Civic EG

Hi all,

I just got the bottom end together on my D16Z6, SRP pistons with Eagle rods. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to spin the crank to TDC. The rod bolts are hitting the main cap cradle.

You have to have the griddle machined off, common issue with eagle rods though.

Buddy ran into the same issue with his, when the machine shop was assembling the lower end, so they are now working on fixing the issue.

Yea, I just now found info on an internet search. It would have been nice to know this before I applied assembly lube to everything and put the oil pan on... Im surprised knowledge of this issue isn't more common.

its VERY common knowledge, with almost all aftermarket rods require the girdle or the bottom of the cylinders are notched.

Yes, I'm starting to see that its kown, but upon my searching I found many articles screaming for help, asking if its needed when the poster had no real intensions of buying them, and hardly any articles that cared to explain/ show. I asked Eagle and this is what they told me:

My email to Eagle:

In the older design, we used a 5/16" ARP bolt. This rod required notching the bottom of the cylinder walls. The newer design featured two changes. We used a 3/8" ARP bolt and we shifted the location of the bolt down some. The larger bolt increased the power capacity from about 650 hp to around 900 hp. The downward shift allowed the rod to miss the bottom of the cylinders in all blocks except for the older ZC and D16A blocks. Unfortunately, now the girdle must be clearanced. Due to the tight confines of the D-series bottom end, some amount of clearancing seems to be a necessary evil required to fit a significantly stronger than stock rod. I hope this helps explain it somewhat.

Thanks,

Eagle Specialty Products, Inc.


So there’s the official answer.

Interesting and thanks for posting the official answer. I looked at your pic and was thinking "I had to notch the block but not the girdle." I have the older style rods.
Looks like my D is ONLY good to 650 HP

Awesome thanks for the info!!



Now we all know! For the New eagle rods, we MUST have the girdled clearanced/machined!!!!!

Would both sides of the girdle need to be machined or just the area of contact pictured. Just curious.

A friend of mine ran into this the machine shop that is putting his D together said they had to machine the gruddle and possible the block and he just bought rods less than a month or so ago.

Yep wish I would have known. What a pain in the ass!! I cant stop now though. It will all be worth it in the end.

Apexracing wrote:Would both sides of the girdle need to be machined or just the area of contact pictured. Just curious.

Yes, Both sides needed it.

I have seen people simply notch the girdle with a die grinder. Seems pretty easy, just remember to only take out what is needed. to much and you might run a chance of weakening the girdle.