When to freshen engine

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1Jeff

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How often do you all freshen youre engines? I bought a bracket car recently with 380 runs on the engine. It's a stock steel crank 440 with BME rods, JE pistons. Shifts @ 5,800 and traps around 6,100 in a 2,400 lb. car. The oil pressure is 90psi cold and 85 psi warmed up. I'm thinking, if a oil analysis comes back clean I'll run it until I start seeing the oil pressure drop and have the oil analyzed twice a year. Opinions ?
Thansk in advance.
 
380 runs on aluminum rods is a lot in my opinion, quite frankly unless you have a good reason to run them I'd switch to good 4340 H beams
 
380 runs on an aluminum rod is not bad unless every pass is on a cold oil motor..

Hell I run them in street motors.. Make sure you have oil up to temp and then go...block heaters with these will save allot of trouble for sure..
 
Everyone does there own deal with aluminum rods. I've seen them with less than 50 passes and took the pan off because of oil leak and found 5 cracked rods! Talk about luck. IMO replacing rods as maintance is a lot cheaper in the long run!! You just have to decide where your limit is!
 
I guess that I need to ad that with it having 380 runs on it and you not knowing the warm up practice was done properly I would do it now...

Bill Miller will tell you that with the proper oil warm up you can run them in a street motor as long as you want.. I have one with over 30k miles on it..

But I do know that it is plugged in with a block heater and I let the car get up to temp before taking it out and stretching it's legs.
 
Thanks for all the replies! The po was a serious racer and worked part time at a machine shop that did a lot of race engines. He used the BME rods because they are rated for 2,000 hp and 8,000 rpm. I called BME and they told me that they will be the last set of rods I ever need at my hp and rpm level. I do plan on sending them back to be gone over when I pull it a part. Cheap insurance @ $25 a rod plus shipping.
I'll leak it down at the end of the season and have the oil analyzed.
How many runs on average do you all get out of a engine before you reach that 10% leakage? Does anyone use oil pressure as a indicator?
Thanks again!
 
It all depends. If you run no air cleaner or an open scoop, live in a dusty area, have dirt pits where you race, things may get worse faster. Around here a "local" bracket car might only get 250-300 runs a season. IMO it's great to have the oil looked at, but I also like visual inspections. Especially given the aluminum rods.
You mentioned the rods getting sent out - If you're breaking down the rotating assembly... mic the bores. If it's still round and square, I'd hit the bores with green scotchbrite on a flex hone while it's apart to clean out the hone pattern and then file fit new rings.
 
Well i usually check mine over the winter no matter what...Unless I see an et drop and oil pressure is the same and clean I run it.. I use spray on both of mine so they take a little more beating then the average car...
 
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