The factory rod bolts are know to be weak. So is this a must to be upgraded for drifting? If i were to keep the engine running at 3500~4000 RPM for quite a bit of time, are the factory rod bolts likely to break first before the other engine components would? I might consider upgrading them if i don't have to take the engine out and it's not a hard installation.

 

rod bolts do not require a full tear down... but it will be done faster (and easier) to take the motor out and just build a bullet proof bottom end (forged componets... no need for billet unless you are going crazy with the HP)... then you have no worries and are ready for boost when the budget is right

 

rod bolts are only what..$170? so this must be bang for my buck. are there any DIYs or installation guide on this?

 

You are seriously asking if 3500-4000 rpm (not even 3/4 of the effective rpm range) is going to damage your rod bolts? This is a serious question?

A must for drift use include extra tires, a proper LSD, and a driver who knows what he's doing (ie pracice). Rod bolts aint on the list.

Bang for your buck - sure, if the only cost you look at is the cost of the part. Time is money. It's very time consuming to access that part of the engine (alot of stuff to tear down), and it will be an absolute mess of a job as well.

 

It's very time consuming to access that part of the engine (alot of stuff to tear down), and it will be an absolute mess of a job as well.[/QUOTE]

i didn't know about that. well ofc, 3500~4000 rpm won't hurt the engine but if it's kept there for a long period of time then won't it hurt some engine component?

 

The full alloy oil pan has to be removed to replace all the rod bolts & while it may be possible to lift the motor high enough to do it in situation it is far easier to pull the motor to do this job.

With regards to the 3500~4000 rpm long period running hurting the motor.
The motor will not have any problem at all coping with this, after all this is exactly the situation auto petrol engined based leisure boats are required to fulfil & they cope perfectly well for 100's to 1000's of hours in these rev ranges

Rod bolt failure is almost 100% caused from overreving.

I don't know a lot about drifting but it appears to me that the drifters Iv'e seen on TV all seem to be revving the sh!!! out of there cars & each run lasts barely 30 seconds, the complete opposite to your long running 3500K example

 

" they cope perfectly well for 100's to 1000's of hours in these rev ranges"

Are you sure about this? staying at 4k rpm for 100's to 1000's of hours and it'll be fine?

"Rod bolt failure is almost 100% caused from overreving."
What is considered over revving? i thought 4k rpm is pretty over revving because the max rpm is 6500 rpm.

When i make donuts then ofc, i rev under 4k. But let say i downshift at 50mph, the rpm would shoot up to like 5k.

 

dude you can not be serious. drifting with the motor under 4000k rpm's is practicly impossible.

the only way to actually drift like that would be to buy 4 inch wide wheels and put a skinny tire on it because there is no way you can spin a stock tire at that low of an rpm

 

Never had a problem with the rod bolts in 40K+ track miles. Oil system, sure, rod bolts, no.

 

that's what i pretty much said. i said making donuts is possible under 4k rpm but not actually drifting in high entry. I should've said making donuts at low speed.

 

I see this headed in all sorts of directions

 

There's a nice place on the tach that has a red line on it. Over that, the motor is not guaranteed to last, under that and you're fine dude. Quit worrying about useless things. Your motor would be perfectly happy at 6000 RPMs all day long as long as it was properly lubricated, cooled, and has a load applied to it. It's actually quite hard to hurt a stock engine (especially a VQ) as long as you stay within the allowable parameters for revvs and temp. Will it shorten the motor's life to run at 6k all day? Maybe. Will it be noticeable 10 years down the road? Maybe. Will you care when you sell the car in 4 years? No. Unless you plan to keep the car till the day you die, drive it like a sports car. Or drive it like a granny, we don't care, and neither will the car so long as you properly maintain it.

 

My car spends 30 minutes at a time on the track not seeing under 4k RPM, and i now have 117k miles on it. You will be just fine, and if you must swap the rod bolts, just change the whole Rod out at that time, and install an 06 Rev-up oil pump while your down there.

 

Thank you guys for telling me to not worry about it. I've seen some threads that people say the motor is blown. They must have some kinda FI or N/A modded. I guess stock power or about 300whp won't hurt it that much. I just didn't want to face the blown motor or some bolts shooting out of the engine and mess things up. I was just trying to prevent things from getting worse.

 

If we're talkin drifting, your money would be better spent on cooling mods. Radiator, oil cooler etc.

 

Wider radiator or taller radiator?
Would i need a tranny cooler and diff cooler also?

 

Are you serious?

Thicker. Aluminum, with a shroud and fans. Of course I ran an NA bolt on motor at the track with a stock radiator for thousands of miles with no problem.

No, and No.

 

Long time ago, i remember someone saying that for better cooling, radiator should be wider not taller so that when going sideways, more air can go in..not sure.
Maybe wider AND thicker.

 

Riot
You really are "Deep in the Sky"