If rods are blowing in engines with no mods the blame is the owners? ( NOT ) Anyone who thinks the rods aren't the weak link in the engine are kidding themselves. It's never the fault of FORD??? These are HIGH PERFORMANCE vehicles, yet guys are driving down the road and an engine goes?????

Sorry but the rods in the Lightning are NOT up to the task the engine puts on them,stock or not. All I know it what I have personally seen,the stock rod is almost fragile looking,and made out of some potmetal product, it's not a forged rod, why did they go halfway, the pistons are forged,but not the rods????

So if putting better rods in the engine increased the cost of the truck $500 wouldn't it be worth it,the rest of the bottom is fine.
Again just my .02 ans what I know firsthand
J MAN

 

Is there anyone here with an engine design program that will calculate the critcal loads on our bottom ends...of our L engines. I have one, but it is in storage and is behind a piano and many other heavy items. Anyone?????????
With 6.+" rods it looks rather obvious that the 5.4 was designed as a low rpm workhorse, not a continued high rpm stallion.

Seperate ??????
Are the Cobra R rods the same as all 5.4 or our L's or ?
I know there are only 300 (2400 really) , but have they had any problems with them??????

 

JMAN -
Go read the blown engine check in, all the engines that vented from a rod were NOT stock at ALL. They had chips, pulleys, and an airfilter/maf mod combo of some sort ATLEAST.

There have been NO broken rods on a stock engine. There have been some head/valve problems from loose spark plugs, and there was someone who spun a bearing. But -no- rods.

The rods are fine for their stock application. Through another 100hp on them and sure, yes, they are a weak link.

Daniel

 

pawn: i agree throw another 100 h.p. to these engines and the rods are for sure the weakest link. this is what were seeing. however i have talked to 3 people who never modded their trucks and they broke a rod. i beleive these rods should have never been used in these motors. if i'm not mistaken the cobra R dosn't make no where near the torque these trucks make and they have h-beam rods in them. thats why i'm putting h-beam rods in my engine to prevent this from happening. think about it a 4,800# truck running mid to low 12's thats some serious power to do that. and if 1 of our rods has a flaw in them well its only a matter of time till it shows up. JL

 

Yeah, I hope to get my rods upgraded in the not-too-far future as well. I'm still unchipped-unpullied, so I'm in a safe zone for now.

It will be exciting to see the numbers that you guys start to churn out with your re-enforced engines. Oh my. I can't wait to watch y'all next season.

Daniel

 

JL
As usual you right on the money!!!! These rods are meant to take about 375 pounds of torque.As you I have put in the h rods and gotten a good balance,it makes all the difference in the world, the engine runs so smooth that you can set a cup of coffee on the blower and not spill a drop while the engine is running. True these rods weren't made to take 500 lbs of torque,but even reading the brochure that came with the truck it's suppose to be able to handle alot of torque,and I know for a fact unmodded engines are blowing, and more will blow this year. It's time for ford to step up and get some good forged rods in the engine,I don't think an extra $500 would stop anyone from driving an L.

Guess we all know if ya play ya pay, but there are some parts in the engine that DO need to be upgraded!!!

J MAN

 

Ok thats it..I'm staying stock..You all have scared me enough..i'm selling my chip..100 bucks..

 

Shortly after the Ennis, Texas FFW when a certain tuner took alot of unwarranted heat for blowing his motor; I predicted there would be a huge demand for beefed up short blocks. I also predicted we would see alot more this coming racing season. I need to go find that post.

Look what is all the rage now; it was an obvious call. Shame on any of you that thought or implied that it was one specific tuner's problem. It's okay to support your tuner but don't pile on a different one.....you only show your ingnorance.

BTW, if I remember right, at least the tuners were professional at that time which was a good thing.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 99Zeus rtrns
Ok thats it..I'm staying stock..You all have scared me enough..i'm selling my chip..100 bucks.. [/QU
OTE]
Email me with the specifics of the chip,I'll buy it
J MAN

 

NeedFor Speed
You got that right!!!!And as you said all the tuners were very professional about it,and the reason behind the blown motor came out at a later date by the person who blew it.I think and don't quote me but the failure was "RODS"..Funny how that word always comes back....well actually two words Rods and Boost,BUT the engine can handle the boost with the proper rods,

 

2.5-3k is exactly what i've been quoted

 

Why is it that we are just now starting to hear about this?Until recently, I don't remember anyone talking about this.Is this something that started showing up recently(past 6 months)or a long time problem.It seems that people like Johnny,Sal and Jim have been pushing these trucks beyond their limits for quite some time and, until recently,have not had this problem.

 

I would say its just from the additional surge in available parts...bigger pulleys, combos of upper/lower...

Go back a couple of months and it was still kind of fringe territory, with alot of nono's heading that way, but then people slowly started to push out.

I think that with either certain nitrous/mod combos or large lower/small upper pulley combos people are reaching the stress limit of some of the stock parts. Why some of the trucks break with less while others run hard with more is mainly a matter of what the final tolerances are at that point.

While most (not all) the stock parts are doing going in the stock engine, people are feeling out the upper edges now. It'll cost a bit of money, but I'd imagine we're getting close to the point where we know that -about- this set of mods with this boost, this a/f, etc is the max of the engine without doing work on some of the internals.

Its both a good and a bad thing...bad for the poor guys who have vented the blocks already in the learning process, but good for the community as we can then further hash out what is and isn't possible, and what pieces need to be upgraded.

Daniel

 

were you stating that there were no lightnings with blown rods that are stock on the checking, or no stock lightning with broken rods period? I know there have been at least a half dozen posts on this board in the past that had stock trucks that blew a rod...

 

Well might say I'm paranoid now, I just ordered a chip , plugs,#2 pulley. So I will go tommorrow and find out how much to install new rods. Where do you get these Manley rods?