It's time for me to put the 440 together for the Imperial. We're looking at a depressingly tame build made for low to mid range torque. An old desktop dyno program gives it a whopping 450 lb/ft and an almost-but-not-quite 400 hp.

I'm trying to build this thing correctly but without spending cubic dollars to get there.

The rods are the last pieces of the puzzle. To me, it just isn't worth it to deal with old rods and new bolts if I can get a set of basic rods for $250.

Have any of you guys messed with these things? If so, how did they look and were there any problems?


****EDIT****

I should have stated I beam rods. Please disregard the first couple responses.

I ran a set for years in my Daytona that was running 8.60's@158mph. That assembly is still running in a street car today. Over the Winter I will be building a 512 for my green duster that should run 8's with a 440source assembly

I have used the 440 Source H-beam rods to over 900 HP. I will not use the $250 I-beam rods again.

OOPSIE!!

I read their site last night and thought it was the H-beam rods. It must be the I beams I'm thinking about.


What was wrong with the cheap rods? Were they out of spec junk?

I bought their I beam rods years, have a couple thousand runs on them. I didn't think they sold I beam rods anymore, just H

They stopped selling the I beam rods because they were junk and often broke. I warned many to avoid those

Only motor I've blown up in the last 20 years was running 440Source I beam rods. Not sure it was the rods fault but the engine spun a rod bearing and killed a bunch of parts. I've had a bunch of other motors making good power with SCAT, Molnar, Crower, K1, Oliver, Callies, etc. rods since then with zero problems.

The H vs. I argument is now more than 100 years old, and there is no answer.

Certainly you have numerous replies from people with more knowledge and experience than I have, but I have a set of the $250 I beam rods in my mid 10 second bracket car with 250+ runs on them and have no complaints. They were checked dimensionally before installation and were very consistent. I did have reservations about the no name bolts and replaced them with ARP's. They are still listed as being in stock on the 440 source website. Your results may vary.

That wasn't the question.

I wanted to know of the budget friendly rods were worth using on a stock-ish engine build.

Why would you need to 'deal' with the stock rods if you're only end up at 450hp?
Are thinking of running high rpms, which I don't think.
The stockers will work fine, especially if they had an easy life coming out of a 'barge' engine.

The 440 I once had in my 67 Newport had balanced internals, solid cam, stock rods with ARP bolts (no machining done to rods) and this mill has seen 6000-6500 rpm on way more than one occassion.

I think there may be some confusion in this conversation. Source used to sell a performance I-beam rod that IIRC, they actually charged more for than their H-beam "platinum" rods. I believe that is the rod that was discontinued, and that is the source of problems referenced above. The $250 rods that the OP is referencing is just their "stock replacement" rod. This just looks to be a copy of an LY rod with caps crew bolts and fit for a floating .990 pin.
Edit: they are not a .990 floating pin rod... they truly are a stock replacement with a non-bushed 1.094" press-fit piston pin bore.

I'm using very inexpensive SCAT rods in my low deck 470. That engine makes 700+ hp and has over 100 dyno pulls. But, they are Chevy BBC type rods which is why they are super cheap. Mopar stuff is low volume so the cheap Mopar parts sometimes aren't very high quality. High volume Chevy parts can be both high quality and low cost.

probably for a stock type rebuild they would work fine - but they are press fit so piston choice is limited to stock type replacements - I would guess they are marginally better than a set of LY rods that have been refurbished with good bolts. considering what you would spend rec-coning a set of LY rods with new bolts - its about a wash in price. I say try them

They weigh a Ton and the bolt / thread deal is horrible The threads look like they were done with a worn out tool from 1944 I had One set of those-two of the bolts ripped at the threads when they were disassembled--they sent some bolts after pouting a bit--I chased the threads and used them but never again!! I thought they were garbage

too bad you had a bad experience, I was uncomfortable about the no name bolts so I did put ARP bolts in them. Mine weighed 852 grams, my engine shop said they were actually a bit lighter than a standard 440 rod. I've had no problems in a 10.30 bracket car.

Hmmm...... I have a set of these I bought back in 2006, and yes they were $25 more than the H beams. I have never run this engine and was hoping to put it on the dyno this fall.
This sure does shake my confidence !

I use their .990 pin I beam rods that are bushed for floating pins. My brother has used them in a few builds also. The only thing I had on them was the pin was a tad tight and I honed the bushing a tad more to fix it. They have been in my eng since 2011 with alot of street miles and about 30 track passes on them. They have held up fine in my eng. Ron

Ron, that's good to hear. My .990 pins had to be honed too. Other than that, they checked out fine. This is mainly a street engine, but may see the strip. It's 470" stroker kit and the I beams were optional.
Thanks,
Mark

Here's what's available now for $250.

http://store.440source.com/Connecting-Rods-RB-with-Capscrew-bolts-Set-of-8/productinfo/200-1132/

They are set up for pressed pins which means you can run any piston that has the 1.094 wristpin, you run a floating pin piston the same way you run the pressed pin piston. Either pin is the same OD so the rod will grab either pin the same. No need for the pin locks if you're running pressed pin-style.

Or, you could hone them to the proper clearance, drill an oil hole and run steel on steel. It's been done. I don't think I would waste time bushing them.

The advantages are that they are new, they're made of better material, although they're not 4340. They have 7/16" rod bolts which are something like 40% stronger/stiffer than 3/8" bolts. That's reassuring if you're slinging those stock pistons around.
The disadvantage is that they're 0.008" short. Another disadvantage is that you know you didn't spend as much as you could on rods, so until you wrap that engine up to its non-racing redline a few times you are going to have your doubts.

You want to talk about cheap rods, I bought a set of CAT stock 440 replacement rods for $76.00 on ebay a couple of years ago. I won't know if they were a deal or not until I try them. They don't look anywhere near as nice as the 440Source stock replacements.

R.