New Crank/Rod Idea (4.8L)

The 1UZFE EGR Delete Kit is available for sale here.

rarson

New Member
Okay, first let me state that this idea certainly won't be for everyone. Also, the reason I'm using this idea is because I'd like to make a high-hp, bigger displacement engine that will make power up to about 9500 rpm. The things that I was concerned with are rod-to-stroke (R/S) ratio, as this affects piston acceleration because I want to keep piston speed down, bore-to-stroke (B/S) ratio, component weight, and parts availability. I'd rather the engine be square or oversquare than under. Also, just to note, my numbers are all in mm's because that's what I'm used to dealing with with Japanese engines. It's easier for me to work the numbers.

Anyway, this idea certainly isn't cheap, but it doesn't require using the Darton wet sleeves (though I'd love to use those). Starting with a 3UZ block, I'd be using a custom Scat crankshaft. Bore the block .030" or even just .020" (would be about .5mm for the .020" or .7mm for the .030"). Use Mitsubishi 4G63 rods, with custom pistons.

The reason is, the Mitsu rods have a big end diameter of 48mm as opposed to the UZ's 52mm. If we were to offset grind the crank, we'd effectively gain 8mm of stroke with the same crank! That would be 90.5mm stroke, and with the 3UZ overbored, 91.5mm bore. Really nice B/S ratio, and the Mitsu rods are 150mm (3mm longer than stock, if I remember correctly?) which gives a very decent 1.66 R/S ratio. The extra 3mm will be taken up by moving the wrist pin up 3mm, which is good because I wanted to move the pin up anyway. Then I could shave a bit more weight off the custom pistons, which I wanted to do anyway since it's all-motor.

So we end up with a 91.5mm bore and a 90.5mm stroke giving us a displacement of 4.76L, so I'd call it a 4.8. Now, the custom crank is required because the Mitsu rods are 1.140" thick at the big end... quite a bit bigger than the UZ rods. This is a good thing. STOCK Mitsubishi rods have been known to handle over 500 hp from a 2.0L 4-cylinder, so if we went with stock rods, we could use them up to 1000 hp safely. But, we can't use stock rods with aftermarket pistons because they use a different type wrist-pin. Otherwise I'd just grind the stockers down and use the stock crank. A pity too, because the wrist pin diameter is the same 22mm for those stock rods. Not to mention, everyone and their brother are dumping them off cheap for better rods. AND I already have four of them.

I'm not about to buy an aftermarket set of rods and grind them down. Unfortunately, 4g63 rods ARE a bit more expensive, typically ~$400 a set, though the prices have gone down a bit recently. Groden makes awesome aluminum rods for the 4g63 ($699) which weigh over 100 grams less than the stockers, which weigh about the same as the stock 3UZ rods. But that's $1400 for 8. That's the price for power though.

So I figure, if we're going to spend decent money to get awesome rods, we might as well spend the money on a brand new Scat crankshaft with all the goodies... lightweight, knife-edged, micropolished, etc. Though at this point, with new crank, rods, and pistons, I'm tempted to save an initial bit on the engine and just go with the Darton sleeves. What will that net us for displacement? Well first, let's check what the 1UZ would give us, since I'd personally rather use the 1UZ heads and the engines are far easier to obtain. 88mm bore (.5mm over) and a 90.5 stroke gives us 4.4L. This engine is undersquare. But remember, we have 3mm of rod to play with, so we COULD go down to 88mm bore with 87.5mm stroke. That only gives us 4.25L but with a R/S ratio of 1.71. I like the ratio, but I'd like more displacement.

Alright, so if we can use a 99.5mm bore with the Darton sleeves, and a 90.5mm stroke, that will get us 5.6L! With an engine that will rev to 9k and be bullet-proof! The cost of the Darton sleeves at this point would also be pretty small compared to the rest of it. So it becomes something to seriously consider. Let's say we want that 1.71 R/S ratio, and take the stroke back down to 87.5. We still get 5.4L, with an engine I'd be willing to try to rev up to 10k (assuming the camshaft profile isn't TOO aggressive). Note that we can get a lot more displacement with a small change in bore compared to a small change in stroke. The thing that worries me about the Darton sleeves is that the heads were designed with an 87.5mm bore size. Overboring it half a mm is nothing, but stepping up to the huge Chevy pistons might screw up the flame front. Also, what do we do about the head gasket?

