So I wondered? You posted a general question, quoting, 'a guys' opinion. And you have a lot of fast FE guys here who's opinion you can find in the search box.
What crank will you go for and why?
I wanted to clarify a little that the term 'cast' crank is usually used to describe the plentiful cast iron units, The FORD cast crank is a lot stronger than many believe for certain builds.
Today, you have cast iron, NOS style, and cast steel, often from China. So the added choice is nice.
I am one of many who have to say some nice things about FORD's ability to design and build a great iron crank. A lot of pump gas FE's can do fine with a iron crank. We raced them for FORD and had no failures.
Cast FORD cranks won in off shore racing, off road many many times, won Championships, year after year, and have better 'lubricity' or oil retention ability for many street or hot street engines. They can retain and sweat oil molecules and run smooth in many start stop settings, our FORD Engineers lectured, so, the crank can do well for many
A 390, stock, or close to stock, maintained well, oil, filter, tune up, and run within it's design parameters? In a car, Mustang, Ranchero, Truck,,,,they earned a real good reputation for going and going. We rebuild so many, at around 100,000 miles, with little wear on that cast crank, or the bores. If you beat them to death, different deal of course
A whole bunch of Drag Team 428s did great with a cast iron crank too. We built a lot of Drag Team 428 based cars at Stroppe. or serviced the engines. For a good decade after, these same cars and owners, or successors, brought us the FE's to freshen up. None needed a special billet steel crank
The 428s we raced and did fine with that became a blown FE? Say for a Boat? A Rail? A sand drag car? a Super fast door car? Those got a Billet.....
We did get to use the very rare forged steel FORD 428 cranks for the top builds, they came in rough machines, mains turned and ground, we finished the rod journals. We got a few blanks. These were so rare, and raced from day one, few survived. The last 2 we found were 40-40, one was 40-50 if I recall(Ground 3-4-5 times, ie, super used up)....and both were cracked
More cast FORD cranks whipped Chevys and DeSotos too. We raced NASCAR,,,,,and did real well, using a Dry Sump, and a trick or two, to make around 600 hp, wide open mostly, for a 500 mile race. Ford Racing did not rush to provide us forged steel cranks for the BOSS 351's. You had to spend a bunch of money, around 1500 in 1970-71, 72 dollars(Maybe 6,000 today?) for a billet
A nitride cast nodular crank, like a Boss 351,,,,is a nice piece
So, many kept it short here, maybe they can add their experience with a FE Forged unit
Just trying to close the loop with relevant engineering info.
Do you plan on a Chinese crank, finished in Torrance, CA.? Or a FORD unit? Or maybe save and get a true race crank?Crower, Sonny Bryant or Velasco? Velasco makes a real pretty line of billet FE cranks
Scat has a forging, call them.....again, you get 2 choices,,,,rat rods, or FE rods
We preferred the 392 for 1,000 HP and up more or less...
But people forget.....for the winning FE's in NASCAR,,,,the SK Crank and wider SK rods were needed to win and win.
Many still really like the crank pin size, too bad they did not make more
SK cranks were so good, we raced them to death, one by one....usually SuperCharged
To Dale, hope all is well, it is always good to answer the questions posted, and cite your examples, experiences, opinions and what you have seen or done. The question here is FORD vs other cranks.
How many have you run and what do you suggest? And why?
A tech forum is a great place to focus on power, fast builds, reliable work and results,,,,or methods. Many have zero time for bickering, personal attacks, and all of that nonsense. May we please focus on engineering, power, winning, or building nice Fords? Email me anything else, away from here. Give me time to reply sir.
Kudos to JAY for having a fast place to work, share, learn, meet,greet, buy/sell and have a nice time.
Happy Sunday and Happy 4th to all
Have 3 videos of a 3,000 HP FE for soon