I purchased these rods, to use as I managed to damage a rod in one of my motors. I expected this one to be good, and pressed it into service, and I was greeted to a nice clank, and a complete loss of oil pressure at idle. The rod was bouncing on the connecting rod journal, started to spin the bearing(the tangs on both sides showed signs of being forced back in), starved the small end for oil, so it got overheated, damaged the piston, I had to drive the wrist pin out, and these are supposed to just slip out. My very expensive mistake, luckily I have a spare G13B piston to use. So onto the review...
These rods come from China, but the seller has been around for a while and has pretty decent reviews, so I decided to go ahead and give them a shot. The rods cost me almost £203.00 with shipping and customs figured in, so about a £50 a rod. They were here in under a week, packaged very good, and were shipped by DHL, who actually texts you to give you a days notice of the delivery coming.
They were packed in a nice sturdy box, that had multiple layers of foam, a sheet, then a layer with cut outs for two rods, another sheet, another layer with cut outs, then a final sheet. The rods inside are wrapped in oil soaked paper, which are inside sealed plastic bags. So the packing is very good, they came clean and rust free.
The machining is very good, there are no chatter marks, the honing has excellent cross hatch, the bushing in the small end is solid brass with an oil groove running the full circumference in the middle of the bushing, the rods are shot peened, then laser etched, and the edges of the small end bushings are chamfered very nice by hand. The bolts are proper ARP bolts, no weirdness to the markings, and their construction is very nice, so they aren't counterfeits. These rods are very nice too look at, and are obviously well made.
Link to uk website:
http://www.maxspeedingrods.co.uk/high-performance-suzuki-swift-gti-1300-g13b-engines-h-beam-connecting-rods-conrods.htmlUs website:
http://www.maxspeedingrods.com/suzuki-connecting-rods/suzuki-swift-gti-1300-g13b-arp-2000-pleuel-bielle-h-beam-connecting-rod-conrod-con-rods.htmlThey list in USD and Pounds, so huge props to them for being considerate to us that live north of the border. B-)
I passed a new wrist pin through each of the rods, and it was a nice fit in all of them.
Now for the boring measurements and specifications:
G13 rod weight with the normal bolts: 423.06 grams or single rib bottom: 415.05 grams(polished)
G13 rod weight with the ARP bolts: 437.61 grams (double rib, heavy bottom)
Heaviest MasxSpeeding Forged Rod: 417.98 grams
G13B FSM small end spec: 19.003MM to 19.011MM
G13B Rod Small end: 19.08MM
No Big end Spec given:
G13 Rod Big End: X: 45.06MM Y: 45.08MM
Forged Rods by Laser Etched number:
Rod 0178:
Weight: 417.52 grams
Big End bore: X: 45.05mm Y: 45.04mm
Small End bore: X: 19.08mm Y: 19.08mm
Rod 0180:
Weight: 417.88 grams
Big End bore: X: 45.06mm Y: 45.06mm
Small End bore: X: 19.06mm Y: 19.06mm
Rod 0151:
Weight: 417.98 grams
Big End bore: X: 45.06mm Y: 45.06mm
Small End bore: X: 19.08mm Y: 19.08mm
Rod 0172:
Weight: 417.71 grams
Big End bore: X: 45.07mm Y: 45.06mm
Small End bore: X: 19.08mm Y: 19.08mm
Spec Weight difference across all Rods: 1.00 grams
Measure Weight difference across all Rods: 0.46 grams
All weights measured with 0.01 gram resolution scale.
All measurements measured with digital Vernier caliper.
These are for G13B, G13BB, G13K, and G10T engines. They work in the regular G10 and the 89-97 8V G13BA engines with a piston swap.
Pictures: In the comparison is a stock double rib rod with ARP bolts installed.