Thought I would share this with my fellow rocketeers. The fine gentlemen at Ross Racing Engines stated that small block Olds rod bolts were the correct diameter and length for my 324 Olds rods. I purchased the said ARP rod bolts for a 350 Olds and noticed a problem as I attempted to install them. The head of the stock Olds has a chamfer that intersects with the shank on the rod bolt itself. There is also a fillet radius in the rod bolt head pad on the rod that corresponds with the bolt head. The ARP bolts had a slightly different head that would hit this fillet in the rod and would not allow me to fully seat the rod bolt into the rod. My pictures show how I carefully removed the fillet in the rod to allow the ARP bolts to fit. What I didn't take a picture of is how I rounded and polished everything in the area where I removed metal with a cut off wheel. Feel free to chime in on my technique, its simply how I solved the problem. Bear in mind this is probably the weakest part of the rod and must admit that I weakened it further by performing this. I polished it in hopes of eliminating any stress risers and therefore retaining the original strength of the rod.
Yup, better to reuse the old Magnafluxed bolts. Or, research bolts from different engine as mentioned above.
Being that there isnt any aftermarket rod bolt ,Olds or Mopar that fits the early Olds rods without some sort of mod in the radius area, Is the main reason I use an H-beam connecting rod in our hot street/performance engine builds Tony
Ouch the ego is crushed. I was aware of all the options and pros and cons, just tried this and documented it HAMB style. If I window a block you'll all be the first to know.
The Jalopy Journal
