CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers

Posted By: Black_Bee

CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 05:14 AM

Hey guys

Sorry guys, I know these types of rods have been discussed to death here, but I have to bring it up before making a decision. ;-)

I'm building a 440 with my dad... nothing radical here, just a street car, HP manifolds, Stealth heads, decent cam, intake, etc. nothing crazy... 5500RPM max here.

We have the parts at the machine shop, and have been quoted $250 Canadian ($200US) to re-size the rods. Add some ARP bolts and that turns into $305Canadian ($245US) for a set of re-sized stock LY rods.

I see stock replacement CAT rods all over eBay for $120 - $160... obviously these aren't race quality parts, but wouldn't they have to be at least as good as the stock stuff that is being re-sized, and cost considerably less money?

Anybody on here using these rods on a stock-ish rebuild?

Posted By: 71 FJ6 Charger

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 05:19 AM

Never heard of them,but if you do go with them,take them to a builder and have them checked out.

Posted By: 70AARcuda

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 05:55 AM

like theses...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mopar-Chr...1QQcmdZViewItem

come bushed or pressed...

for a stock rebuilt...should good to go..

Posted By: dgc333

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 12:01 PM

You can get Eagle or Scat I-beam rods for around $250. Either of these are far superior to CAT products and are stronger & lighter than stock. Both these companies make high quality race products.

I would go with those before CAT stuff.

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 01:09 PM

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You can get Eagle or Scat I-beam rods for around $250. Either of these are far superior to CAT products and are stronger & lighter than stock. Both these companies make high quality race products.

I would go with those before CAT stuff.

you get what you pay for , the CATs will probably not be ready to use after you cycle the rod bolts , some have reported the rods are out of round after doing this , same for someone elses rods and you have to add in the expense of resizing anyway ...

Posted By: 440challenger

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 01:39 PM

I've been running my cats for 5 years. 6500 rpm 440. Car goes low 11's .street car. I had them sized/balanced with my rotating assembly though.
I say go for it. I went with 1.094 pin

Posted By: Rug_Trucker

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 01:53 PM

Stock rods and bolts I would think should be fine. Just going to turn 5500? Spend your money elsewhere.

Posted By: RodStRace

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 03:25 PM

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Stock rods and bolts I would think should be fine. Just going to turn 5500? Spend your money elsewhere.

I would not spend good money to rebuild and use the old rod bolts. How many cycles, how much abuse, how long have they been in service? Last of the 440s rolled out in 79. 39 year old rod bolts at a minimum?
What people are saying is that for the SAME money, he could get Scat or Eagle.

Posted By: moper

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 03:31 PM

As John said. Whatever cheap rods you go with, if they are cycled before use and checked for roundness, will need to be made round again. I've fodun this to be true with any cheaper import rod. For what you're doing, LYs with ARP hardware will be more than fine. If you look, you will spend more than $305 on any of those rods mentioned.

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 04:54 PM

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Stock rods and bolts I would think should be fine. Just going to turn 5500? Spend your money elsewhere.

I would not spend good money to rebuild and use the old rod bolts. How many cycles, how much abuse, how long have they been in service? Last of the 440s rolled out in 79. 39 year old rod bolts at a minimum?
What people are saying is that for the SAME money, he could get Scat or Eagle.

scat maybe , but not eagles .

Personally I would buy K1 rods if I was after a cheaper offshore rod .

Posted By: patrick

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 04:59 PM

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Stock rods and bolts I would think should be fine. Just going to turn 5500? Spend your money elsewhere.

I would not spend good money to rebuild and use the old rod bolts. How many cycles, how much abuse, how long have they been in service? Last of the 440s rolled out in 79. 39 year old rod bolts at a minimum?
What people are saying is that for the SAME money, he could get Scat or Eagle.

scat maybe , but not eagles .

Personally I would buy K1 rods if I was after a cheaper offshore rod .

but in the end, all of these options (especially if you end up needing to resize your new rods) are more expensive than just buying good bolts and re-sizing your existing rods.

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 05:02 PM

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Quote:

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Stock rods and bolts I would think should be fine. Just going to turn 5500? Spend your money elsewhere.

I would not spend good money to rebuild and use the old rod bolts. How many cycles, how much abuse, how long have they been in service? Last of the 440s rolled out in 79. 39 year old rod bolts at a minimum?
What people are saying is that for the SAME money, he could get Scat or Eagle.

scat maybe , but not eagles .

Personally I would buy K1 rods if I was after a cheaper offshore rod .

but in the end, all of these options (especially if you end up needing to resize your new rods) are more expensive than just buying good bolts and re-sizing your existing rods.

I won't even get into the strength issue of 40plus year old rods vs. new stronger material on the new rod. Buy a K1 and you won't have to pay the extra expense of correcting a machining operation that was bypassed to make the parts CHEAP , not sure if it's an issue with scat as I'm pretty sure like K1 the rods are finished HERE .

Posted By: Black_Bee

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 07:17 PM

Hey guys

Thanks for the feed back here... pretty much what I was thinking.

Its not a strength issue for us... we certainly can see that stock rods are more than strong enough for this build, its purely a cost issue since around here the cost of new bolts and a resize is quite a bit more than just buying those new cheap rods.

I guess that the gamble is that when the cheap new rods are checked, if they end up needing to be resized (I assume that the likelyhood of that would go down with price) that will add that same $250 resize on top of the purchase price of the new rod.

dgc333 - do you have a link to $250 Eagle or SCAT rods? Cant seem to find any for a 440. From what I have heard, either of those companies has much higher quality than CAT, and would decrease the likelyhood of having to have the new rods re-sized.

I see some already rebuilt 440 rods w/ Milodon bolts on eBay for 1/2 what our machine shop wants ($120). They are from PAW in California.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/440-CHRYS...A1%7C240%3A1318

Posted By: Lime446

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 07:56 PM

Outta 5 sets of CAT rods that I've used,I've had none that needed resized.My new eagle rods in the stroker kit all had to be resized

.Maybe I just got lucky and got the only 5 good sets or they aren't that bad

If it were me I'd look around for a resized set of LY's on the board you might just get a set for $100. Build a good quench motor and the LY's seem to live just fine.

Posted By: fourgearsavoy

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/30/09 11:21 PM

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Stock rods and bolts I would think should be fine. Just going to turn 5500? Spend your money elsewhere.

I would not spend good money to rebuild and use the old rod bolts. How many cycles, how much abuse, how long have they been in service? Last of the 440s rolled out in 79. 39 year old rod bolts at a minimum?
What people are saying is that for the SAME money, he could get Scat or Eagle.

scat maybe , but not eagles .

Personally I would buy K1 rods if I was after a cheaper offshore rod .

I have K1 rods for my stroker and they are the best looking of the bunch for inexpensive rods.
Call Nick at Compu-Flow for a good price on them

Gus

Posted By: Rug_Trucker

Re: CAT rods for 440... cheaper than re-doing stockers - 03/31/09 11:25 AM

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If it were me I'd look around for a resized set of LY's on the board you might just get a set for $100. Build a good quench motor and the LY's seem to live just fine.

Thank you. I have known a couple people to build race motors without spending money on HD rods. 5500 isn't squat in RPM,s