Speedmaster (ProComp) 6.605 5140 Rods

Was wondering if anyone had any experience with these rods, and would they be an upgrade to a reconditioned broached rod with ARP hardware, or just a lateral move in terms of strength. They are a 5140 forging with a press pin small end. Competition products has them for $249.00 a set.


https://www.competitionproducts.com/Speedmaster-5140-Forged-I-Beam-Rods-Ford-460-6605-Press-Pin/productinfo/SPM274-1119/

bbfguy1 wrote:Was wondering if anyone had any experience with these rods, and would they be an upgrade to a reconditioned broached rod with ARP hardware, or just a lateral move in terms of strength. They are a 5140 forging with a press pin small end. Competition products has them for $249.00 a set.


https://www.competitionproducts.com/Speedmaster-5140-Forged-I-Beam-Rods-Ford-460-6605-Press-Pin/productinfo/SPM274-1119/

From Pro-Comp, if they have no moving parts and are of better material, they should be OK as an improvement over O.E.M.

Was trying to figure out why theyre almost $200 cheaper than summit, but those are press pin, ones on summit are floaters.

bbfguy1 wrote:Was wondering if anyone had any experience with these rods, and would they be an upgrade to a reconditioned broached rod with ARP hardware, or just a lateral move in terms of strength. They are a 5140 forging with a press pin small end. Competition products has them for $249.00 a set.


https://www.competitionproducts.com/Speedmaster-5140-Forged-I-Beam-Rods-Ford-460-6605-Press-Pin/productinfo/SPM274-1119/

These con rods are an upgrade from the OEM 6.605" con rods and are a great alternative to refurbishing the OEM rods.  The are not only fine with OEM-style rebuilder pistons to 500 HP, but you can use them with aftermarket forged pistons (which are usually 150-200 grams lighter in mass) to about 600 HP in a well planned combo.

My belief is that if they were produced in larger quantities then they might be priced even lower; nonetheless in properly suited applications they are still a good value at their current price point.

They're okay...but watch the bolts. They can do add things with the bolts.

They've been around for decades, under other names.

Typical the machine work is all over the board with them and I’d be suspect of the bolts.

I would replace the bolts with the ARP upgraded bolts, regardless!!

dfree383 wrote:Typical the machine work is all over the board with them and I’d be suspect of the bolts.

Not true about the machine work--have you ever measured a set? Every single set that I've personally measured I've found to be within spec on both the big end and also the small end, and just as consistent as a set of brand new Scat rods....and frankly, they measure better than other big name name rods that I've measured.  (As for the bolts, see my thoughts on that below.)

BBFTorino wrote:I would replace the bolts with the ARP upgraded bolts, regardless!!

For a 500 HP 460 build? Or even a 600 HP 460 build with the lighter piston/pin combo?  In this application a $100+ ARP rod bolt upgrade on a $250 set of brand new rods might bring piece of mind, but consider that even the FoMoco OEM 3/8" bolts in the stock BBF rods hold up better than the OEM rods themselves. So, it's the OEM rods that need greater structural upgrading than do the rod bolts.  That being said, the supplied bolts in these aftermarket rods might not be ARPs but they are up to the service duty asked of them.

Mark O'Neal wrote:They're okay...but watch the bolts. They can do add things with the bolts.

They've been around for decades, under other names.

I think it might be interesting to bring a few different brands of similarly spec'd con rod bolts to an Instron Machine and see where things really are these days.  Maybe pull a full set of each brand to really get good sample/amount of data.  I actually might be able to get this done for little more than the cost of the bolts and will look into it

One thing for sure: if the brown box bolts were failing all over the world in those rods then it would be all over the internet

Paul Kane wrote:

dfree383 wrote:Typical the machine work is all over the board with them and I’d be suspect of the bolts.

Not true about the machine work--have you ever measured a set? Every single set that I've personally measured I've found to be within spec on both the big end and also the small end, and just as consistent as a set of brand new Scat rods....and frankly, they measure better than other big name name rods that I've measured.  (As for the bolts, see my thoughts on that below.)

I measured a number of sets early on and they where horrible never bothered wasting my time again with them

[quote="Paul Kane"]

Mark O'Neal wrote:

One thing for sure: if the brown box bolts were failing all over the world in those rods then it would be all over the internet

Was my assumption as well.

Paul Kane wrote:

BBFTorino wrote:I would replace the bolts with the ARP upgraded bolts, regardless!!

For a 500 HP 460 build? Or even a 600 HP 460 build with the lighter piston/pin combo?  In this application a $100+ ARP rod bolt upgrade on a $250 set of brand new rods might bring piece of mind, but consider that even the FoMoco OEM 3/8" bolts in the stock BBF rods hold up better than the OEM rods themselves. So, it's the OEM rods that need greater structural upgrading than do the rod bolts.  That being said, the supplied bolts in these aftermarket rods might not be ARPs but they are up to the service duty asked of them.

Well, yeah I get that. Not wanting to spend more money than necessary. But I also take into account, the cost of the other parts that may get damaged if one of these cheapie's lets go...like block, crank, pan, and camshaft.

True enough, and everyone has different ideas and levels of halfassery they can live with.  Ill speak from my position, as i think its well suited here.  I want a 500hp straight budget build, less a power goal, more a "as much as i can for as little as i can".  Only reason im approaching it that way is i fully intend to build a nice forged bottom end 500+ mill down the road, funds just dont allow it now.  My thinking is, why spend money now, when i can put it towards later.  In such a build im not running $1500 worth of roller cam and gear, im not running even cheap aluminum heads, i am running the cheapest forged pistons i can lay hands on.  If it works, dollar per hp and smiles per buck is as high as it gets, if it blows up and its all trashed, im out $1500.  Rod bolts are more than 10% the cost at the point.  They claim to come with ARP, idk if they are or are 8430 knockoffs, but they seem to do the job for the average enthusiast who buys them, and the occasional hot rodder that runs them far beyond their intended application.

You know Dox just go with these rods and most likely all will be good .At least everyone will be off your back with the old stock rods issue.Doug

For the sake of conversation what is the consensus on the Eagle SIR I beams. They were already in the motor I just built. But I am worried about them. Forged RaceTech piston, 7000rpm 600crank horsepower.

nedceifus wrote:For the sake of conversation what is the consensus on the Eagle SIR I beams. They were already in the motor I just built. But I am worried about them. Forged RaceTech piston, 7000rpm 600crank horsepower.

Other than being heavy, they seem to be OK.

5140 material is better than O.E.M. but, not as strong as 4340.

I thought the internet hp rating on stock rods was about the same as what you’re rating the Procomps at. I remember 600hp 6000rpm being the rule of thumb.

I snapped a stock rod probably 10 years ago on an l2404 piston 466 that was sprayed every weekend for at least 5 years and 1000s of street miles. I have the same basic combo again with stock rods/l2404 pistons and it’s even faster now but I don’t spray it nearly as often in fear of wrecking a good running back up motor. So would the Procomp rods extend the life of this motor or does it basically needs a good rod/light piston to live? I’d guess it makes 550 crank and I’ve sprayed it a few times with a 90 jet on pump gas.

bbfguy1 wrote:Was wondering if anyone had any experience with these rods, and would they be an upgrade to a reconditioned broached rod with ARP hardware, or just a lateral move in terms of strength. They are a 5140 forging with a press pin small end. Competition products has them for $249.00 a set.


https://www.competitionproducts.com/Speedmaster-5140-Forged-I-Beam-Rods-Ford-460-6605-Press-Pin/productinfo/SPM274-1119/

Does it look like this?