Threads like this are convincing me that overall stress killed my stock rod as well. No one could figure out a definite cause and just trying to start the car one day caused it to bend enough to contact the cylinder wall. It bent on both planes.

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What confuses the hell out of me is that there are all these people with bent rods, and yet there are 10 times more people running the same kind of power/boost on stock rods for 10's of thousands of miles with no problems.
Did mazda pick-n-choose which cars got shitty rods and which ones got good ones or what? LOL

This reminds me of something I read somewhere about R package and SE vehicles got the engines that Mazda deemed the best. I guess the ones that made the most power or were balanced the closest. Is this true? Forget where I saw this.

I do not believe that. But if someone shows any proof I'll be happy to retract my statement.

I thought our motors were pretty bad ass, and that the 4g63 was shit. I guess Im wrong :dunno:

I don't believe it either, but I just recall reading it and this topic made it come to the front of my mind. Thought maybe someone else would have some proof for or against this.

In order for that to be the case, Mazda would have to run every single engine on a dyno. Lamborghini can afford this luxury. Pretty sure that the first time a BP / B6 gets fired up is after it's had a car installed on it.

You guys are going to get everyone all paranoid. After 10 months of my noob ass trying to figure out how to tune my rods looked perfect. Turn up the boost!

Thats kind of what I figured. I wish I could remember where it was I read it. Seems like it was someone quite reputable. Guess they shouldn't be so reputable in that case.

Fuck it, our motors are cheap. More boost ftw.

http://image.turbomagazine.com/f/854...car+piston.jpg

Nice article, very interesting read. Thanks for the link.

this car had no problems either! as i said above, you dont know until teardown if there's an issue.

and part of the "pick n choose" is the higher compression cars.

What bugs me now is that I'm probably driving my own car around with rods that look like that. eek.

As long as they don't bend too much or break I guess the car would be acting normal though, right?

I've been arguing with my dad about this whole "bent rods" issue. He REFUSES TO BELIEVE that you could bend a rod and the engine would still be driving and not knocking or blowing up. This is really helping my argument.

For all four to bend like that and not break you'd have to be right at the threshold of what those rods can take...AND not see any detonation. Since detonation usual finds the weak link (weakest rod of set) and causes catastrophic failure, and det is often more prevalent in one cylinder more than others.

It appears that the motor saw just a little too much power, the rods bent and work hardened...becoming "stronger" (although more brittle) and the motor was happy...if not running as designed for a while. Kind of a steady state failure that allowed the motor to keep running.

If anything this points strongly towards EXCELLENT engine management and det prevention...and suggests a real upper limit on torque capacity for stock rods.

y8s: Did either of previous owners ever dyno it? Any idea on peak torque?

When I was a teenagers and in the first year of college I worked in a VW shop in a warehouse next to Norwood's place. The shit that rolls out of his shop is on another level. We always saw shit in there like Bugattis, Ferraris, Callaways, you name...wild shit.

But if you notice all the people with stock motors and lots of boost are the 1.6 evey time you hear of someone bending a rod it's in a 1.8 or at least the majority

He mentioned planning to go to the dyno in various threads but never posted up results

Well then now you have the reduced compression ratio you've always wanted!

yea this seems kinda crazy. m-tuned guy road around on 360whp for like 8 months no issues and this one bends up rods at 250? looks like im not putting a stock motor back in my car.

if you believe these lies, then sure. lol