Fatigue Testing of a Powder Forged Connecting Rod

A powder forged connecting rod has been developed by Federal-Mogul for use as a direct replacement in a General Motors V8 engine. Design modifications have facilitated the powder forging process, while maintaining the critical geometric and mass balance requirements of the existing rod. The powder forged connecting rod design was tested in a tension/compression, axial fatigue test. An electromagnetic resonance (EMR) test machine was employed. As a reference, current production General Motors rods were tested under similar conditions. The results indicate that the powder forged rods show improved fatigue life to that of the wrought rods at an elevated test load.