PM Rods....

Sean · February 14, 2004, 11:18:00 PM

Any of you run PM Rods? I had heard of them but never seen them before. These are in the new 350 I bought for my F100....

Sean · February 15, 2004, 12:11:00 AM

Talked one of my Buddys into dropping that new engine into my Truck for me since I'm all crippled up. This is the engine bay of his '71 Monte Carlo. I have never seen another Car that has as much room as these things do. He can stand on the floor between the Radiator and the front of the engine. Makes it pretty easy to work on....

enjenjo · February 15, 2004, 12:40:07 AM

They have been using the PM rods for some time now, they are supposed to be stronger than pink rods.

purplepickup · February 15, 2004, 12:49:40 AM

My engine has PM rods. All the ZZ motors have them. They're good. Once my shifter screwed up and went into neutral when I was shifting at 6000 rpms while I was racing and the tach pegged at 10,000 RPMs for a second I figured I'd stretched some but when I tore it down they were all right to spec.

The one in the pic didn't make it tho. That one bent when rain got into a cylinder thru the carb and I started it. It was bent enough to let the piston come down and hit the crank. It knocked pretty bad before I could shut it down.

Sean · February 15, 2004, 12:51:33 AM

They look a lot beefier. This engine should run considerably better than my last one. It has 10:1 Flat-tops, Iron Vortec Heads, and the same Roller cam as whats in the ZZ4. I even decided to give up my Qjet and ordered a new Edelbrock Carb today.

I will have to do some serious butt kissing once my wife figures out how much money I have spent this time....

Pope Downunder · February 15, 2004, 05:47:26 AM

I have these rods in the 5.7L motor I'm building for the '37. I understand they are very strong, somewhere near a forged factory rod. PM is for 'powdered metail'. They are struck in a die as a blended alloy powder and they flow into a one piece rod. They then 'crack' off the end. Quite amazing, and quite cheap to produce. They are not cheap howver, if you buy them separate to an engine. Mine already had them in it.

You should have stuck with the Quadrajet; you'll get better MPG and response. Don't toss it, you'll probably want to put it back on.

34ford · February 15, 2004, 07:14:27 AM

I even decided to give up my Qjet and ordered a new Edelbrock Carb today.

Sean,
I have a new Edelbrock 1411 (750 cfm) I put on my motor to fire it up for the 1st time that's only been run for 30 minutes. It's to big for my motor. I was told that before I put it on but was to excited to get it started I couldn't wait to get a smaller one so I put it on. Would make you a deal on it if you need that size. Have all the paper work box and warranrty card. E-mail me if you are interested and we can talk. Hope this isn't spam, just trying to help you stay out of trouble for spending to much money>

bob

Sean · February 15, 2004, 09:25:06 AM

I already ordered one of those factory reconditioned 600 edelbrocks from Jegs yesterday, thanks for offering though. As for the qjet, I'll definitely keep it because its less than a year old, but it needed to be tuned and I never got around to taking it to the Carb guy.

I don't know if this engine had the PM rods in it or if they came from something else. A friend of mine built it for his Dirt Track car, then decided it was underpowered after two races and pulled it out. He also used late model, lightweight Vette pistons in it. They look kind of strange too because they don't have a skirt.

He is the "Parts Man" for a local GM dealership so he gets all kinds of good deals on factory parts. This engine should be pretty close to a ZZ4 as far as HP and Torque, so I didn't figure I could go wrong for $750. Of course I have bought all kinds of peripheral stuff like the Carb, new Intake, new headers, etc, so I'll have a little over a grand in it when I'm done.