Thoughts on used Nascar Rods

You can pick up Carrillo rods on ebay for under $300 all day long. They have been used for qualifying, practice and then the race itself. Thoughts on buying some and having them reconditioned and using? Are they done for after seeing 500 miles of sheer torture? Or are the crews just being absolutely safe because they have the pocketbooks which allow them to be.

If you could find the right journal/length etc, you could have one BADASS set of reconditioned rods for about 600 bucks. Thoughts?

Cup builders replace the rods after one race because they might not make two races. They experienced probably over a million cycles in anger with g loads at max hp in the 5000 g range.

Almost any use you put them to won't equal that, but who knows how many more cycles they have in them? Remember that metal is like a woman; it remembers every stress you ever put on it, and although it may not show, when it reaches that final stress it will fail, perhaps catastrophically. With used Cup rods, you have some idea of what kind of a life they've had before you met them.

On the other hand, an engineering consultant from Arrow that Bret spoke with at PRI said he had experience with very high hp/rpm engines reusing rods for two races. Of course those were Arrows, not Carillo. ;)

You might have trouble with the 1.88 or so journal diameter. Very few cranks that we use have those sizes. In order to convert your crank to that, you'd need to invest almost as much in the crank as the difference between the used Carillos and a new set of rods which fit your purpose.

I'm amazed that they get $300.

Bottom line: I wouldn't go that route for my engine or one I was designing for someone.

My $.02

Informative post, talking me out of doing something stupid is just what i always need. Thank you for your detailed response :)

Merry X-Mas

~Jared

Originally posted by atljar
Informative post, talking me out of doing something stupid is just what i always need.

Hey that's how I got where I am.

Used bottom end parts are never something I really look at and say, hey that's a good idea. The reason being that as the old man said they all have a service life and the work to check them or fix them sometimes compares to that of a new part that has a much longer life reguardless. There really is no short cuts in building something that will last.

Actually the engineer I talked with was just a consultant for Arrow at the show. A very interesting guy who was a former F1 engineer. He actually recomended a special steel for most rods over Ti ones which was suprising to me, but they showed the same performance and lap times as steel ones so who I am to argue with that. Not saying what alloy of steel he recomended and why, but it's not what you would think that's for sure.

Bret

Why not give up the type of steel he recommended?

Originally posted by OldSStroker
Remember that metal is like a woman; it remembers every stress you ever put on it, and although it may not show, when it reaches that final stress it will fail, perhaps catastrophically.


LOL, that's great. Mind if I steal that? :D

Originally posted by OldSStroker
On the other hand, an engineering consultant from Arrow that Bret spoke with at PRI said he had experience with very high hp/rpm engines reusing rods for two races. Of course those were Arrows, not Carillo. ;)

Mmm, Arrow... I smell F1 :) I also talked to one of the reps at that booth. Seem like a very nice piece. Too bad they're over 800 a rod ;)

Later
Chuck

Originally posted by ToddR
Why not give up the type of steel he recommended?

cause giving away all the things you learn doesnt make any money!

www.musclemotorsports.com

Nascar teams these guys get theirs from use rods only one race. You would need to get the checked and reconditioned. I don't think it would be worth the money unless your really building a cup car. Most of the cheap ones on ebay are frauds and not real carillo cup rods.

-Shannon

Originally posted by LameRandomName
LOL, that's great. Mind if I steal that? :D

Go ahead. It's not original with me.

Another one, from an engineer I knew a long time ago:

"You can't rape Mother Nature."

Think about it. We see folks trying this all the time in engine building.

Originally posted by ToddR
Why not give up the type of steel he recommended?

Cause they are about the only ones that can make them from that and the info and cost is not really usefull here anyways.

Hey I have to have some secrets!

Bret

I see how youz guyz are. nudge, nudge.
;)