So how much will this all cost? I have no idea how much Scat charges for their cranks, but since they're ultra-light (no sense in doing things half-ass :)), I would guess above $1000. The Groden rods are $1400. Custom Ross pistons would probably run around $700-$800, based off their web site. And of course the Darton sleeves, which were mentioned in the other thread and I believe it came to about $2200 for parts and labor. Realistically, $5400. But you now have a bottom end that's nearly indestructable (I believe those Groden rods are rated above 800 hp, for a 4-cylinder, and I know the pistons are too), and if you look at some of the more common, high power engines, you'll see that this is not too bad a price compared to those even on ebay. I was looking into the BMW 8-series V12, and that's over 5 grand, and it's only a 5.0L SOHC engine with 300 hp. Viper engines go for well over $10k. I realize this isn't a Viper engine, but with another 5 grand in a twin-turbo setup you could DEMOLISH a Viper.

Anyway, since I'm going the N/A route, I'd be using a high compression ratio, probably 13:1 using methanol injection to combat detonation on pump gas (did I mention I want to make the car a daily driver? :)). I can do my own porting and polishing, valve seat grinding, and pretty much everything else on the head. I'd probably use the AE86-based ITB setup (sorry, forgot the company name at the moment) or possibly look into an even bigger custom setup. Even with 4.8L, I feel that this engine could possibly make 500 hp. As much as I love turbos, I'd love to spank some supercharged Mustangs with a naturally-aspirated import V8 (at the track, of course).

Anyway, I realize this isn't the most cost-effective idea, but it's got a few advantages. The custom crank gives the opportunity to have all performance mods done to it. The thicker rods allow for better strength, and since they are aluminum they are much lighter than stock. Custom pistons are a given anyway, and the Darton sleeves are purely a personal preference option. Does anyone have a picture of the bottom of a 1UZ head? I'm interested to see what kind of quench pads it uses.

Well, that's my idea, and I know it sounds rather crazy but it seems to suite my needs pretty well, other than cost!
 
Can you explain how wider rods will work? With the stock width rods paired (one from each bank) right next to each other on the same crank journal, how can you use a wider rod when the bank to bank offset fixed?

Have you thought about sticking with a stock crank and stock dimension aftermarket rods and just re-sleeving? I would think near 5.0l would be possible and your r/s ratio would be excellent, and you eliminate a lot of "what-if's".
 
You can get Darton Chevy LS1 MID and with stock crank and regrind from 3.25" to 3.50" and this will bring you up to 5.4L i think. I was quoted for the crank modification from 3.25" to 3.5" is about $1,000, MID part is about $1,400 and i would say another $1,000 for the labor. That will bring you up to $3,400 plus rods $500 and $1,050 for the custom pistons. I think getting a custom head gaskets would be the hardest part.

Your short block total would be around $5,000-$6,000. However, if you dont mind the weight, start if off with 2uzfe motor. Its already 4.7 liter and it will be much cheaper. I doing a very similar project right now with the iron block 4.7 liter.


http://lextreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3415&highlight=wet+sleeve
http://lextreme.com/stroke.html
http://lextreme.com/stroke/stroke.xls
 
Yeah, I understand what you guys are saying. Mostly I liked the idea of the 48mm big end since it gives a lot of room to play with the stroke. I'm still looking into the idea, but using the stock crank with stock 4g63 rods. I can get them really cheap and have them modified, but I need to figure out if I can machine them to use an aftermarket wrist pin.

What do you guys think about the issue with the Darton pistons being so much bigger than what the heads were designed for? Do you guys think it won't matter much? I kind of envision it basically just enlarging the quench pads but at the same time, it seems like the flame has to travel that much farther to reach the cylinder walls. I think oversize valves would be a good idea with these sleeves.
 
