In my search for a substitute aftermarket ro bolt, i e-mailed many on F-Chat. I thank you for all of your efforts. As it turned out, Verell sent me a part number that he thought might be worth a try, so I had the local parts house bring a set in for a side by side comoparison. The result was the length, etc was right on the money, but the head was a slightly different design. Closer inspection revealed that the load bearing surface (head) was almost identical, certainly useable. The part? ARP #184-6001. It is supposed to be for Olds 350 to 425 motors. Cost? Under a hundred. HTH. Kermit
Hi matt as you said that bolt is for the 307-350-403-425 cid (small block),225, A type head, DONT USE IT till you have contacted ARP, rod bolts are the most important in any engine,and the exhaust stroke is a killer for rod bolts,also ferrari motors achieve higher rpm's-more load, arp phone no-805-278-7223,
as a pontiac/olds nerd from all the trans ams ive had and chopped up , i second the above post. pontiacs and olds motors ( not ram air or super duty) give up the ghost above 6000 rpm . the stock heads dont flow above 5500 rpm so there is no need to wring the life out of the big old monsters. if this rod bolt is close perhaps, you can use rod bolts for a olds W30 455 engine, maybe check the specs on pontiac ram air/super duty motors as they are in the same family, more or less. please dont destroy your ferrari!!!!!!! best wishes . michael
Matt - ARP makes a Ferrari specific bolt and nut for us, we have the bolt altered from the OE part to imrove cap and bean alignment at the parting line. They are 190k psi material with a large under-head radius. There is a picture on my Norwood Performance web site, happily the price has come down quite a bit since we put the site together.
I thank you all for the input. I am not a great fan of the Olds, and Pontiac bottom end either. I would be curious however on what the comparitive weight loads are on the exhaust stroke of a significantly lighter rod an piston (Ferrari) at say 7500 RPM, against the much heavier Olds piston assembly at a lower RPM. I can provide weights of the Ferrari parts, if someone has accesss to the GM parts, it would be an interesting comparison.
