Engine advice erst
 

My tax runs out next week and im wanting to take the engine out and rebuild it, because when i fitted the engine the shells were getting ready for a change. i have not got a big budget for parts i.e rods and pistons like PEC. What i want to know is would it be worth while having my rods shot peened? i dont fully understand what is involved to do this.

My cars spec is as follow nothing special but : i have a NMS front mount intercooler, stage 3 T3, full exhaust (not sure which), air filter, its chipped too. At the minute im running 18psi of boost and i would say its a touch above 200bhp havent got any prove but it will spin the wheels in the dry through 2nd, and few other people who had 400bhp sapp's said its quick

I am going to replace all the gaskets/seals as well. The reason i was thinking about doing that to the rods is because when it was running 18psi of boost the engine throw a rod and smashed the block to bits, and i dont want another repeat of last time.

Another question is what idle advance would i set it to at that boost?

similar spec to mine mate and thats only running 170 at the wheels still feels rapid tho i wouldnt bother with shot peened rods at that spec as they should not be a problem so long as they are not revved over 6500rpm if your engine threw a rod before it was probably a fault with the rod or rod bolts, while i had it stripped i would get the rods checked by an engineer and fit arp bolts while i was at it if i was you

It was only at about 4k when it throw the rod, i have bought some arp rod bolts as i was told it should make them stronger. i dont go to the rev limiter only if it wheel spins and hits the limiter.

I could do with having them checked for cracks more than anything, i am a mechanic so it wont be a problem to do the jobs

Shot peening isn't expensive so i don't see why you wouldn't......

Mine ran 21psi making 245@ the fly for over 2 years with standard rods/arp rod bolts. As long as they're mapped well they're ok, when the engine finally let go a few months back it turned out to be a shattered piston skirt and not a rod as i had thought so proves it can be done. I've just put steel rods/forged pistons in the new engine and if you really want peace of mind i'd try and stretch to these if you can. My rev limit was 6.5k and used to spend a lot of its time there lol.

Alot of people keep telling me to just do it, i will be a little less worried once i get the rod bolts in. I dont plan on going much higher with the boost, but its my everyday car aswell.

What would you set the idle advance to?