Author Topic: FE rod options?  (Read 18734 times)

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blykins

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2018, 05:43:13 AM »
How about Carrillo? Sposedta be full US made.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Carrillo-Connecting-Rods-Ford-390-427-428-FE-2-200-Crank-990-Pin-6-488-WMC/292334965186?hash=item44108591c2:g:CksAAOSwKIpWBTTx&vxp=mtr

Oliver are US made also. Maybe they could do a custom set?

Hate to say it, but if you want a US rod, you are gonna pay. A. LOT.

Those have BBC rod journals. :)
Brent Lykins
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blykins

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2018, 06:07:07 AM »
  Brent,
 
  To clarify Scat quality varies and seems to have much more issues than in the past so in my eyes it very much is the case. For a time I worked at a shop that was a Scat dealer (RAM in Clinton Ohio) and another friend is the head machinist at the local VW shop(LA products in Akron) which is also a Scat dealer so I still see issues here and there. Most of the time he points them out as I rib him for using Empi knock off parts he says he has found to have less (obvious) issues. Nothing is perfect but for my money I have long learned to buy the best I can afford at the time. Generally Scat is my go to and I won't even consider anything below them but I have gotten bad parts.  Summit is also right up the road and I'm probably there once a week at least where it's not uncommon at all to find a blem crank or set of rods on the discount table.

My billet 3.4 SBF Scat crank came in the old shop with an undrilled/unfinished flange and the wrong size key way in the wrong spot. More recently my purchase of a forged 4.25 FE Scat crank I was assured was the best off the shelf crank available resulted in a flaking slag covered piece neither Scat nor the vendor who couldn't be reached saw fit to address which had it to be shotpeened and rebalanced. The 4.25 cast crank another FE guy here got in his "kit" is riddled with porosity. In that I'm referring to every unmachined area has 3/16" air pockets that hopefully are limited to just the surface. You certainly don't see display pieces that look like that and in my case it is more than enough to look to other suppliers when possible. So yes any part can be flawed at any cost/level but with this in mind I'm not interested in buying another Scat FE crank or rods no matter how much power they can handle etc. I'm looking for nicer parts for this.

  Scott,
  I asked a simple question about availability of a nice US made set of rods. I'm not interested in dragging this into global economy politics. No matter how nice Molnar rods are in your opinion I don't want to spend my money on them. I have an old American car with an old American engine if for no other reason I consider it a touch cooler not to use China stuff to build it with.

 



.

I guess my experiences have been quite the opposite.   Eagles are absolutely a no-go for me.  Won't use their stuff.  RPM's parts need some machine work out of the box to be usable, but all-in-all, they are good parts that I have seen zero failures with.   I've had issues with practically every manufacturer out there, and as a mechanical engineer who specialized in mechanical design and manufacturing, I understand that there's a bell curve with every part and sometimes we get a part that's on the extreme end.  As that sample size goes up, the chances of a ringer will go up. 

With all of that being said, I don't have thousands of engines under my belt like a high-quantity "rebuilder", but I've built a LOT of engines and have sold a tremendous amount of parts over the years.  I have chosen Scat to be my "go-to" for my street and street/strip engines and to this day, I can think of exactly 2 items that were out of the scope of "this needs a little correction".  I'm not talking about having to dust the inside of a bearing housing or a pin bore, because if we had to eliminate manufacturers according to those standards, we would be sitting here without any parts to work with.  IMO, that's part of custom engine building.  Those 2 items consisted of:  1.  one single rod that when I removed the cap, it wouldn't go back on and I don't see how the guy putting it together even got it on.  2.  A 4.250" SBF 4340 crank rod journal that had about .0006" of taper in it.   That crank was in a late batch of 3 cranks that I received two weeks ago, so I will keep my eye on them. Can't say that I have seen even a single case of porosity on their cast cranks or any flaking. 

I am saying all of this not to be argumentative, but just to state my own retort, as I didn't want anyone thinking that Scat has stooped to the quality level of some of the others. 

