Carbon Fiber Inside the Engine - How CF rods and pistons change engines and why you can’t have them

Let’s say that you want a car part that’s strong. Something that needs to consistently and reliably survive massive forces. How massive, well, let’s say around newtons. But how much is a newtons…..well to put into perspective an average person like myself can throw a punch with a force of about 1000 newtons. An average sledgehammer blow is around . So newtons is 20 times stronger than a sledgehammer blow. And that’s roughly the force to which engine internals are subjected thousands of times per minute when the engine is revving and under load. To ensure that connecting rods can survive the violent loads inside the engine we usually make them from steel. But sometimes we also make them from aluminum. Now steel is strong. A high grade alloy like 4340 steel can survive a load or stress that is equivalent to nearly newtons exerted on every square centimeter of the part before breaking apart. Aluminum isn’t as strong and even high grade alloys like 6061 or 7075 can