Titanium Connecting Rods, Pumping people for info. Options

[alpha434]

I intend on making myself titanium connecting rods. Don't tell me its a bad idea. I'm already set on doing it. BUT, I want input on the exact shape. I'm assuming that the structure has to be a little different to downplay brittleness in titanium. Porsche factory did titanium. Does anyone have one that could take a picture for me?

[byndbad914]

I had the joy about 8 yrs ago working with some guys that had a bunch of 6" small blk chevy rods machined from ti and had issues with the coating wearing off quickly, which on a V8 is brutal. Shared journals means the rods rub against each other and ti-ti contact galls like a mf'er.

We searched and searched for almost a year at that time and found what was supposedly a good coating. They were willing to give me a set of 8 coated for $1200 to try in my engine, to which I quickly said fuck that! Build a crap 350 and just dyno it until is lets go (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) I wasn't about to make my $9300 engine a test bed (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/screwy.gif)

Last I knew a serious sprint car of some sort ran 2 full seasons with a set, so apparently they got the coating right. And sprint car rpm/spikes/variations, etc is just a whole new world of pain for an engine. Let alone the quantity of dirt that gets ran through oil passages - it's like a blood alcohol content... oil blew .24 on the dirt meter (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/beer.gif)

Another engine was a drag engine. In any case, both engines were torn down on a regular basis so it was easy to inspect the rods.

And I am with Twystd - ahh to be young again. And that is not trying to be an ass to alpha or one of those backhanded comments - I was just so much more eager to try anything and believe in my crazy ideas when I was 20. Christ, I was a god in my own mind at 20 and have to admit, it made for an interesting learning curve.

More power to you alpha! I know you say you gave up on it, but we all know in the back of your mind you are thinking "I could do that"..

And Eagle stuff is Chinese machined too - about 99% sure on that. At least that is what I was told by a vendor/middleman for Chinese stuff we were getting when I worked at a hot rod shop. Almost every set of Eagle H-beams I had to cut the caps and resize the big end because they were over spec. Machining is really hard to get good out of China, but the parts themselves are pretty solid. One of our customers was the first guy we knew of running 8.80s in a 10" tire Mustang with a blown 347 - right when the cheap Chinese rods and crank were hitting the market!!!