Stock 283 Connecting Rods?

[Bill B.]

What year connecting rods should one stay away from when rebuilding an engine? Or is this insignificant for a daily driver that is occasionally red lined two to three times every 300 miles.
Are my factory 1961 fuelie connection rods safe to use, and do the hipo rods have the needed material in the weak part of the beam, or are all 283 connecting rods the same?

Bill


1961 Black/Silver/Red Int. 283/315 FI
power windows. Frame off 65% completed.
1989 White/hard top/Grey Int. daily driver 167,000 miles

"The problem with Liberalism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" - Margaret Thatcher

[Tom B.]

Re: Stock 283 Connecting Rods?

I'm tempted to say that the stock rods will serv you just fine with ARP fasteners. I think of all the times I have twisted 283s to the limit and never had one fail. However, these are all much older parts than they were back then. Today, for an engine that was going to see red line occasionally I'd buy a good set of aftermarket rods with ARP fasteners just to be safe. You don't need to spend a lot of money. Eagle and some others make a good 2" big end rod for a reasonable price. Check the listing online at Summit. They have tons of rods that are not in the catalog.

Tom

[Duke W.]

Re: Stock 283 Connecting Rods?

The only OE rods I recommend for SB rebuilds are the second design 327 rods that went into production circa 1966. They are characteristed by the additional hump of metal adjacent to the bolt seats, which added significant durability to this weak point of the first design 327 rod. The 283 rods are even more spindly.

I think it was Mike Ernst who reported losing a rod on his '57 283 HP FI engine a few years ago.

A set of Eagle SIR5700SP rods can be had for about $250, which is about what you will spend qualifying used rods with Maganflux inspection and new high strength bolts that will require resizing the rods. Modern high strength rods are cheap insurance, especially for high revving mechanical lifter engines.

I think it's okay to use second design 327 rods on medium performance small blocks that don't rev over 5500 without spending ANY money on them. Just torque them up and verify that the bearing bores are in spec - no need to Magnaflux, replace the bolts or resize if the bearing bores are in spec. I refer to this as the "all or nothing" philosophy, which was used by the designers of the last generation of battleships to allocate the armor plating mass budget - maximum armor or no armor - new modern high strength rods, or use the old ones, as is, as long as the big end bores are in spec.

I was recently contacted by a 283/245HP owner about rods. I suggested that he contact a member who had recently rebuilt his low miles 327/300 that originally had the second design rods. He replaced them with modern high strength rods because his new configuration was designed to make usable power to higher revs. A deal was struck and the second design 327 rods are now in the 283.

If you have a set of second design rods, hang on to them. They can be useful to anyone rebuilding a 283 or medium performance 327 that originally had the first design 327 rods.

Anything prior to the second design 327 rods, I consider paper weights!

Duke

[Bill B.]

Re: Stock 283 Connecting Rods?

As always, very good advice. Will look into Eagle connecting rods #SIR5700SP. I see the option of floating or pressed in pins. Can I assume the floating pins are not necessary for my application, and the pressed pins are more than adequate for street use, and last option (2) #SIR5700SPLW again assume the (LW) indicates light weight. If so would you recommended over the previously suggested?

Again thanks, Bill

[Duke W.]

Re: Stock 283 Connecting Rods?

Floating pins are useful for racing engines that will be frequently disassembled. If you are building a road engine to last go with fixed pins.

I'm not familiar with the SIR5700SPLW. Download the Eagle catalog and tell us about them.

It's best to use rods that are about the same weight or only minimally heavier than OE to avoid balance complications.

Duke

[Bill B.]

Re: Stock 283 Connecting Rods?

Checked with Eagle online, and found connecting rod #SIR5700SP is superseded with #SIR5700SPLW, yesterday requested detailed information on changes, will post results.
Bill