Rods

[TruS4]

I know there is one add up for rpm rods but who else is selling rods? Anyone have them balanced at mahcine shop?

[Silverex]

They are pretty cheap straight from RPM. Like mentioned in the other thread they come weight match small/big ends but there is room for improvements. Unless you’re getting rest of the assembly balanced also I wouldn’t worry about it tho.

[Black_Pearl_B6]

I would get max speeding rods it’s where all the companies get them white label from anyway, the heads of the arp hardware I used for many different brands said maxspeeding on them, and they guarantee them to +- a gram. They usually get balanced with the whole rotating assembly if at all


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[AudiAR01]

I'm using MAXPEEDING rods for my build. I had to balance them a bit further. But for the price you honestly can't beat them. I got them for pretty cheap from another car guy. But you can get them shipped to your door for 350-375

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[Black_Pearl_B6]

I'm using MAXPEEDING rods for my build. I had to balance them a bit further. But for the price you honestly can't beat them. I got them for pretty cheap from another car guy. But you can get them shipped to your door for 350-375

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

You would have to balance any rods the big ends and small ends very rarely match


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[AudiAR01]

You would have to balance any rods the big ends and small ends very rarely match


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Yeah I know. But a lot of people don't. And just throw them in. After weight matching them. I weight matched and then end balanced them.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[Silverex]

Unless you’re getting the crank balanced with the rest of the assembly, getting the rod ends balanced seems like a waste of time IMO.

[AudiAR01]

Unless you’re getting the crank balanced with the rest of the assembly, getting the rod ends balanced seems like a waste of time IMO.

Having the rods not end balanced or at least close can cause premature bearing failure. Rods should be end weight balanced. Then balanced with the crank as an assembly as a whole. If you have a motor race spec'd blueprinted balanced. They balance individual pieces then as a whole. Revving at higher rpms which a lot of people do with built motors. 8500k+ if not balanced correctly can cause excess vibrations. Hence the reason people also use fluiddampers.to help control crank harmonics and vibration. Balancing aftermarket rods is good idea when pushing these motors to the extreme. And it doesn't cost very much. Putting thousands of dollars into 20 year old motors. It's a good idea to balance shit.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[Silverex]

Most (all aftermarket rods I’ve used) do come end balanced to their specs, which obviously can be better but stock rods are not and don’t have issues so once again in my opinion it’s a waste of time unless you are getting the crank balanced. I can’t see why it’d even help without balancing the rest since if everything else isn’t held to same specs it’s still “out of balance”. Will it matter probably not...it amazes me how many engines “run good/fine” with clearances all over the place but it’s not the way I’d go about it. Just like how you rarely see anyone on here mic their bearing for clearances or use a dial bore gauge for the bores yet you don’t see a lot of spun bearings or wore out rings after a fresh rebuild.
FWIW: there’s guys on here who have left crank in, checked nothing , threw cheap rods in, and make over 500whp and spin over 8k without any issues.

Edit: My memory was off and the stock rods are balanced.

[RMode]

Most (all aftermarket rods I’ve used) do come end balanced to their specs, which obviously can be better but stock rods are not and don’t have issues so once again in my opinion it’s a waste of time unless you are getting the crank balanced. I can’t see why it’d even help without balancing the rest since if everything else isn’t held to same specs it’s still “out of balance”. Will it matter probably not...it amazes me how many engines “run good/fine” with clearances all over the place but it’s not the way I’d go about it. Just like how you rarely see anyone on here mic their bearing for clearances or use a dial bore gauge for the bores yet you don’t see a lot of spun bearings or wore out rings after a fresh rebuild.
FWIW: there’s guys on here who have left crank in, checked nothing , threw cheap rods in, and make over 500whp and spin over 8k without any issues.

what someone does in the short term, vs after 120k miles, which is probably the average for these cars at this point, are 2 different things though.

Factory parts don't require the level of blueprinting and balancing, because everything was designed to work with everything else. And those harmonics that result are designed around the stock crank pulley as well as rpm limit.

That goes out the window when you start mixing and matching products with factory and multiple aftermarket brands. Audi engines (and many others too) are internally balanced - to stock components.

You don't see a ton of spun bearings or worn rings because people don't tend to mention it. It happens, a lot. It happens more as miles go up. Even a crappy assembly can keep itself together for a several thousand miles.

[AudiAR01]

It's not a waste of time if you take pride and build engines right. Rods should be balanced both weight and end balanced. And then the entire rotating assembly should be balanced together as well. And yes I know people just throw em in go. My Allroad was done that way. I weight matched the rods. And that's it. I didn't pull the crank. I installed the rods with crank in it. Didn't spec the bearing clearance on the rods either. Just tossed them. And went about my day. And spun a rod bearing within 5k miles. Which is why I am completely balancing this engine this time around. Luckily it didn't do any damage to the crank journal. And I put another rod in it. So far so good. But I also tuned it down some.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

[q20v]

So I’m going through this right now, today actually. I’m comparing max speeding rods to OEM from a total weight / balance perspective. Initially I thought OEM would be wayyyy off but I was somewhat wrong.

