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I am in the middle of buying/building my new RB26/RB30 swap in my S14 here in the States. I have been researching the conrod issue and I have a few questions for everyone here. I feel that I have beat myself up researching this and I just want all of your opinions since real world experiences are more important to me than the different companies marketing techniques. I am looking for around 800 AWHP, give or take a few HP.

I have narrowed it down to a few decent choices, knowingly staying away from the Chinese copies such as Manley, Spool (which appear to be ok) etc. So I have found the following, in no absolute order.

1) Pauter X-Beam Rods

2) NITTO I-Beam Rods

3) Argo I-Beam Rods

I know that all of these choices have the +'s and -'s, but I need your help with this. The Pauters come available (for an extra $45.00 a rod) with wrist pin oiling internally through the rod. The NITTOs supposedly have a jet near the main that squirts oil to the bottom of the piston, mimicing a block oil squirter. And the Argos speak for themselves with the RIPS boys.

So with cost set aside (since the rods are an important part of a longer stroke engine with higher RPM ranges) what rods do you recommend? No TItanium recommendations please, I don't have $6000+ for only rods.

Thanks guys.

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argo carrillo spool etc all decent rods, but i wouldnt put them in an rb30,

rb30 doesnt have block mounted oil squirters,

the oil squirter makes sure the oil reaches the bottom of the piston, which keeps it cooler, less detonation, less f**king around taking the timing out to loose power to prevent it detonating

without the oil squirter in the rod it will seep out towards the radius/ counterweights and will spray but will randomly touch the bore and bottom of piston skirt

rb30 STD & Nitto rods have oil squirters in the big ends of rods - thus the reason i only recommend the standard with up graded ARP bolts or Nitto H beam or I beam rods

(if you or anyone else knows of any other brands that have the oil squirter in the rb30 big ends then please post them up)

Alot of them have the notch on the conrod side faces to direct the spraying oil up the bore and onto the piston/small end area. But then again alot of engines dont have oil squirters and dont have issues. No doubt a buttload of rb30's running around without oil squirters and dont have det issues either.

H beams have the "valley" to guide the oil, but how does the oil get there?

The notches your talking of are on the sides right?

And im not talking about detonation consistently, my car plain H beams, tuned, bad batch of fuel detonated, rebuilt, coated pistons drilled 1.5mm hole in rod in line with bearing, tuner said he had more timing to play with, more chance of a better result

Yeh the conrod side faces. Same trick used by honda f1 back in the turbo era.

Argo I beam rods have the notches in the sides to direct oil up towards the bore.

Im not disputing what you are saying. Just saying there are alot of people with no oil squirters who dont even realise the difference, and there are people who do and dont realise the difference. Maybe in your NA engine it is more pronounced.

  • 2 weeks later...

Ive used spool rods in several 700hp+ rb30s with no problems.

They now have oils squirters also.

Good to hear........I was looking at their kits and what you get for $2K is pretty good value esp. for a streeter.

  • 1 month later...

Does anyone else have exp with spool? Ive heard some very positive results, but alot of negative also... generally with negative comments its always the 'cheap chinese imposter' with no foundation or reason for the remarks

  • 2 months later...

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