Okay, I'm starting to realize that the 3UZ comes with a lot of things that I want. And I'd rather keep the weight down so I don't want to use the 2UZ. For $100, I'll have a set of 8 4g63 stock rods. All I have to do is get them machined, and get a set of custom pistons, and get the crank machined. I think this will be the most cost-effective way of doing it, and I'll be able to get 4.8L out of the engine.

The modification required to the crankshaft will be offset grind, and while I'm at it, I may do a few performance mods to it as well. The rods will have to be shaved a bit and machined to use a full-floating wrist pin setup. The custom rods will have the wrist pin moved up 3mm, and excess material taken off. I will probably use a smaller skirt profile than stock. I also want to play with the ring spacing and if possible, offset the wrist pin.

I feel confident that with a good head setup, 500hp will be possible for this 4.8L engine. And 500hp will be no sweat for those rods, even with a little material removed. I'll probably have them shot-peened and polished just to be safe.
 
I found someone willing to sell me two sets of rods for $175. So this way, I can wait til later to upgrade the rods on my Eclipse. :)
 
If you are going to spend so much money on the engine. Why would you want to used oem rods? If you want to get those 4G63 rods, you should get stronger aftermarket rods like H beam or something.
 
You can look around on the BMW M5 boards for info on dyno numbers/mods for a tuned engine of that displacement, just have to suffer through the odd culture though, BMWs are not my cup of tea.

If our stock cranks are forged, and you limit the revs to 7,500, get a good harmonic balancer, I would think you'd be ok.(?)

Sounds like a cool project, wish I could spend the time/$ to do the same.
 
I forgot to mention, I also got 8 450cc injectors from the same fellow for $100 shipped. These might require a little modifying (they are from the same engine) but should be PLENTY of fuel for my needs.

The reason I want to use these rods is because they are cheap. A set of Eagles run $360 for 4. A set of Crowers runs $700, again for 4. I want the 48mm journal size, and these are the only rods already made that are close to the same size as the 1UZ's. And I already know 4 of these rods will handle 500 hp. I don't mind that they're used because I know they are good for a LONG time. Plus the fact that, since it's the first thing people change on the bottom end, they usually get taken out pretty early in life. They are also lighter than any aftermarket rods and I'll have to weigh them when I get them, but I'm pretty sure that they might even be lighter than the 1UZ rods, maybe after shaving a little bit off them.

Oh yeah, I'd also have to machine the aftermarket rods as well, an idea I'm not very keen about.

Along with the lighter rods, the pistons will be lighter, the crank will be lighter by design (the 4mm of material off each journal will also have to be taken off the counterweights), and I get to move the wrist-pin up like I wanted. I'm even thinking about sacrificing a little stroke to get a slightly better rod-to-stroke ratio. The 4g63 R/S ratio is about 1.70, and that bottom end unmodified will rev to 8500 easy. Some guys are pushing that R/S ratio past 10,000 rpm. Since I am using lightweight pistons, there will be less inertial forces on the rod and wrist pin, so I should be able to achieve a higher rev limit than 8500 rpm.

After I build the engine, I'll try revving it to 9500 rpm, if only just to try it. If it stays together, then I'll limit those revs to track-only (1/4-mile). I am looking at every aspect of the engine and drivetrain to accomplish this, so just because I didn't mention it doesn't mean I won't do it (for instance, a lightweight flywheel). Also, by the time this engine is done, I should have my very own dyno to tune it on.
 
I just found out they are 5.9" long rods. Will they fit? Eagle sells it for 360 for 4 and 720 for 8. Interesting. Stock 1uz is 2.047" and 4G is 1.889" What is a pretty reduction on the crank do u think? Great option i think. I am grinding from 2.047" to 2.000" for the Chevy rods.

Secondly, if you are going to resleeve the block you dont need to use 3uzfe block. 1uzfe will do the job also. They are the same and 1uzfe are dirt cheap vs. 3uzfe is very expensive.
 
I decided not to resleeve the block. I don't think the large pistons would work well with the head designed for a smaller combustion chamber.

