Affordable Forged Connecting Rods Upgrade 1.8L Chevy Cruze? Turbo Build | MaXpeeding Rod Review

[@cmattdabrat]

There we have it. A solution for the rods that won't break the bank!

[@DxhlzK]

Omg ur so underrated i fucking love your channel! All the bestttt!!

[@cmattdabrat]

Thanks bro!

[@802Garage]

I've heard these are excellent value for performance. Hope they work out well!

[@cmattdabrat]

Me too! I'm sure they will. These, and the crank will be what will limit the power I shoot for. They say 600hp and 7k RPM on their site. I'll probably keep the whp in the 350-400 range for street driving, unless someone smokes me. Track days turn it up to, well, whatever it does.

[@3erred-bloodedpatriot745]

I love maxpeeding. Bro the price justifies the sometimes needing to send parts back due to defect . Haven't ever had to. Have a turbo from them , bov , intercooler etc from them on my Volvo 940 putting down 347HP

[@cmattdabrat]

Nice! Same here. Turbo, rods, BOV, waste gate... Can't complain about any of their products.

[@enzo3r]

@@cmattdabrat hi did you find forged pistons for our 1.8?

[@cmattdabrat]

@@enzo3r I had Je pistons make some. If you call them up they have them for the 1.8 ecotec.

[@enzo3r]

@@cmattdabrat it's not clear on their site… do you have the product number you used?🤞🏻

[@cmattdabrat]

@@enzo3r It's not going to be on their site because I sent a piston in, and they copied it. You'll have to call, ask for the 1.8 ecotec pistons. Your engine block will need to be machined / honed for them. They're about .5mm oversized. Just call them up and it'll take them about 3 months, at least, to be honest.

[@charleslowe522]

Just looking at the block itself, it looks pretty shout. If you could find better cam grinds and billet main caps and other supporting mods, I bet this little block could make some major league power. However, for a daily driver, you limited on space and the turbo you can put in it. The 2.4L ecotec block was destroked to 2.2L and that little sucker maid 1325 rwhp.

[@cmattdabrat]

I agree! Definitely a solid foundation for some big numbers. I would be happy with up to 400whp. I bet that block wound up to some high RPMs! It'll be interesting to see what this motor will do with the mods I'm throwing at it. Between the head, cams reground, forged pistons, better rods. More to come soon.

[@randellgribben9772]

hello, just a note( i have been a alfa romeo tech for 15 ish years ) a torque wrench is used for tightening a fastener.. not to loosen a fastener, this will mess up the calibration.. and i noticed the ecotec tech block on your engine is iron? i am installing a 2.2 ecotec into my 1984 alfa romeo spider,, and it is all alumiumn block and head... i was suprised to see that... and i also saw those rods. and thought about installing them into my engine.. i emailed them 3 times to aska few question.. they never got back to me... and also on all the exhaust bolts and studs.. use a nickel anti seize.. it will take a higher temps. than the copper stuff, so if you need to repair later on it will be easier to remove the nuts and bolts,,,nice channel

[@cmattdabrat]

Thanks Randell. I learn something new every day. The block is grey iron, which is great because of the strength of steel. Thanks again for the awesome tips, and keep me updated on the 2.2 swap. They're know to produce some really good power.

[@Agemenon]

Hey Matt, can you post a link for the bearings please?

[@charleslowe522]

Well I got one of my questions answered. Looks as though the mains are two bolt. However I think it has 5 main caps, including the end mains. Maybe that’s enough for the power level of the block. To bad the mains aren’t 4 bolt or cross bolted mains, that eliminates any possibility of cap walk at higher loads. Good job though. Thanks for all your time and effort.

[@cmattdabrat]

I agree! I may look for a solution for billet main caps for the 3 center caps. Although my power goals are I the 400-450 range. Maybe 500 at tops down the road depending on how crazy I get with it.

[@charleslowe522]

Matthew Chevalier that’s quite a bit of power out of this little block. For my 1986 Grand National, I replaced 1, 2 and 3 with billet mains and ARP studs. The center main caps take the majority of the load though. Interesting though, if you make 500hp you’ll be making close to what my Grand National makes. In an engine that is 2L smaller. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do with my 2014 Cruze. Too bad it doesn’t have the aftermarket of some of the other vehicles. All my vehicles can be money pits if I’m not careful, they’re all using forced induction.

[@cmattdabrat]

@@charleslowe522 Nice! I think it'll get there as Cobalts become harder to find, and used / junkyard Chevy Cruzes and Sonics start flooding the market. Perhaps 10 years down the road. They have officially stopped production on any compact cars. At least GM. The guys overseas have been modding these engines for quite sometime. The 1.8 has been around for almost 2 decades under the Z18Xe/Z18Xer model with slight differences. I see the intake being a limitation on these engines. There are some cast manifolds, but run in the 1.2k range which is just out of my budget, at least for this year. I feel you on that. This build has started to become a money pit and I'll have to stop throwing money at it at some point. By the time it's all said and done I'll have around 3.4-4k in it, which isn't crazy, so I may keep my goals a little more conservative and I may be chasing a pipe dream. I've had my machine shop machine the block for stouter ARP head studs, and I'm going to use ARP bots for the caps. Aside from a lot of the DIY stuff these engines can be built to make some power. I guess we'll see what the intake limits things to along with the fueling before it gets in the trailer queen range. I'm trying to keep this very streetable and on a budget to set an example for future DIYers.

