Okay, doing a mild rebuild. Someone has a set of LT4 Vette Rods and is saying they are "better" than mine.

I have a '95 Z28 Motor.

I honestly don't know what these LT4 Rods came out of, well they did come out of the Vette, but I don't know what year.

I also don't know if my rods are the "PM" rods, or whether or not the LT4 ones are.

Question is, how can I tell which is which???? I don't have my motor apart - so I can't measure, but I will soon...

Are there any dimensional differences? Color? Weight? Size? Etc???

 

To my knowledge they are the same rods in both lt4 and lt1 motors...part # 10108688 I have a set of lt4 rods, the rods look exactly the same as the lt1's

The cranks are different though, I have a couple lt4 cranks they have undercut and rolled fillets, and I believe they have a better heat treat process.

 

They COULD have better rods, as early LT1s didn't get the powdered medal rods, but later LT1s and obviously all LT4s did.

 

Okay, so we've established that the LT4 rods ALL are the powdered metal rods.

We've established that SOME of the LT1 rods are powdered metal, with the cutoff occurring somewhere with the '95 motors.


So now I need to see how it is that I can differentiate the powdered vs. the non-PM ones.

Anybody know? There HAS to be a way!!!

 

LT1 rods have a machined parting line, LT4 rods are "cracked cap" style, lt4 rods i guess arent reconditionable, see

http://www.automotiverebuilder.com/ar/ar99928.htm for more details

 

All 1995 Vettes with LT1s have PM rods, as do the late 94 Vettes.

Mike

 

I have a set of 1996 LT4 rods that I personally pulled out of the corvette and motor, with 50k original miles, removal cause he crashed it...they have a machined parting line just like the lt1 rods.

 

The PM rods are smooth and a wierd color gray. The non PM rods have a rough cast finish and look like any other Chevy rod.

 

The PM cap is round and smooth, it does not have the balance pad that the forged have.