MAMotorsports said:
I am sure you have seen these rods but for those who have not, they are a cross beam design which means if you were to cut the beam in half, the section would look like a "+" (plus sign). While this has an interesting look and it is unique, it like every other design has pros and cons. On the pro side, it has good support under the pin and in the right application, should take power fairly well. On the con side, this design has most of its mass in the center of the beam where the two "fins" meet and has very little mass out toward the outside fibers( important). This gives it very little torsional (twisting) strength. With the new cylinder heads being developed, there is a lot of swirling in the combustion chamber(especially in Over Head Cam motors) and this swirling pushes on the dome or dish of the piston and wants to turn it in the bore. This is a HUGE problem in the Pro Stock drag ranks and to lesser degrees as power levels and combustion pressures come down. Any way, this twisting of the rod beam causes an unequal load on the beam which means there are areas that see high load and others that see a lower load. This can be a problem because the high load areas may exceed the tensile strength of the material and cause it to either yield (major problem) or to fatigue and fail after a period of time (still a big problem but it will last a while before failure). If you have a Pauter rod that is on its way to the junk pile, put the big end in a vise, put a steel bar through the pin end and try twisting the beam by pulling on the bar. You will be surprised how easy the beam twists.
Yes, they are a good mid grade rod but are nowhere near the best.
Actually your right MANY have seen this rod. IT is probably the best ALL around connecting rod on the market.
Alot of what your saying I cannot agree with.
I do respect your opinion on the matter but it seems to be biased toward opinion rather than knowledge with fact as a basis.
The intake charge , during the overlap period, will not cause the piston to "screw". It puts a compressive low rpm load and tensile high rpm load on the the entire assembly. That means piston, conrod, crank, And most importantly the WRIST pin.
When we are discussing tensile load we are meaning it will cause stress due to increased rpm, where the rod wants to disengage form itself. When you are revving high the crossectional area is the important factor in determining strength. Reason for this is because the load is "straight up and down" At that point you are only as strong as your conrod fastener, material and cross section area. (which pauter clearly has more of than many other rods out on the market). Pauter uses ARP rodbolts specifically designed for each application.
Your issues that you have with high and low load areas IMHO dont carry any merit in this regard. The Pauter design is a mainstream design which incorporates a constant and non tapering mass from the wrist pin straight down to the top of the cap.. It distributes the load evenly so as not to allow sensitive stress areas to develop.
Your example of putting the rod in a vice and twisting it is not valid either. It wasnt designed to deal with that type of "load". It was designed specifically for the "actual" events taking place in the internal combustion engine. Fact of the matter is they are recognized by racers ALL over the world as being leaders in High performance connecting rods. They incorporate a design that is light weight and durable.
I guess someone forgot to INFORM a "nobody" by the name of BOB NORWOOD, when he built the fastest MR2 in history. He ran the vehicle on the salt flats of Utah at speeds over 200 MPH consistently. Guess what rods they used and still use?
I guess the guys in daytona that run 24 hours forgot to get that memo too.
