Aluminum rod life

With all the newer technology these day what is the now life span of Aluminum rods now. It use to be 100 runs and throw them in the trash. So what now?

Ace

I had heard that as long as they haven't stretched there good to use again.



Dan

Well, "Back in the day", 40 years ago, the routine was: buy'em new and check'em. Run'em 5 passes and have the big ends resized. Run'em another 8-10 passes and check/ resize again. 15-20 passes more and check/ resize again. IF you were feeling lucky...another 10-15 passes, if not... put'em back in the box and let them "age" for a year (this was supposed to let them relax and stabilize). Next year...perhaps another 20-30 passes then recycle. Now, ya gotta understand, these were the best rods available AND they had been "rubbed" by "The Old Master" before we got'em and the pan was usually off after every run or two to check thangs. Rod life THEN was largely dependent on initial quality, the tune up, and "the shoe". Different shoes could/would directly effect rod life. NOW, I've been told, if you don't have it on "kill" every pass and don't drive it "out the back door" all the time, they (rods) MAY last a full season which, for us back then, was 300-350 passes. Years later. I was told by one of the better manufacturers, that on the street...as long as you kept the oil temp below 250°- 275° or so, they'd last for years.