SPM Rods Not usable - anybody had any issues?

[Ross]

I rememer Sten writing me an email in capital letters, that just said NOT CHINESE. I still wasn't convinced... but the rods worked for me with apart to the recent failure - but the engine was a good 428BHP for a while before a rebuild, and I don't think the rod failed because of a defect.

I'd use a set if I had them and had the same goal, but in retrospect I'd take Aelred up on his offer; £500 for a good set of rods is probably good insurance!

[Jamo]

Pauter rods are quality, the thing to remember is the lead time on them so plan ahead.

Didn't Bry post that the SPM rods were made in India when he bought some in the group buy?

[prosty]

This is what I've been saying all these years about SPM and the difference in quality. My verdi was +-0 in ALL 5. Hopefully you can sort this out. I would never buy lesser quality when concerning the most important part of the car, the engine.

Talk to the guy who sold them to you if you cannot get your builder to fix this.

[aelred]

It is not only the overall equal weight but is the weight heavier at one end of the rod then the other. That is a critical factor when balancing the rods and difficult to rectify.

[newsh]

I suspect this is what causes the vibration I have in my car, even though they were very close to the same weight when fitted. Its definitely not as smooth as it was before the rods, I put it down to the 6 speed at the time as it was fitted at the same time as the rods and seems worse in second and third but we have since fitted another 6 speed and its exactly the same. Of cousre it could be all 6 speeds do this and you notice it with the 3B flywheel. I wish I'd bought good rods now and had it balanced then I would be sure.. I was told that as long as the rods were all the same weight they could be replaced without rebalancing the engine, but this doesn't account for end to end weight.

[AndyP]

Does anybody know what is acceptable when it comes to weights? I just had mine out again and checked the weights

Overall : within 2gms
Bigends : within 2gms
Little ends : within 1gm

Is this going to cause problems when it comes to balancing them?

[4WheelDrifter]

Phil @ BDB does seem to be a fussy bloke, but I guess that's a good thing. My rods were all +/-0.4g gross weight IIRC and Phil managed to sort out the end-to-end differences, whatever they were.

[Jamo]

I had mine balanced via Aelred, all the Pauter rods the same weight small ends 186 Grams Big Ends 456 grams

[BRY]

Pauter rods are quality, the thing to remember is the lead time on them so plan ahead.

Didn't Bry post that the SPM rods were made in India when he bought some in the group buy?

I asked where they from when sent direct and some boxes had made in Bangladesh on them.

[newsh]

Royal Enfield??

[dubmeister]

Built an rs500 cossie motor a few years ago and the customer supplied genuine cosworth rods and pistons - BIG money - all were matched at the factory and all the weights were identical - big end, small end, piston weight , gudgeon pin weight even so far as the weight of the retainers!!!!!!
Carillo rods from the u.s were all near identical too - only a gnats **** in it.
As the saying goes - You gets what you paid for - and rod problems don't show up immediately (unless WELL out of balance- but that should have been noticed before installation.........) and you know what the results are when they do fail.......and it's never cheap!
I have seen quite a few destroyed rods for different reasons and you can always tell the cheapo ones cos of the quality of the forging/casting!!!

But buying these off t'internet doesn't allow you to examine them until they crash through the letterbox!!! which is 1/2 the problem............

[4WheelDrifter]

As the saying goes - You gets what you paid for

If only that was always true.
Unfortunately many companies, including well known brands have moved production to China to cut costs, not for the customers benefit you can be sure of. It's still possible to spend a lot of money for a load of crap IME.

Has anyone measured the stock rods to see how good they are?

[volcano rs]

I asked where they from when sent direct and some boxes had made in Bangladesh on them.

you sure they weren't put together by leepu?

[mcandmar]

Quick update, been in contact with Sten and he has offered to replace the rods for a matched set. Provided the replacements are ok by Philips standards we should be back on track

[mcandmar]

Just to close this off, the replacement rods we received from Sten were perfectly matched end to end, no balancing work was needed.

Top bloke, he offered to replace the rods straight away and covered the return shipping cost. Great customer service for a product i bought two years ago

Mark.