Rods!
 

CAT forged H beam con rods, $340/set

Details:
http://www.949racing.com/index.asp?P...PROD&ProdID=73

:bigtu:

These may be the same as the Belfabs, but I'd much rather give money to Emilio.

haha, those look farmiliar. Glad to see them coming from emilio.

:rofl:

thats cheap and ive been looking for rods everywhere for a decent price, are they good quality for the $$ because i know FM rods are very $$

I don't think anyone is buying rods from FM nowadays,considering the choices we have now and the way they are priced at.

does it strike anyone as coincidence that all three brands emerged at EXACTLY the same time?

I've had those bitches in a box for a couple months.

emilio seems to be locking down the market for the hard core track crew.

what brands?

belfab
etd
949

though 949/emilio admitted they were the same source as belfab (cat pep)

They're selling them on eBay too, I posted an LOL thread about it a couple of weeks ago.

Emilio shamelessly admitted these are from the same source as the Belfab rods. When I build my engine, I'll be getting the rods from him.

damnit i wish these were out when I put my motor together ... better yet, if I knew what I know now I would not have even put different rods in. Wave goodbye to $800 that is sitting in the middle of my motor right now.

Someone needs to sell fully assembled built blocks with these and Supertechs for a reasonable price. A big PITA when I built my first Miata was waiting on the machine shop. An assembly line with these already built, boxed and ready to ship would be great.

Frank

I agree.

but its not that cost efficient, shipping would also kill you...
ill be jumping on these for my spare motor build, along with wiescos
but i want to get some headwork done first to get it out of the way
but this is a grea price

shipping isn't that bad. especially if you do a lot of it or know what the cheap methods are.

I once had a motor delivered complete for $50 from LA to SF. Course it was in a friend's truck but still....




btw, Jim Belfabrication mentioned he'd do just what you want Frank. I think the cost was like 2k plus block.

I think the problem would not be shipping (that's the easy part) but getting a constant supply of reasonably priced donor blocks. The only way to get around that is to charge a core.

For just building a block on 1.8s, there should be plenty of donor Miata, Tracer, Escort GT, Protege. There are on a few minor differences on the block I think, like a threaded mount for accessories, an extra freeze plug, and coolant bung.

I'm not sure why anyone would build a 1.6 vs a 1.8 (even though I did way back in the day) given the choice.

Frank

Yeah, I understand that a bp block is just a bp block, don't get me wrong. But I think you underestimate the cost, time and difficulty involved in sourcing low cost donor blocks.

That aside, my father's shop produces extremely high quality engines, mostly for muscle cars, street rods, and the like. So, I could talk to him about the concept. What would be a reasonable price point to come to market with? Assume a basic but correct 1.8 build, ie check crank, CAT rods, weisco overbore pistons, ARP hardware, oil pump, bearings etc.

I'm thinking that to make it wortwhile for the shop, the shortblock would have to be marketable for $3000 give or take. Would there be a market for a ~$3k assembled, forged internals, shortblock? Granted, FM charges $4000 parts/labor + the block.

+1 Ben...im sure there is a good way to go about it
i would think that a core charge is teh best way to go about it other than everyone sending in their own blocks to get built...i wonder what the exact cost with parts included would be...i will be building my other motor up spring/summer next year