The 4g63 rods come in two flavors, and they are exactly the same except the 1g rod is 1.140" wide with a 21mm wrist pin and the 2g rod is 1.040" thick with a 22mm wrist pin. 22mm is the same size as the 1UZ pin.

The journal size is good, I think because we gain the stroke without lengthening the rotating part whatsoever. This size has also proven to be good for high horsepower turbo cars. The offset grind is 4mm, which means we get 8mm of stroke to play with. Assuming you don't grind it completely to one side, you could gain 5mm of stroke and use these rods with stock pistons, providing that you machine the piston for the full floating wrist pin setup.

If my conversion is correct, the 1UZ rod is 147mm long. These are 150, so you can either move the pin up or move the offset grind back. This is also really cool because you can move the pin around and the offset grind to get a lot of different options: more stroke, lower pin, higher pin, bigger R/S ratio, and some of these will be able to be combined together. For instance, you can move the pin down 2 mm and still gain 3mm of stroke by moving the offset. Or you could move the pin up, like I want to do, and maximize the stroke. I think the rod length is perfect for this engine.

Like I said, the only drawback is these are thicker than the 1UZ rods, so they'll have to be grinded down. But so are the Chevy rods, right?

A good match for Eagle rods are Wiseco pistons. Wiseco will build you any kind of custom piston you want, and not only are they great pistons, but they are at a better price than most other piston makers. They are like the Eagle of pistons.
 
You might be interested in this Carrillo 4G63 Rods I have been doing lots of measurements and I noticed the compression height on the 1uzfe pistons dont have much room left for longer rods. Anything more then stock would have to sacrify the ring lands and compression height. Chevy do have a rod that is 5.8xx"
 
There is a guy selling the Eagles on ebay for $340 right now. Since he's got rods for a lot of imports, I'm sure he's a dealer and will probably put another set up after this auction is over, or maybe he'd be willing to sell two for the same price. Either way, it's a shot at getting the whole set for $680. Seems to be quite cost-effective, but since I'm not building a turbo motor I don't need the extra strength of the Eagles. Though that would be nice, to build a twin-turbo 1UZ... :)
 
Okay, according to this info, if we're using a 1UZ piston, we've got 5.8mm between the wrist pin and the oil ring. If we use a 3UZ piston, we have... a whopping 10.8mm! Is that right? The top ring is obviously moved higher up on the 3UZ, and otherwise they look pretty much the same. I think there is a bit more distance between the pin and oil ring on the 3UZ, as it appears that the other ring gaps are the same. But these numbers seem a bit high to me.

At any rate, if this information is accurate, we have enough space to move the wrist pin up 3mm without going into the oil ring.
 
Alright, I have another idea. This is a budget, 10k-capable engine.

Take the 8 4g63 rods and have them shaved. Offset-grind the crank 3mm closer to the center with the 48mm journal size. Now you can use the stock pistons!

91mm bore X 84.5mm stroke = 4.4L
Rod/stroke ratio is 1.77.
Obviously this doesn't work for the 1UZ, though you could do this and get almost an extra .1L displacement. The big thing is the 1.77 rod/stroke ratio. A .040" overbore would get us another .1L on both the 1UZ and 3UZ.

This would be a good, cheap way for the people going N/A to get a bottom end that will rev great while increasing displacement a bit. Oh yeah, want higher compression ratio? Shave the heads!

I like the idea of using the 3UZ for this especially, because the 3UZ pistons mimic the quench pads on the head, whereas the 1UZ pistons are flat-top. The quench pad design will help force the air/fuel mix towards the center, decreasing the chance of detonation and probably making a bit more power in the process. I would also like to try using VVTi. There are probably a few ways to knock a bit of weight off the factory pistons too, without compromising them for a naturally-aspirated setup. I think this would be the start to a very good budget N/A setup.
 
