The great Rod debate....

[ezy10s]

Ok this seems to have been a great source of contention for a while.
this is what i have recently found through pulling many 4ages apart-

While some say the 20v rods are the same as late ze rods- i have not seen this in a 16v Ze engine yet- they all seem to be the biggest of the lot.
(late being ae92 ze and 101 ze)

the aw11 ze has slightly smaller rods although still larger than both the blue top and 20v units.

Redtop 16v (small port non-tvis)engines seem to be where the problem arises as i have only ever seen these with the same rods as the late ZE engines... until recently where i pulled a late ae92 hatch back down- there inside the engine was a set of rods the same as a 20v!

So it seems that toyota has done its usual thing and as one model gives way to another they will mix and match parts.
So here is my list of rods from smallest to biggest

20v silvertop/late redtop non tvis
blue top tvis
aw11 ze
early ae92 redtop / ae92 ze/ae101 ze

Should any of you wish to challenge these findings you are welcome to come and look at all the rods i have pulled from various 4age engines.
Especially those of you with the toyota EPC's

[Mr Revhead]

its totaly possible that toyota will use the last of certain parts during a change over.

the thing is when your talking about certain cars can you be sure that it has the original engine?

the change over for the rods is 2nd month 91. so engines after that have one type of rod and ones before that another type.
the earlier ones are quite a bit chunkier. maybe you havnt come across a late 4agze yet.

and another interesting thing... the tvis/non tvis change over is at a LATER date then the rod change... hence why you can have a small port with fat or skinny rods.

what is it comes down to is there are 3 different rods to suit the 42mm crank...

ae92 4age 4agze early aw11 4agze largest
ae92 late and ae101 (4age 16v, 20v 4agze) middle
ae111. skinniest

all but the ae111 ones are used in the s/c engines and will be suitable for turbos.

make sense?

[Disco]

I have some pictures somewhere of the differences.... - I don't recall where it is, but it may be of some help... I'll see if i can track it down but no promises...

[10k 20v]

rods pulled from both my silvertop and facelift gze block (now vvega's) are the same
i'm soon to pull apart my blacktop to see just how much difference there is between those.