Quote Originally Posted by Parrish57 View Post
By all means, if you have and can use the 8mm rods then do so. They are lighter than the 9mm later rods and will give you more horsies! And if you are going with the ARP bolts you don't have to worry about the 8mm parts failing. I've been using them for more than a decade and have never had a bottom end failure.

Also, the Deves rings are a good choice.

Steve, I thought that might be the case with the smaller bolts. Obviously the ARP's 8mm will be much stronger than the stock bolts, and as you said it's a little less rotating mass in the assembly. This isn't going to be our "hot" motor anyway, so I just want to upgrade from stock to ARP whether they are 8mm or 9mm. We WILL seek out 8mm sized rods though when we build our full race motor. Thank you for the info Steve. It's good to know that someone has run the smaller bolts for years in IT without a problem.

chris