[eschaider]

Mike is right, the higher quality bolts will come with an increase in tensile and clamp load changing the shape of the big end of the rod when installed.

When you look at the cost of the bolts and reconditioning the rods the purchase of new H-Beams will start to look very attractive.

I have attached a spreadsheet that is built from the model in the ARP catalog. It will allow you to determine the correct rod bolt dimensions <edit> and material <edit> based on rotating and reciprocating weights in your engine and the max rpm you wish to operate at along with the material the (ARP) fastner is made of. Its a pretty neat tool and takes a lot of the guess work out of the process.

Enjoy,

Ed