Factory Forged 428 $ Crank?

[bulletpruf]

Buddy of mine is a hardcore Ford guy who has been around a while.  He recently picked up some FE bits including an NOS 3.98 stroke crank with the $ sign.  Basically a 427 steel crank but with the 428 stroke.  He doesn't know if he wants to use this in a max effort build or sell it/trade it for a stroker crank.

I haven't heard of these, but did find this thread when I searched - http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/fe-talk/39236-stock-428-steel-crank.html

Anyone have any info?  Any ideas on value? 

Thanks

Scott

[thatdarncat]

The “$” is the trademark logo of the Wyman-Gordon company, the company that made the raw crankshaft forgings for Ford. It’s actually not even a dollar sign, it’s a symbol that has another name, but I don’t remember what it is actually called, maybe someone else remembers.

Is there an engineering number on the crankshaft? Often it’s hand stamped on, or partially hand stamped. Does it have an “SK”, “ASK” or “XE” number on it? Any pictures of the crankshaft rod journals? Full picture of the crank?

It’s certainly possible that Ford could have made a few 3.98” stroke forged cranks from raw forgings, maybe for the Drag Team members, having something like an “SK” number that matches some Ford documentation would be nice. You might want to check with Jay Cushman at Cushman Competition in Maine, he has quite a collection of rare Ford parts, as do a few of our members here.

People have offset ground 391 FT forged cranks to 3.98” stroke cranks also.

[bulletpruf]

Kevin - Thanks for the info and the questions.  I forwarded to my buddy.  I'll post details once I hear back.

Scott

[bulletpruf]

More pictures. 

[bulletpruf]

More pics...

[427John]

Another possibility is a welded and stroked 361 or 391 crank,that wouldn't be the first one done, back in the days before the availability of the stroker cranks we have today it wasn't unheard of for someone to take a steel 361 or 391 FT crank have it welded and stroked and have the snout turned down for pass car use.Thats how the whole stroker crank business got its start.Some of the more reputable shops did such fine work that it was hard to tell anything was done.

[thatdarncat]

What’s the size of the crank bolt?

[427FeWedge]

It not a welded crank. I have the same crank and they started a C4 steel crank but they non cross drilled.

Rob

[thatdarncat]

The subject of the C4AE-6303-G forged cranks has come up here, and on the old FE Forum, in the past, and last summer I posted these pictures of one that was in our local friend Kurt G’s collection. To be clear this particular one, and the others I’ve heard of are 3.78” stroke cranks. From information in the past the C4AE-6303-G cranks were part of a 7000 rpm kit Ford offered racers for the 427 High Riser. I asked last year if anyone had a copy of the original Ford memo, since it’s disappeared from the old FE Forum post, but no one posted a copy. I would guess maybe Dennis K. has a copy of the memo. These were a non-cross drilled crank, unlike most of the later 427 forged cranks. This one has the grooved mains which were common on 427 cranks at the time. Hard to tell just from the pictures, but the rod journal on this seems to not be quite as close to the edge of the crank, which would maybe be expected if the other crank was either ground as a stroker, or welded and offset ground. All just speculation at this point, but possible the C4AE-6303-G crank Bulletpruf posted was a raw C4AE-6303-G crank that was finished in 3.98”, or possible it was modified. In any case, a C4AE-6303-G crank wouldn’t normally be a 3.98” stroke crank, so why it still has that engineering number would be more speculation lol.

[MeanGene]

I had one of those C4 steel cranks, swapped it to Bobby Spears for his Lightweight. It was std and cherry, don't remember if it was cross-drilled, no grooves. In the possession of Cragar Wenger now

[gt350hr]

 Notations in the SK log book are often as simple as
    "Crankshaft S/A ( same as) C6AE-? but use forging C4AE-G" others say "except billet material". I don't have any early crank information only '68 and later.
   Randy

[427John]

I had always suspected that the steel crank as part of the 7000 rpm kit but didn't know that the initial versions weren't cross drilled.Was the early version of the Lemans rod a part of that too or was it later?

[gt350hr]

   The "cap screw" rods were developed for the Cammer initially. They were given to "select" Nascar teams to run and test. There were two different SK numbers on the forgings followed by the C5 version and the last version , the C6AE. The C7OE Nascar rod was totally different as we all know. There were MULTIPLE revisions to the rod's manufacturing but the forging numbers were as I noted. If you had all four varieties in a row , the differences are obvious.The rods that went into LeMans engines used SPS rod bolts , not the failure prone tri lobe stock bolts.
   Randy

[frnkeore]

Another possibility is a welded and stroked 361 or 391 crank,that wouldn't be the first one done, back in the days before the availability of the stroker cranks we have today it wasn't unheard of for someone to take a steel 361 or 391 FT crank have it welded and stroked and have the snout turned down for pass car use.Thats how the whole stroker crank business got its start.Some of the more reputable shops did such fine work that it was hard to tell anything was done.

Regarding this, the 361 that I have and the 391's I've seen (3 of them), have distinct counter weights, that have a large radius.

[mike7570]

Another possibility is a welded and stroked 361 or 391 crank,that wouldn't be the first one done, back in the days before the availability of the stroker cranks we have today it wasn't unheard of for someone to take a steel 361 or 391 FT crank have it welded and stroked and have the snout turned down for pass car use.Thats how the whole stroker crank business got its start.Some of the more reputable shops did such fine work that it was hard to tell anything was done.

Regarding this, the 361 that I have and the 391's I've seen (3 of them), have distinct counter weights, that have a large radius.

Here you go