Hi to all I posted this idea some months back and I have now bought the pistons and the rods but it is for my Porsche V8 as I decided to drop the Lexus motor and keep my car authentic. The Honda style Chevy rods are also 48mm or 1.888". My rods and pistons are Nascar derived. My capacity went from 4.7 liters to 5.7 liters, the motor was bored and stroked.rod_comparison.jpg
piston_comparison_top_view.jpg
piston_rod_assemblies_side_view.jpg
piston_rod_assemblies.jpg

The last photo really sets out well how you achieve this extra stroke, BTW the rod to stroke ratio in this engine is still a repectable 1.84 to 1. There is pistons available that have an even higher compression height. On ebay you can buy these Honda Rods but no shorter than 6 inch second hand, they can have the right width, i.e 0.903" but there is many different widths so becareful.

A custom crank (billet) will cost between 2 to 3k not 1k as somebody eluded to and Mahle have the correct coating to work with the MMC walls of the 3 uz. They also make custom pistons that are the finest in the world, superlight and strong, remember when it comes to piston design, when did Arias or JE or the like win an F1 race. Accralite or perfect bore make excellent pistons but not a coating to work with the MMC bore, with a stardard steel bore all pistons will work. As to the material I prefer 4032 for these short skirt style pistons as you can run a really tight clearance and keep the piston stable.

Cheers Greg
 
Rarson, sounds like a great compromise in getting a 10% increase w/out breaking the bank.
Also, the compression be increased by the increase in stroke/swept area, not sure by how much, but hopefully an amount that wouldn't stress the stock pistons.
So how much is a good gasket set for a1uzfe?
Another thing, have you calculated the amount of material removed from the crankshaft to find what the reduction of rotating mass would be?
This just sounds better and better.
 
Are you talking about head gaskets? You should be able to get Cometics for around $150 or so. Or, better yet, if we use a strong but thinner gasket, we could get a little more compression ratio while we're at it without having to machine the head at all.

I calculated it to be about 71.8 cm^3 of material being removed on each crank journal. I'm not sure how much that would weigh. I just did a simple pi(r^2)h calculation for the big and small journals and subtracted. I'm not sure but I think we can also get rid of the excess material on the crank journal support, if you get my drift. In other words, since we're grinding it 3mm inward, we're going to have 3mm of overhang where the support used to be connected to the crank. It's not a big deal but I think we can loose a lot of weight just by cleaning up and clipping a little bit here and there since we're already modifying the crank.
 
By the way, 928S, I LOVE those pistons! That's exactly what I wanted to do, a short skirt with thin ring lands. I am familiar with Mahle as I'm a big Porsche fan myself. Definitely great pistons but they may be too deep for my pockets. I'm actually considering trying to see how far I can go on stock/budget upgrades. Since we're still using the stock crank, just machining it, we won't have the expense of a custom crank.

Even though we're effectively shortening the crank, if I decided in the future to upgrade engine components, I think I'd re-sleeve the block before thinking about trying to get more stroke. Nissan's VH45DE V8 has 93mm bores, and the 3.5L race version of this engine uses the very same bore... with a crazy small stroke, in proportion. I don't want to push the stroke too high and loose revability. As it is, we're gaining more displacement through bore changes than stroke changes, and if we're re-sleeving the block, we could probably get at least somewhere near 98mm.
 
Thanks Rarson, I wouldn't worry too much about the stroke length. As long as you get the absolute longest rod in there you can you will be alright especially if you pay great attention to detail in respect to piston to bore clearance. Look at the the later of the Honda S2000 engines a crappy rod to stroke ratio of 1.5 to 1.

They get away with this because of fine tolerances. I wouldn't recommend such a stroke ratio but the bolts that come in the Honda rods are insane. 285,000 psi rated. These take unbelievable punishment in Nascar races, upto 10,000 rpm. New they are $50 a bolt, but get a set of low milage rods like mine from ebay for $200. Yes that included the rods and they look brand new.

These componants are superlight, so revabilty will not be lost, just look at the M series BMWs to see their stroke. Normally around 89 to 92 mm. My rods weigh 545 grams and are 6.25" in length, so a 6 inch rod will be lighter again. These also have forced pin oiling and use the diamond like carbon coated pins.

Cheers Greg
 


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