Seeing as how a failed rod bolt is the fastest way to reduce an expensive engine to a worthless hunk of scrap metal, it makes sense to spend the extra money to use the correct part.

This seller has the lowest listed price that I have found for ARP 102-6002. They should be willing to ship internationally.
http://www.importperformanceparts.net/imports/arp_rodbolts.html

R750 for ARP a-series rod bolts? I usualy sell them 10% cheaper than that, the last 10-12 sets anyways.

unfortunately not in this case as the L series are a thicker bolt in all areas

750rand=$110 rughly, I think that would be about what you pay here? I got mine for about $80(I think, bit forgetfull) but that was from an australian member who went to america and brought them back.

Yes they are about $80 USA from mail order places (not including shipping). They are not rare.

I would rather go for the A series ARP bolts than the V8 step.

IT hasn't been mentioned here, but due to the superior (well it should be in theory) clamping force, it really pays to have the rod big-end resized at the same time as the bolts are fitted.

That is nothing more than a light cut of the rod and cap parting/meeting faces and then bolt install and tension, and the big end hole cut/honed to the low side of factory spec.

I know it's extra work, but given that most catastrophic scale engine failures are rod related, it's hard to justify not doing it.

Along similar lines, one could probably also justify tensioning the rod bolts using a stretch guage (to measure how much the bolt lengthens under tension, and stopping when it reaches the optimal point) rather than a torque wrench.

What's the reasoning behind this suggestion? Is it just to blueprint the bearing clearance to minumum spec? Or is there some problem with the original design of the A-series rods?

@jmac
Please tell us more about this as this is the first time I have read about this.

Read any good performance engine book you will know about the modifications you can do to increase oiling, cooling, rpm, strength etc. As Jmac said the ARP Bolts will clamp more meaning clearances will be wrong... its simple, bolt the rod together, torque, and resize big end to spec, all do-able by a competent machinist. As for stretch well some bolts can stretch more than others so if you torque them all the same they might stretch differently so will not be equally as *tight*. Well thats my understanding on the matter, which I can't say i've completely got my head around yet, but im getting there.

Resizing rod ends, playing with different bearing clearances, balancing etc. all these checks and triple checks are steps towards building a motor that MAY give a horsepower/rpm increase, when your chasing a tenth of a second these things count.

I do not believe its worth spending the time or money on a streeter motor, all these things do add up but bottom line is it all worth it when for $50-$0 you can have another 2nd hand bottom end throw some rings and bearings at it and it might live for another couple years. If your building a motor worth chucking ARP products at then your not building a garden variety stocker for the missus to putt down to the shoe store with.

The bottom end I have been building has about 50 hours time spent on it and its not even close to being together, the whole inside of the block is smooth, decked, bored to 87mm, acid cleaned, rods have been resized and balanced, pistons balanced, crank linished and bearings have been selected, using two different sets of bearings both have the oiling hole and groove to reduce drag but will reduce life too. I spent 4 hours redrilling oiling holes in the rods and crank... rotating parts still have to be balanced as a whole. But most of this is just making sure it holds together, power is mostly in the head.