Club 80-90 Forums

Hey guys,

Is it possible to replace the 22mm threaded stretch con rod bolts for the 13mm non stretched ones at all?

I’m building a new engine. Just put the gears on the new crank and thought I’d double check the bolts for the connecting rods. Haynes says the bolts with a 22mm are the stretched type and need to be replaced.

Heritage have some at £14 a bolt! And the non stretched are like £6 a bolt.

So the bolts are available again?

Good luck changing them, I tried once but wasnt happy with the match across the split line. The bolts went NLA soon after...

Thing is, the caps can stretch so regardless of new bolts, the job is compromised.

New rods are about £140 a set now from BW, so I always bin any old rods.

I thought they were available but I was mistaken, so I ended up getting a brand new con rod set with small ends for £130
They are great, but took me 2 hours and an £8 bottle of 99.9% rubbing alcohol with small fine brush to clean all of the wax off of them that they coat them in to prevent them from rusting on the shelf.

I fitted them to my brand new crank tonight and torqued them down.