Getting back to your original question, it looks like Crower is the only option for you, unless you wanted to have one of the other manufacturers make a custom rod, and then you're gonna be over the cost of the Crower. 

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.

« Last Edit: May 06, 2018, 06:09:00 AM by blykins »
Brent Lykins
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HvyFt4spd

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2018, 08:31:11 AM »
 Hey Brent,

  It's not my intention to argue, insult any company or scare off potential customers for anyone but blems happen and people should be aware rotten apples are out there. Even top end companies and million dollar cnc gubment projects have an "oh darn" moment. The question is if it gets out the door that way and if so how the problem is handled.

  In regards to the rods all this comes down to is that I have a preference I'm willing to pay for. I doubt I'm going to dig up much but I'm glad to post the outcome.

Thanks for the posts guys, Dan

scott foxwell

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #18 on: May 06, 2018, 09:30:04 AM »


  Scott,
  I asked a simple question about availability of a nice US made set of rods. I'm not interested in dragging this into global economy politics. No matter how nice Molnar rods are in your opinion I don't want to spend my money on them. I have an old American car with an old American engine if for no other reason I consider it a touch cooler not to use China stuff to build it with.

 



.
LOL...well that's certainly your prerogative. Good luck with that. I've learned to pick my battles. "How nice" Molnar rods are is not an opinion, it's a fact, and that's all I'm trying to provide. Just good information.
Carry on.

andyf

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2018, 11:22:45 AM »
I guess I'm just the opposite. I'll use Molnar stuff but not Crower. Crower makes great stuff but I've found that they are just too difficult to work with. Tom on the other hand is a pretty good guy to work with and he sells nice parts. I've also had great luck working with the guys at SCAT. They've done custom cranks for me that Crower turned up their nose on. Oliver is also pretty good to work with and they can build anything you need.

At my point in life I don't really care which country the part is made in since that is a pointless discussion. Where did the iron ore come from? Who did the CAD work? Which country was the inspection equipment made in? Country of origin is a meaningless concept if you dig into a few levels. Everything comes from everywhere.

I'm a lot more interested in who I'm dealing with and will they support their product after the sale. Will they work with you to get you what you need? I don't really care where the vendor sources the raw material, that is their business. Besides, how much of your original FE engine came from USA? Detroit has been sourcing parts from around the world for a long time.

cjshaker

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2018, 12:28:16 PM »
Besides, how much of your original FE engine came from USA? Detroit has been sourcing parts from around the world for a long time.

Not trying to nit-pick, but almost 100% sure that at the time FE's were being made, especially through the '60s, every single part was U.S. made, by U.S. materials, in U.S. foundries.
Doug Smith


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'70 F-350 390
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blykins

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #21 on: May 06, 2018, 01:12:32 PM »
Hey Brent,

  It's not my intention to argue, insult any company or scare off potential customers for anyone but blems happen and people should be aware rotten apples are out there. Even top end companies and million dollar cnc gubment projects have an "oh darn" moment. The question is if it gets out the door that way and if so how the problem is handled.

  In regards to the rods all this comes down to is that I have a preference I'm willing to pay for. I doubt I'm going to dig up much but I'm glad to post the outcome.

Thanks for the posts guys, Dan

Yes sir, let us know what you come up with.
Brent Lykins
Lykins Motorsports
Custom FE Street, Drag Race, Road Race, and Pulling Truck Engines
Custom Roller & Flat Tappet Camshafts
www.lykinsmotorsports.com
brent@lykinsmotorsports.com
www.customfordcams.com
502-759-1431
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Tommy-T

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #22 on: May 06, 2018, 01:29:48 PM »
"Not trying to nit-pick, but almost 100% sure that at the time FE's were being made, especially through the '60s, every single part was U.S. made, by U.S. materials, in U.S. foundries."

The above is simply a non-true statement.