[@johngarlick7115]

@@charleslowe522 inline motors are a lot less prone to cap walk vs a v style engine do to the lessened side loads, as v style engines by design side load the crankshaft do to cylinder angle to centerline of the block, whereas inline engines tend to be mainly vertical forces applied to the mains, not saying they will hold his power goals just saying cap wall is not as common in vertical inline motors

[@charleslowe522]

@@johngarlick7115 Thank you. I didn't realize that. That's how a 2jzed can make tons of power with 2 bolt mains.

[@1Vnarine]

Your "to the point" style is so refreshing only god knows! Keep it up!

[@cmattdabrat]

Thank you! Will do!

[@Randy1290]

do you have a good piston kit? for stock applications?

[@brendanreynolds4984]

I'm definitely following I would love to do this to my sonic

[@cmattdabrat]

Brendan Reynolds awesome! I’ll keep you guys posted. I’ll do a video on the springs and retainers I found.

[@bbgcars]

SO 802 GARAGE IS IN DA HAUS! wazzup.....anyways seems you've built engines before..i can tell by your methodical approach......EXCELLENT!

[@cmattdabrat]

Thanks! I've built a few. Love it! And it's not near often enough I get to do this $$$.

[@bbgcars]

@@cmattdabrat I FEEL YAH! thats now the basis of my channel,performance engine builds,,,I HAVEN'T EVEN BEGUN TO SCRATCH THE SURFACE! i have a 69 vw thats next up...but its just for buy and sell..nothing special..its ironic you had one on your channel.

[@cmattdabrat]

@@bbgcars It's definitely a proven way to bring in viewers.

[@johnsnow1355]

It's awesome your last name have Chev in it 😁

[@cmattdabrat]

LOL, I've thought about just changing the name of my channel to MattChevy since it's easier to spell and pronounce. When I played football, the coach just called me Chevy seeing as he called everyone by their last names.

[@DownwardFour]

What are you going to do about the transmission, after the engine isn’t that the next most fragile thing. Will it be able to handle all that power?

[@cmattdabrat]

Press Play Productions I’m sure it’ll hold up fine if I’m not recognized to 6500+ rpm and dumping the clutch. The Honda guys run 600+hp on a stock tranny with that same method. In the case that it does break. I’ll look into something stouter and May have to have an adapter plate machined. The axles will probably be the first thing to go.

[@jay1185]

Oh you sneaky devil, you found some rods!!! Looking forward to the headwork! -Peace!

[@cmattdabrat]

Hahaha! Got the head back, upgraded springs and retainers. Next video.

[@Blacksmith1598]

awesome video man

[@cmattdabrat]

Appreciate it!

[@a2cryss]

Cool project. Are you confident that the bolts are genuine ARP? Sucks that the price went up 50%

[@cmattdabrat]

Definitely. ARP has verified that they made a batch of bolts for Maxpeedingrods.

[@andriesburger4923]

Well done

[@cmattdabrat]

Thanks! A lot of research to find / dig up some of these parts.

[@angelespino3563]

great work

[@cmattdabrat]

Thank you

[@aaronfuller881]

Awesome

[@cmattdabrat]

Thanks!

[@BlueCollarEngineer111]

What is the size of connecting rods? I checked maxspeedingrods and they don't have specific for cruze

[@cmattdabrat]

For the 1.8, it's the same rod that's the link my description. I'll take a look at the rods and try and get some dimensions over.

[@BlueCollarEngineer111]

@@cmattdabrat the link doesn't direct me to the seller.. it opens up ebay with all sorts of products.. i also want to try these rods in my cruze 1.8

[@cmattdabrat]

@@BlueCollarEngineer111 www.maxpeedingrods.com/product/opel-astra-h-j-1.6l-l16let-129.75mm-connecting-rod-high-performance-4340-en24-h-beam-conrod.html

[@cmattdabrat]

@@BlueCollarEngineer111 The price has gone up, but they're the same rods. ARP bolts, and rods are good for 600hp and 7000 rpm.

[@BlueCollarEngineer111]

@@cmattdabrat thank you very much!

[@kevinkev1530]

👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

[@cmattdabrat]

Thank you!

[@rocketcowboy6462]

“Twerk it down” 😂😂😂

[@cmattdabrat]

LOL

[@rocketcowboy6462]

@@cmattdabrat they need to hurry up with the pistons and rods

[@cmattdabrat]

@@rocketcowboy6462 Tell me about it! Ugh, they're taking so long.

[@4bangerlove]

.015 thousandths or .0015 thousandths?

[@cmattdabrat]

.0015 thousandths

[@AlbinoRyno420]

Neither of your links work, rods or bearings.

[@cmattdabrat]

Ryan Wingerson I’ll update them. Thanks for letting me know.

[@AlbinoRyno420]

Matthew Chevalier np, I’m interested. 1.8 Cruzer myself

[@cmattdabrat]

@@AlbinoRyno420 Awesome! I updated the list, but it looks like they're out of stock for now. I'll update the link again once I see stock available.