I was reading Leo’s post and it mentioned how aftermarket rods were not compatible with Honda pistons. I would like further explanation if possible; primarily piston and rod design. TIA
…That sucks no responses :sad:
We’ll try this…Is anyone currently using aftermarket rods (eagle, crower, etc…) with OEM Honda pistons? Any problems, modifications made?
I don’t want to spend a lot of money and have my engine go to HELL :mad: . TIA
Well from what my motor builder told me, I couldn’t use the Eagle rods with the Honda pistons b/c the OE pistons have a ‘stagnant’ wrist pin design and most all the aftermarket rods out there are designed to work with pistons with the ‘floating’ pin design. Sorry I can’t give you a better explanation.
Are you doing an LSVTEC as well? Just a few comments regarding the motor. Actually the stock LS rods are lighter than the Eagles so they are better when considering weight comparisons. And if you are worried about revving past 8000 rpms with the stock LS rods and throwing a rod through your block, just get some ARP rod bolts and you should be fine. From what I’ve heard the rod bolts are actually the weakest link of the rod and it breaking. HTHs.
Leo, that’s a perfect explanation. The after market rods have free floating bushings at the end to allow the wrist pin to move freely. To keep the piston from flying off there are locking clips on each side of the piston keeping the wrist pin from coming out. So essentially, instead of a stock honda setup in which the piston is allowed to move free and the rod is “stagnent” or pressed into the rod not allowing it to move, the piston is “semi-stagnent” or only allowed to spin on the wrist pin (side to side movement is prevented from the locking clips) and the wrist pin is allowed to spin or move freely in the rod end as well. I hope this makes sense. I have heard of people modifying Honda Pistons to accomodate these “locking clips”, but to tell you the truth it would be cheaper just to get some JE or other after market piston. Hope this helps. Best of luck.
Soooooooooooooooo, since I’m going with JE pistons, I should use aftermarket rods?
-Steve
No, you can either get after market rods or have free floating bushings added to your stock rods. Most machine shops can do this.
Cool, thanks.
BTW, I thought your license plate was some kind of abbreviation of ShockWave. Is that your new one?
-Steve
Yes…G2GURU is my new one.
Phew, You guys were scaring me there for alittle bit. I thought I was going to have to buy some new rods too! I want to use my stock b20/LS rods with the JE 10.5:1 pistons. Should I just go ahead and shotpeed the stock rods or just spend the extra dough on some aftermarket? I want the engine to last 300K+ miles easily.
Thanks guys! I appreciate the help 
I’ll stick with stock LS rods.