Would there be any interest in longer, aftermarket, FE journal rods?

[GerryP]

Just throwin' this out there;

It might be more attractive if this was offered as a piston/rod kit, and maybe a balanced crank/piston/rod kit.  I understand that can create inventory and backorder issues.  I have no idea if the kit concept outsells individual parts.

Many builds go hokey when you are building from individual parts.  Valvetrain stuff seems to be the worst potential for mismatched parts.
 If you are not an experienced builder...and sometime even when you are, using a kit removes some of the potential for mistakes.  Yes, even if you can do math, you can still have issues.

I don't know, maybe I'm all messed up on this.

[blykins]

Just throwin' this out there;

It might be more attractive if this was offered as a piston/rod kit, and maybe a balanced crank/piston/rod kit.  I understand that can create inventory and backorder issues.  I have no idea if the kit concept outsells individual parts.

Many builds go hokey when you are building from individual parts.  Valvetrain stuff seems to be the worst potential for mismatched parts.
 If you are not an experienced builder...and sometime even when you are, using a kit removes some of the potential for mistakes.  Yes, even if you can do math, you can still have issues.

I don't know, maybe I'm all messed up on this.

Gerry, I've never really been a fan of kits, unless the pistons were ordered on a custom-order basis.  I sell a lot of custom pistons just because there are guys who don't want to bore .030, .040, .060, etc., or have different needs with the block's deck height, volume, etc.  In all honesty, I don't keep shelf pistons, just because there's too big of a chance that they will sit for awhile. 

I do agree on the valvetrain stuff.  Ordering a cam and springs out of a catalog is a recipe for disaster as the catalog doesn't know how far  your valves have been sunk, how heavy your valves are, etc.  Even when guys call and order springs to match a camshaft, I have them measure their install height and give me all the info. 

[GerryP]

That makes sense.  I suppose you would be willing to work with a customer to "build" a kit from the individual components, right? 

[blykins]

That makes sense.  I suppose you would be willing to work with a customer to "build" a kit from the individual components, right?

That's normally how I do it.  The crank and rods are the easy parts normally.  The pistons take a little figurin' and I try to get the customer to have the deck height laid out, heads cc'd, camshaft chosen, etc.

[frnkeore]

There is a lot that can be done, along these lines.

The stock FE rod bearing size (TRW CB 760) is .734 wide X 2.438 ID. The old dowel pinned 427 bearing is .746 X 2.438 (TRW CB 830).

For reference, the BBC (TRW CB 743) is .892 wide X 2.199 dia.

The old 390 Cadillac engine, also used 7/8" wide rods and there rod bearing width is .760, with a 2.250 dia journal. BTW, the Cad rod is 6.5 long, interesting, huh? Almost a direct replacement for a 390 Ford, with reground crank pins. Offset you get 3.96 stroke.

Guess how wide the 351C rod bearing is? It is only .008 narrower than the 390 bearing, at .726 wide and could be used in this application. With it, you could offset grind a 390 crank to 3.900 and a 428 crank, to 4.100 stroke.

But, since we started taking about using the BBC rod journal size, another option is the 292/312, 7/8" wide rod, it's bearing is .746 wide X 2.188 dia (TRW CB 461), only .011 smaller than the BBC. If you offset grind for that bearing, you can have 4.03 stoked 390 cranks and 4.23 stroke, 428 cranks.

Something that hasn't be brought up, is why do we need the .975 wrist pins? We are taking about SBF/SBC size pistons that do extremely well with 4 - 4 3/16 diameter pistons. You get additional piston weight reduction, with thesmaller pin, too. There are many, off the shelf pistons available for the .927 WP. They include, 1.54-1.56, 1.42, 1.30, 1.25-1.28, 1.165, 1.125-1.13, 1.09-1.10 and 1.06-1.025. Mix and match!

More crank pin options, include the following, TRW bearing #'s:

CB 676, .726 X 2.123, 289/302
CB 698, .755 X 2.001
CB 610, .742 X 2.000

[winr1]

Hey frnkeore :-)

Lots of cool info, I looked into all kinds of combos

What threw me off was $500.00 or more to offset grind a 390 or 428 crank by anyone I could find that could do it

Then custom pistons an such .....  was exploring something with a Ford 400 rod as well



Ricky.

[frnkeore]

Give Mario a call. I talked to him, about 2 months ago and he gave me a price of about $250 for a flathead crank but, said that that price goes for most cranks.

He is a old racer (Sprint Car, I think) and knows what he talks about.


Contact Information:

L & M Grinding
1301 E Cypress Ave
Redding, CA 96002
Contact:    Mario Frugugliette
Title:    Owner
Phone:    (530) 221-7652

[frnkeore]

I was doing some cross referencing (TRW/Speedpro/Clevite) in the Clevite catalog and stumble on this rod bearing.

I think it's a good diameter for the FE and you can still get a .12R on the crank pin with it.

[chris401]

That is a good idea. It has always perplexed me how the engineers could go through the steps to produce a piston and miss the equations needed to come up with the correct piston height. At least within .030" of a common machined deck.