Aluminum rods........
 

Does/has anyone run aluminum rods in their boat motors? A good friend of mine is selling a kick azz bbc and was considering purchasing it for my Velocity. I have run Alum. rods in my race car for years with great reliability but am not sure how they will handle 5500-6000 rpm for extended periods of time? They are GRP billet alum. rods. Any input would be great!!! Thanks.

No. Aluminum rods have a short lifespan. They allow high RPM usage due to their reduced mass but they fatigue quickly. Drag race applications.

Yup dont do it.

I built a aluminum rod motor for my old jet boat,it was hard to maintain oil pressure when cruising steady,howards (who built the rods) told me that for every 20 degrees the oil goes over 220 you gain .001 rod clearence,didn't have a temp gauge on that boat but I do know I was running 60wt oil and it barely had anything at idle/would only carry 20-30 psi at 4000rpm's after a 10 minute steady ride,I would NEVER do it again.This wasn't a bbc though were you have a million options for high volume/extra high volume oil pumps. The bearings were down to copper in less then 40 hours,Smitty