I was wondering what people's opinions of rod design were, as in H Beam vs I beam and such.

This came up the other night when i was getting info on my rods (http://www.saenzperformance.com/ )

It started by asking people about saenz rods - replies included never heard of em, to crower-comparable, even to best rods available in that they are the lightest rods that are still very strong (this came from a friend who used to work for CNNP, who sold saenz rods)

Then someone was asking if they were h-beam or i-beam (they are h beam), but what is considered better?

(i tried a search, best thing i came up was a comparison of Eagle Hbeams vs Ibeams, and the eagle i-beams were said to be junk)

opinions? thoughts? facts are even better, heh

well from my knowledge the way it is gesigned I beam doesn't hav the side supports of the H beam

I H those are quite different in design the h being stronger having 5 stree point (4 corners and center) and it is a forged rod it shouldn't be bent easy

for the best race rod id have to say the GRP/TRW rods from forward motion billet aluminum weigh half of what a crower does and will hold up to 750hp with no sweat and they are no light the motor spins up like a bike with a knife edged crank the rods are reasonable at 550$ i would do this if i wasn't usging cheap forged rods in my 2.4 (the 2.0 rods dont work in 2.4 anyways)

im not sure about the saenz, but id say crower titanium rods - grp/trw forward motion rods and then crower normals and then eagles

Well, just doing a google search on saenz brought up some dyno plots of JG pro series race engines, and they all run Saenz rods, and make 640-715whp
http://www.jgenginedynamics.com/dynotests7

Reading thru the saenz site is comforting, their basic rod is made of the same material as crower (4340 - 300M and titanium also available). All orders are custom orders, so sets are from the same run of material, and are machined and balnced as a set. and of course, they are all shot-peened and magnafluxed.

more i read about saenz rods, more i like


anywho, reading a reply to this same post on asog brought up another point: I, H, and X beam argueably have no real advantage short of weight, unless crankcase windage is taken into consideration, in which an X-Beam has the advantage (like pauter rods)


anyways, thanks for the reply, hope we can get a good discussion going here

if were going into windage discussion bob stockums indage tray/ basket should be brought into this these will be out for 2.0 and 2.4's

here is the link
http://www.bstockum.com/ANT4.html
the page before this shows how he templated the baffles and so does the next couple pages....

the grp aluminum rods from forward motion are solid blocks of material no I,H,or X so that makes them different because they are lighter i suppose,