exgr

I'll be machining some billet titanium rods for B16A to test. these two samples are not Honda rods...

Billet 6AL4V Titanium rods for B16A first. Because it’s still my favorite engine. Then K20A, K24, and B18C. For a given rod design even with out any optimization the titanium will only weigh less than 60% of its steel counter part. Meaning a 500 gram 4340 steel alloy rod will be a little under 300 grams. Check out the machining details. Initially we'll just use steel rod designs for now. The improvements should be huge already as it is much lighter... and then 2nd phase will be optimizing the rod design and profile for the titanium properties. That's where the true value of titanium rods will shine through.

JRCivic1

How will your Ti rods compare in price to say Crower Ti rods ??? I have a set of custom Crower Ti rods in my supercharged "B" engine and I LOVE them !!! Not cheap... but truly awesome.

When you say "optimize" for the properties of Titanium and expose the "true value" of Titanium rods, what exactly do you mean (besides the obvious weight reduction) ??? What are the negatives using this material ???

K7-1Ktrevor

exgr

How much do Crower charge for titanium rods? Price discussion is probably frown upon but talking about full retail prices I imagine should be okay. Pricing wise I can already predict I ought to be able to keep it under $2000 for a set of 4 and still have reasonable profit. By true value of titanium - to fully design and engineer the rod tailor to the material's mechanical and physical properties. If you think about it rod design with 4340 or even 300M will not be optimized for titanium. It's pretty straight forward to understand...

JRCivic1

Crower Ti rods start at about $2500 per set of four... so if yours will be under $2K AND specifically designed/engineered for the Ti material... that should be a win. Years ago, Eagle offered a 5.394" LS style rod in Titanium for about $1000 per set of four. They didn't sell well at all and were promptly discontinued.