SteveMcNash

I'm just wondering if anyone knows if titanium rods are worth the extra $$ over 4340 steel ones? Now I know that obviously titanium rods would be stronger but is that it?
Thx in advance

mudder

Ti is stronger and lighter than steel which makes your motor not have to work as hard thus, more power. I don't know much about using Ti for rod applications but one thing to think about is how the metal fatigues. Titanium, steel, and aluminum all have failure points. Provided you never exceed steels failure point, it will never break. With aluminum parts like rockers, every stroke takes you closer and closer to it's failure point. That's one reason most people will only use aluminum in a race motor that they'll rebuilt for next season. I don't know if Ti acts more like steel or aluminum but I'd be sure to look into it before investing the money.

2Fass240us

Titanium offers the strength of steel with the lightness of aluminum. Like mudder said, the lightweight properties of Ti will allow your engine to rev with less effort. If you're ultimately concerned with strength, I would suggest finding the yield strengths in psi for the metals you've mentioned. That will, at least partially, give you an idea about the respective fortitude of different rods.

Most people use Aluminum instead of Titanium because of price, not material properties.

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2Fass240us

At the expense of feeling like I'm talking to myself, I'll post this:

Yield Stress
6061-T6 Aluminum: 40,000psi
Stainless Steel: 40,000 - 100,000psi, depending on grade
Titanium: 110,000 - 150,000psi, depending on grade

Weight Density
6061-T6 Aluminum: 170 lb/ft^3
Steel (general): 490 lb/ft^3
Titanium (general): 280 lb/ft^3

*These numbers are taken from Mechanics of Materials, 4th ed., Gere & Timoshenko, which was a textbook I kept from college.

Keep in mind that any type of material treatment (forging, shot-peening, cryo-treating, etc.) will alter these material properties for the better in most cases.

As you can see, Titanium offers superior yield stress : weight density properties. It is however, significantly more expensive than stainless, and relatively expensive compared to 6061-T6 Aluminum.

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blur510

who makes Ti rods for the SR? how much are they?

2Fass240us

Crower does. You can get them from Barnett Performance and Development for $650, and they safely handle up to ~800hp.
Quite a few other places carry them, none of which currently come to mind.

PAR also makes Titanium rods, and Barnett sells them for $800. That's a lot of $$, but they handle up to ~1000hp.

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