Water is not compressible, so if water gets in the chamber then you are screwed. Hydrolock is a catastrophic event. A small amount of water vapor isn't an issue, as it is used in a water injection system to cool and avoid knock.


The stronger rods can support more horsepower/torque, and sometimes if they aren't heavier, they can support higher reciprocating forces from higher revving. They will also be stronger to survive against knock or detonation, and perhaps even against pre-ignition, but that would depend on the event. With pre-ignition, perhaps a rod doesn't go through the cylinder wall, and there is just ring failure or something. I don't know.


The FA20 has been shown to support over 450whp (associated torque) with stock internals, but it is generally agreed that about 350whp, and more importantly, around 300wtq is about max for reliability. Anything higher and the car is a ticking time bomb if you plan to actually use that power.


A built engine can exceed 700whp, but there aren't too many examples out there to really understand how reliable these engines are. Piston and rods would get someone into the 450whp range with optional/suggested supporting mods of ARP head bolts and King bearings. Higher than that, and a closed deck, sleeves, engine girdle, etc become more of a requirement.

I'll be way more than 10 psi more like 20+ so will be interesting to see how it goes but from all the research I did it should be fine :popcorn:

anyone who is replacing just the rods..
 

You should be fine, but make damn sure that you gap your rings according to the expected power level. That's the main reason that rods fail is probably the reason that some cars rods' fail stock and others handle 475+whp without issue.

Ring gap can vary from engine to engine and when they get hot and touch, the weakest thing is going to give and that in the fa20 is the rod. So, if you're going for high power and don't wanna blow a ringland, GAP YOUR RINGS....

Jaden