Brought my engine to the builder today along with my 400.00 direct from manely rods.I asked him to check out the weight differences to see if they were substandard rods. He said they were the worst ones he had seen to date and that they very well may be substandard. There were differences of anywere from less than a gram to almost 3 grams and he said this would make it more work to balance the motor [more work = more money] and that i would still end up with stronger rods and a lot better balaced engine with these possibilly substandard rods. He said there usually within a gram tolerances and if i had it to do over again[i already ordered mine before sals post] i would order them from a tuner or your engine builder and gladly pay extra.

 

Good info, backs up what was posted then....

 

I hate to say I told ya so, but I also realize many people bought these rods before we found this out.

What those $400.00 rods are, are leftovers rejected from other sets, put together and discounted.

Some people say it doesn't matter, if you have your parts balanced, but that's not 100% true. OEM type rods have "balance pads" on them, which are sections of extra metal, that can be ground down to make a balanced set. On the Manley rods, there are no balance pads. So now when you have to balance them, you have to take metal off some part of the rod that wasn't intended to have metal removed.

When it's all said and done, you will have a set of rods that are a ton stronger than stock, but will not be as good as the ones you'd pay normal pricing for. I don't want to "scare" the people who already bought these rods, but I feel they should know what the deal is so they don't get any surprises at motor assembly time.

 

The builder was showing me were they would be shaving metal to try and balance the weight. All in all i got the feeling that i will not end up with quite what i was aiming for with these rods and after all the work getting the motor out...this sucks to say the least. If there was even a rumour about these rods being substandard before i had ordered,i would have looked elsewere and gladly paid more. Just when you think there is something performance related, thats price is reasonable for our trucks.

 

That sucks!!!! Reminds me of the old saying, "If it seems to good to be true", well you know the rest................

 

Did you call Manly and them their rods were POS. Maybe they would take them back and sell you the good ones even if it cost you more. I was looking at those and I would be HOT. Call em and tell us what they say.
noelvm

 

Noel, i beleive there website said all sales final or no refunds on these rods but tommorrow i will give them an earfull.

 

I agree. Damn good thing there is tuners like Sal around. Call Manly and tell them the "Stone Age" is over and we are into the "Information Age". Let them know that through the power of the internet and UBB boards that this information is being spread like "Cheap Butter" and that it would be in their better interests to refund your money and send you a decent set of balanced rods. Print out a few of these posts and call their customer service line...let them know your dissatisfaction...just don't call them dirty rotten no good SOB.

 

Sal-

Let's not use the substandard rods on my engine...

Dave

 

My engine goes together next week so I have sent Manley an email asking them to next day air me the properly balanced rods and will follow that up with a phone call this morning! We will see if they respond as a quality company should!! Thanks for the info Sal!

 

Does anyone have a link to the original post discussing this topic?

Thanks

 

Just got off the phone with a manley rep and he claims that these rods are no different than any others and that 1.5 grams either way is the industry standard ,in other words if there are any that are three grams off of the others they would be considered substandard. He said if any of the rods were off by more than 1.5 grams either way that they would replace them. I guess its time to call my builder and check. When i hear back from him,i will post what he has to say.

 

My engine builder said he would not even try and balance at least one of the rods so i called manley back and they said to send them back and they would send me a complete new set. It is good to no that a company with the rep that manley has is willing to step up to the plate and take care of this.