Billet cranks

[fekbmax]

From what I have seen it looks as if scat and crower are the most widely used billet cranks used for the FE.
My question is what's the turn around time, cost and main differences between scat, crower, winberg,  or any others out there willing to make these. Just wondering about the bang for the buck.
What hp levels would really dictate making the change from a forged scat or rpm to a billet piece ?

[CaptCobrajet]

Crower is the gold standard.  If you want the best get a Crower.  We buy six or eight Crowers each year in various forms.  They are high quality material, and spot-on with final machining and balancing.  Lead time depends on the time of year.  It can be 3 to 5 months.  Scat does billets.  They are a little cheaper, 6 weeks most of the time.  Nice crank, but a step down from the Crower.  Scat also does custom machined forged cranks......fairly flexible as long as it will fit on the forging.  The custom forged are a little less than the Scat billets, and a little more than the shelf forged Scat stuff

[jayb]

+1 on what Blair said.  My Crower 4.6" stroke crank has been mercilessly abused (broken rod and damaged block, bent valves on many occasions, 7700 RPM through the lights many times with a heavy piston, etc.) and it just never gets hurt.  I may decide to mag it this year just for fun, but I've had it since 2007 and it just keeps on living.

I had a Scat billet crank in another engine that lost a rod; the crank cracked and was not fixable.  When it comes to billet cranks, Crower only for me...

[machoneman]

As to HP, all the big name SBF runners with 2,000+ turbo HP run from what they admit Crower as well.

I do not know the crossover point (at what HP do they give up on more run-of-the-mill forged cranks) but would suspect it's around 1,000 ponies. Also, none run OEM blocks at this level. In fact these engines per Billy Glidden have zero OEM parts as one would expect.   

[fekbmax]

So let's say I got a chance to get a used billet scat crank. Fe mains and bbc rods. 4.250 .  Let's say such crank was made early 2000's.  Let's say it has 30 pump pulls and 60 passes, (supposedly) .
Where would be the best place to have it sent to be checked out as far as mag'ed, checked for straightness and sized ?
The used cost would be a little over the price of a new forged piece so my thing is it worth it, spending the $ to have it checked out, shipped and all or just quit over thinking it and get a good forged piece, or.bite the bullet and get a new piece.

[Barry_R]

I have a couple Scat billets that have been run at the 900+ level without any reported issues.  Most of the really hardcore non-FE racers I know are running stuff from Bryant or Winberg.  They tend to be boost type guys or four digit N/A stuff, and the cranks are really pretty.  At the six or seven hundred horsepower level the normal stuff seems just fine for street and strip use.  Most FE stuff seems very robust in comparison to some of the other designs - plenty of journal overlap and pretty large parts - snout is too long and skinny for serious boost use.  A billet lets you address that if desired.

The road race guys will want to look at stepping up sooner - for the same reason as they do on rods - high RPM cycle time.  They spend more actual time on throttle in one race than a drag race guy will all season.

The few billets I have ordered ran 12-16 weeks - Crower and Scat will sometimes run an extra couple on common strokes and keep them on the shelf.

[Russ67Scode]

"What hp levels would really dictate making the change from a forged scat or rpm to a billet piece ?"
Don't know of the exact HP for failure but RPM is a big killer of rotating assembly's , I believe you can push more HP thru with less RPM and live  my 2 cents

[cammerfe]

I note, with interest, that no one has mentioned Moldex. In the Detroit area they are the ultimate pinnacle. They are known all over the world for their scope and quality. They do no paid advertising that I'm aware of.

I've used them twice in the last dozen years. I'd not been in there for a long time and Gilly was in fairly steep decline and inclined to be a serious grump. It took about two weeks to get my 427 crank done up---I used it in a 390 build and it got broken when everything let go on a dyno run. The second time was for the crank to go into my ECTA engine. By that time Joe had taken over but the service was superb that time as well.

KS

[CaptCobrajet]

Yes sir, Moldex makes a fine crankshaft.  I have used a few that customers supplied, but I have never bought from them.  The ones I have used were very nice.  I know of a couple that have been thoroughly stress tested, and still going strong.

[Joe-JDC]

I note, with interest, that no one has mentioned Moldex. In the Detroit area they are the ultimate pinnacle. They are known all over the world for their scope and quality. They do no paid advertising that I'm aware of.

KS

Ken, I have a Moldex, and it is a beautiful work of art as well as strong.  It just won the EMC Vintage class for 2016.  Ted Eaton uses Moldex for his stroker builds in Y-blocks.  Joe-JDC