North America simply does not have any bauxite reserves worth mining and never has. It is interesting that aluminum is the most prevalent metal in the earth's crust at 8.3%, but not much on our continent.  Anything aluminum, say front covers, thermostat housings, intake manifolds, were made from materials sourced from abroad. Maybe nit-picking, but even the 'ol FE has been "global" all along.

Sorry to go so off topic...but wrong is wrong.

plovett

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #23 on: May 06, 2018, 03:18:33 PM »
So if the aluminum ore used in a factory PI intake was sourced from a foreign country, then FE cars were "global"?  And based on that there's no point in trying to buy American made today?  That is some serious rationalization.  LOL!

cjshaker

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #24 on: May 06, 2018, 06:52:41 PM »
"Not trying to nit-pick, but almost 100% sure that at the time FE's were being made, especially through the '60s, every single part was U.S. made, by U.S. materials, in U.S. foundries."

The above is simply a non-true statement.

North America simply does not have any bauxite reserves worth mining and never has. It is interesting that aluminum is the most prevalent metal in the earth's crust at 8.3%, but not much on our continent.  Anything aluminum, say front covers, thermostat housings, intake manifolds, were made from materials sourced from abroad. Maybe nit-picking, but even the 'ol FE has been "global" all along.

Sorry to go so off topic...but wrong is wrong.

Hey Tommy, according to  online sources the U.S. was providing a little less than 10% of the WORLDS supply of bauxite in the mid/late '50s. That fell over the years, and especially in the '80s. So we're still talking about millions of tons of bauxite being mined in the U.S. in the '60s. So, got any proof that those parts were made from ore from outside the U.S. before you say I'm wrong?
Doug Smith


'69 R-code Mach 1, 427 MR, 2x4, Jerico, 4.30 Locker
'70 F-350 390
'55 Ford Customline 2dr
'37 Ford Coupe

scott foxwell

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #25 on: May 06, 2018, 08:42:23 PM »
"Not trying to nit-pick, but almost 100% sure that at the time FE's were being made, especially through the '60s, every single part was U.S. made, by U.S. materials, in U.S. foundries."

The above is simply a non-true statement.

North America simply does not have any bauxite reserves worth mining and never has. It is interesting that aluminum is the most prevalent metal in the earth's crust at 8.3%, but not much on our continent.  Anything aluminum, say front covers, thermostat housings, intake manifolds, were made from materials sourced from abroad. Maybe nit-picking, but even the 'ol FE has been "global" all along.

Sorry to go so off topic...but wrong is wrong.

Hey Tommy, according to  online sources the U.S. was providing a little less than 10% of the WORLDS supply of bauxite in the mid/late '50s. That fell over the years, and especially in the '80s. So we're still talking about millions of tons of bauxite being mined in the U.S. in the '60s. So, got any proof that those parts were made from ore from outside the U.S. before you say I'm wrong?
Very little of that bauxite was used for aluminum.

cjshaker

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #26 on: May 07, 2018, 10:57:39 AM »
Very little of that bauxite was used for aluminum.

Read the bottom of page 5..."The principal use of Arkansas bauxite was in the manufacture of metallic aluminum."
http://www.geology.ar.gov/pdf/pamphlets/Bauxite.pdf
Then look at page 6 for the over 38,000,000 long tons of bauxite produced during the production of the FE, in Arkansas alone.
Apparently you're not the expert you think you are, in every subject known to man.
Doug Smith


'69 R-code Mach 1, 427 MR, 2x4, Jerico, 4.30 Locker
'70 F-350 390
'55 Ford Customline 2dr
'37 Ford Coupe

Barry_R

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #27 on: May 07, 2018, 11:08:04 AM »
Very little of that bauxite was used for aluminum.
[/quote]

What else do you use bauxite for?

Dumpling

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #28 on: May 07, 2018, 12:12:09 PM »
A,te you all taking testosterone pills?

Barry_R

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Re: FE rod options?
« Reply #29 on: May 07, 2018, 02:06:10 PM »
A,te you all taking testosterone pills?

Sometimes we just like to bicker....