 225 block milled 120', and theoretical custom piston to give a zero deck. The piston suggested is flat top (with I suppose valve cut outs if needed) 2.1" high, .875" pin with center down 1.25", top ring .25" down and thin (1/16,1/16,3/16) rings. Weight estimated at 300 grams. Zero deck, stock bore, and unmilled head would give a static compression ratio of about 10.3. From there you could mill the head to get a higher ratio if wanted. Thats ok for normally aspirated but high for a blower motor. From what I understand you can make more power before detonation with a lower static compression ratio and higher boost than a high static compression ratio and lower boost. Cut .1" less off the block and it will stay stronger and drop static compression ratio to about 8.6 which is much better with a blower. You might even want a shorter rod so you could move the rings down a little to help them live in a max boosted engine. An alternative would be using ceramic coating on piston crown to limit heat transfer to piston and keep rings up high.
Eventually if the rod gets too long you will have to put relief cuts in bottom of cylinders as mentioned in article with a custom steel set of rods. Other problem is some of the alloy rod big ends are too big to fit down bore so engines have to be assembled by pushing pistons up from crankcase.

richard.e.moore@paradise.net.nz

I was giving some thought to a fairly stock short block, using stock +.030 pistons on top of custom rods. Stock 225 rods are what.....6.7", and I was thinking about 6.85". Without doing the math, I think that would raise the compression from 8.2 to about 8.8, maybe 9:1. Using the above combination with some careful decking/surfacing, one could almost get a rather precise compression for a pressurized engine.

Roger

GTS225@aol.com

Well my catalog showed up today but the bad news is,it said " Call for information on this rod" I have their e-mail address so I guess Monday I'll try again. Had a nice picture,but that was it.

damuel@kalama.com