Based on measurements I took today:

Max speeding rods:
Rod weight (set of 6)
- 1 gram range as per the literature
Big end
- 2 gram range

OEM (spare set I had from a 2.7)
Rod weight
- 1.3g range
Big end
- 0.5g range (I was impressed by this)


I spent a bit of time getting my maxspeeding rods to be within 0.2g on the big end and total weight. Small ends are within 2g but I’m not sure how to get that any closer without burning tons of time on it chasing it down.
OEM small ends are within 2.6 so I figure I’m doing alright there.

[q20v]

And another measurement:

OEM rods weigh 580g nominal

Maxspeeding weigh 555g nominal (or 550g depending which cheap Amazon scale I use).

So I’m bringing my full rotating assembly in to be re-balanced on Monday. Sure I could run it as-is but... why not at this point. On inline engines I think you can get away with it if everything is weight matched, but with V configuration that’s not the case.

[Silverex]

It's not a waste of time if you take pride and build engines right. Rods should be balanced both weight and end balanced. And then the entire rotating assembly should be balanced together as well. And yes I know people just throw em in go. My Allroad was done that way. I weight matched the rods. And that's it. I didn't pull the crank. I installed the rods with crank in it. Didn't spec the bearing clearance on the rods either. Just tossed them. And went about my day. And spun a rod bearing within 5k miles. Which is why I am completely balancing this engine this time around. Luckily it didn't do any damage to the crank journal. And I put another rod in it. So far so good. But I also tuned it down some.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1

Kinda seems like your agreeing with me that balancing just the rods and nothing else is a waste of time, although I doubt it had anything to do with your failure. Obviously balancing the whole assembly is the way to go and what I’d recommend/did. Like you mentioned there’s so many other major things (bearing/PTW/ ETC specs) that are more important than worrying about getting the rod ends closer than a few grams of each other like they come. If using stock pistons good luck getting them within a few grams of each other, at least I couldn’t with the 18 I had since you can’t remove 5+grams from a stock piston safety. So what’s the point of going nuts getting one part of the equation perfect but not another that even further off?
Also balancing is far from an exact science from how the rod ends are usually weight, to a neutral balance vs over balance, what the shop considers “balanced” etc.

One thing I will mention is that it’s extremely rare for a machine shop to balance the whole assembly within a few grams of everything....Like mentioned it could be impossible to get your pistons that close, cranks are usually balance to <1oz (28g), some might say they check/adjusted rods but not always the case, unless your paying a lot for all the work and unless actually watching or checking it you’ll never really know how balanced your stuff is but hey it usually helps ya sleep better at night. Lol

I feel like we are all on same page that balancing the assembly is best practices but all I was getting at it’s not the end of the world if not since there’s so many other variables.

[Silverex]

And another measurement:

OEM rods weigh 580g nominal

Maxspeeding weigh 555g nominal (or 550g depending which cheap Amazon scale I use).

So I’m bringing my full rotating assembly in to be re-balanced on Monday. Sure I could run it as-is but... why not at this point. On inline engines I think you can get away with it if everything is weight matched, but with V configuration that’s not the case.

That’s crazy how different your rod weights were from mine, mine were around 525 but after going back and looking the ends were a lot closer together than I remembered

[AudiAR01]

Yeah I was agreeing with you. I got my Max rods within 1.0ish to 1.9ish on small end and within 1-2 on big end. But they were also pretty close outta the box. At least this set was. The first set I got which I'm guessing is like maybe their first release of max rods. Bc they were pretty far out. Between the 6 rods just in nominal weight there was IIRC 5.5g difference between lightest and heaviest rod. Which I got within 3.3g I believe. I can't remember now. As it was twoish years ago. But I did take the two heaviest rods of the bunch and put them in the center piston location on each bank hoping it would help. But like I said I spun a bearing. But it was on cyl 1 so the weight didn't matter. My uncle owns a hotrod shop. And builds crazy 1500hp+ cars. Mostly old muscle cars on alcohol. And he has all the stuff to do the balancing. Only reason I did it on this build. But when it comes down to it. You could buy max rods weight match them if they're off. And toss em in. Be fine. I'll have to remember to check my OEM rods when I pull them out. And see what they're at weight Wise.

2003 A6 2.7T 6spd Stage 1+ (motor pulled for stage 3+ upgrades)

2001 Allroad TIP Stage 1
2006 A3 2.0T 6spd Stage 1