What does it take to put a rod like the eagle h beam on a stock piston> How expensive is the work at machine shop? I'm putting my dohc zc back together(spun bearing). Motor is stock right now but I may eventually turbo
down the road is it worth it paying $300 for the Eagles while keeping the rest stock.
Also does anyone recommend a stock rod that has been shotpenned and polished with arp bolts they sell them on ebay for $165 shipped. Are these a good investment?

Thanks for the info

 

if you're already spending that much, i'd save up a little longer & get eagles (free arp's there too....)

 

It really depends what you're going to be doing with it and how hard you'll push the motor. You can take your stock rods to a machine shop to get them shot peened, no need to buy more. You can also get ARP rod bolts for them online at a lot of places, I think I got mine through tunertoys, and they are pretty cheap (and you can re-use them, unlike stock).

Shot peening doesn't make rods invinicible, it's not the same as getting a nice forged rod, but it's definitely good insurance for a high-revving, or mildly boosted motor. As always, it's all in the tune.

 

Seeing as how most of the d's I've seen have cracked the rod in half rather than pulled the endcap off, the ARP's will not help one bit. They will still be limited to mid-200's whp, but maybe allow for a bit more rpm. You can usually find places that will shot-peen your rods for $20-40 a piece, then press them off & on pistons for $10-30 per part per time, which would have to be done anyways.

To make the eagles work on stock pistons, you'd have to hone out the piston wrist pin holes, then use an oversized wrist pin, so that the wrist pin does not move in the rod. Otherwise you'd have to get grooves put in the piston's wrist pin holes to allow for wrist pin locks like on aftermarket pistons. Both will be not far below the price of forged pistons.

IMO you're *MUCH* better off going with Vitara pistons and TT rods if you plan on going turbo. If you use stock pistons, don't even worry about rods. You'll be cracking a ringland right before tossing a rod; do not get better rods w/o better pistons, and vice-versa for boosted apps.

 

I don't think rod bolt failure necessarily means that the bolt is coming apart, just stretching enough to allow too much clearance between the bearing and crank, causing the rod/bearing to move and slam into the crank, thus eventually spinning a bearing, which leads to rod breakage. Shot peening is cheap, if you're getting other work done you can probably get it thrown in for free. If you're using stock rods you might as well do that, but like I said, it's just insurance, no substitute for aftermarket forged rods and pistons.

I forgot about the TT rods, they are a lot cheaper too. Honestly though, for mild boost, they aren't necessary, especially if the tuning is good (which unfortunately isn't the case a lot of the time on Honda Tech ).

 

Thanks for the info