Connecting rod nuts

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bahamasair

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May 11, 2008
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Bahamas
I lost a couple of the nuts from my connecting rod bolts. Can I use something like this? http://www.jegs.com/i/ARP/070/300-8302/10002/-1 . Its a 3/8'' - 24, 12-Point, Black Oxide. Is there a special nut needed for connecting rods? I dont see any sold singly on Jegs or Summit. Id rather not have to change all the bolts just because I lost a couple of nuts.
Thanks
 
bahamasair said:
I lost a couple of the nuts from my connecting rod bolts. Can I use something like this? http://www.jegs.com/i/ARP/070/300-8302/10002/-1 . Its a 3/8'' - 24, 12-Point, Black Oxide. Is there a special nut needed for connecting rods? I dont see any sold singly on Jegs or Summit. Id rather not have to change all the bolts just because I lost a couple of nuts.
Thanks
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Consulted my ARP catalog & can find no reason why these nuts shouldn't work.
 
Machine shop checks the rods for straightness & the bearing areas for roundness. They then bring the rods back into factory specs. You can get away without doing this, but it's always better if you do. If you had to hammer any old bolts out then you definitely have to have them resized. Since you have the bolts, call a machine shop & ask what their price is using your stuff.
 
we don't have any machine shops here. I could probably get the bolts out by pressing them but it sounds like Ill be better off just getting nuts. I read all kinds of different crap about the bolts. Some say you can't reuse the old ones others say it's fine. The bolts in them now are sps performance bolts so should be good quality.
 
bahamasair said:
What do you mean resized? I went and bought arp wave bolts with nuts.
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It is a pretty standard engine rebuild procedure. If you replace rod bolts you have your engine machine shop check and probably re-size the big end [before balancing] when you have the rest of the work performed - boreing, fitting pistons, installing cam bearings etc.
 
Ahh I thought you meant resizing something to do with the bolt holes. I think Ill just reuse the rod bolts that are on there already. This engine hardly has any miles on it since its last rebuild, the only reason I had to take the pistons out was so I could change the cam bearings.
 
That should be fine if you don't remove the bolts from the rods. On assembly don't over torque, and if your going to run it hard do not torque the fasteners to full torque anymore times than you have to. . As I recall, race engine builders don't max torque good rod bolts any more than 3 times,
 
Now should I go by torque wrench or bolt stretch? I have a stretch gauge but don't know what the stretch for these brand of bolts is supposed to be, having said that I dont know what the torque is supposed to be lol .
Thanks for the advise bud :)
 
Measuring bolt stretch is the most accurate way but torquing them is perfectly adequate as well. Either way you will have to get the bolt manufacturers specs. You will want to check this but my memory tells me that the stock rod bolts are torqued 43-45LbsFt
 
Well I got the ARP nuts but they don't fit lol. After searching for hours online it looks like the sps bolts use a UNJ thread. Now I have to find a nut with the right thread and it looks like its going to be a bitch to find. I only need 1 damn nut and had hoped to put the engine back together over this weekend. If anyone knows where I could find a single nut with a UNJ thread Id love to hear from you.
 
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