Why do we keep throwing rods? (Page 3 of 6)

I dunno. I think the guys in the Fiero who spun in the oil and got hit by the Volvo after the Fairmont blew up... Would consider an Accusump to be safety equipment, at least in this case

Assuming legit ARP fasteners and not E-bay Chicom garbage, the fasteners should be GTG

Measuring rod bolt stretch is the ideal method, but a valid(correct) torque setting using the recommended lube should hold up just fine under the conditions we're discussing.   If the OEM crap held up to 6500rpm, there's no reason that 5000rpm should kill superior hardware except that there were installation "issues" or there's some other problem causing the failure.  If the fasteners are "finger tight" after failure, IMO, either they were not torqued properly or heating(oiling system failure=friction)plus load caused plastic deformation of the fastener.  S/F....Ken M

Have you looked at your downshift revs? We blew a fresh rebuilt motor like that cause the rev limiter doesn't work during downshift. At Autobahn, if we downshift from 4th straight to 2nd at 90+ MPH the engine would spin around 7500+.

As in spraying money on the track in the way of connecting rods, oil, and tears

Yes we money shift.

The amount unadulterated jackassery coming from even well regarded engine builders is staggering.  Go over to yellow bullet and browse and see the amateur crap coming out of "professional" engine shops. 

Bearings installed backwards (with a hammer!) rocker arm pads installed upside down, no cam lube on flat tappets, etc.  And this is for builds that are documented in magazines and such.

You might be better randomly grabbing some dude out of the local HS shop class and giving him a copy of Chilton's and giving him a Hundo and some beer.  Not that I would encourage such despoiling of American youth, lol.  S/F....Ken M

This!!! ^^^

You shouldn't be "engine braking".  All braking should be done with the brakes.  Rev match when you down shift to prevent upsetting the car while braking, and don't over-rev when you rev match.  I assume your gear box has some pretty widely spaced gears.  So, your team will need to be extra careful not to over rev when downshifting.

Hey, stuff happens, it's how it's dealt with afterwards that separates the men from the boys(not US Navy style with fire hoses)  But I mentioned it to point out that just because something is built by a "professional" doesn't make it right, or remove the need to double check it.  It could easily be something as stupid as the guy got distracted while torquing the rod bolts and missed one(or more)  Checklists and double checking everything is just sound practice.

Now that my engine builder retired, I do assembly myself, the investment in tooling to check the machinists work is cheaper than eating up these stupid expensive Mopar engines.  But I'm single so there's no bitching about the basement being full of car parts and no silly questions about why are there valve guides in the freezer.  S/F....Ken M

BTW, I vote for going 460 Ford, the world need more big blocks

Glen Quagmire is my role model.  There's nothing wrong with that!  S/F....Ken M

I'm thinking oiling problems as well.
You say the oil pressure is 3 bar pegged all the time.  Is that what your gauge maxes out at?  If it is, how do you know what your real oil pressure is? 
What's the oil pressure at idle with a fully warmed up motor?  You should not have 3 bar oil pressure at idle on fully warmed up oil.

At what pressure does the oil pump relief valve open on this motor?  Too thick an oil will push very little through the engine with most of the flow being dumped back in to the pan.  You will see lots of pressure in this situation but the motor will have a tiny oil supply.
You want to run the thinnest oil possible that maintains sufficient pressure at the operating temperatures that you run so you get the most flow throughout the motor.

I don't think I ever stated how much pressure we have, but we always seem to have plenty. We don't run too think of an oil, typically 15-40 Rotella diesel oil. The important thing to remember is we ran this motor at full race pace at Sears Point in the spring, when it was freshly built, and had no issues. We ran the one that blew earlier in 3 other races before it let go in practice.