Author Topic: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?  (Read 8850 times)

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cammerfe

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #30 on: September 27, 2020, 07:01:23 AM »
All the early SOHC users with blowers and 'pop' made more than that, but they were also replacing engines with alarming regularity. The analysis stands!

KS

My427stang

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #31 on: September 27, 2020, 09:28:09 AM »
All the early SOHC users with blowers and 'pop' made more than that, but they were also replacing engines with alarming regularity. The analysis stands!

KS

I doubt those were stock bottom ends, and those rods were as young as the builders were back then.  Us FE guys and the stock parts are starting to get pretty worn out!
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fryedaddy

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #32 on: September 27, 2020, 10:33:00 AM »
 question, does a set of nos rods get fatigued just by sitting for 50 years.or would a nos rod or low mileage driven right rod be better than a set ran for many years that look good be just as good?
1966 comet caliente 428 4 speed owned since 1983                                                 1973 f250 ranger xlt 360 4 speed papaw bought new

AlanCasida

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #33 on: September 27, 2020, 11:13:32 AM »
Here is a recent example from personal experience. I had to bow out of RMRW this year due to a spun rod bearing on #8 rod. It is very likely I hurt it early on or even before I started because my performance really dropped off after day one. So I may have driven over 700 miles with a hurt bearing and made 5 passes at the track shifting at 6400 rpm including two passes the last day when I could hear the piston tapping the head but couldn't figure out what it was at the time.  I know now that for sure it was hurt before I made my last leg of 340 miles. Anyway my Eagle rod held in there even though the bearing had almost disintegrated and it looks like the rod had probably been red hot by the discoloration. Would a stock have held up to that, I don't know but I think this rod took a lot of abuse.     

wayne

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #34 on: September 27, 2020, 11:28:12 AM »
I bought a bone stock boss 302 years ago heard it run it had a knock oil pressure was good when i took it apart Crank was broke busted number two main cap I new of this engine a long time it was not beat hard even the good factory parts had trouble for no reason.

plovett

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #35 on: September 27, 2020, 12:42:20 PM »
Well, I am no expert and there are certainly a lot of variables, not just one or two.   You never really know what happened to an engine unless it is your own and you've owned it since it was built or rebuilt.

pl

dozz302

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #36 on: September 27, 2020, 02:09:23 PM »
Great feedback on this > but in this thread I see a lot of references to 50-60 year old rods. Does steel degrade over time? I thought it has the same strength...say a 1000 years from now if it is sitting on a shelf in some ones garage. 
"Time" means nothing > only miles on rods or how they were used and history should be a known factor.  But "Time " means nothing.

oldiron.fe

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #37 on: September 27, 2020, 02:54:05 PM »
i have broken oem rods at 2500/3000 rpm  a good friend broke a NEW 427SIDEOILER OEM SHORT BLOCK NOT rebuilt right from a ford dealership wiped block/crank/ every thing  the block never saw 3500 rpm  take a mic. and measure the web 1/2 inches below the rod pin  not only millions of cycles  if you look at enough of the you will find a paper thin web why chance breaking everything when good parts are finally available  yes i used the rods available in the 60s when anything better was REALLY expensive!!  on 1/2 mile paved track also picked up 1/2 428crank with damper/ parts of rds!!! broken oem rods just cost way too much to rebuild!! P.S.  at the end of the back straightaway the parts are really HOT!!! penny wise pound foolish??  today it is so nice to have good  parts where needed at a reasonable price  short of really expensive rods i like molnar  make your own good luck ::)
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gt350hr

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #38 on: September 28, 2020, 09:55:50 AM »
I bought a bone stock boss 302 years ago heard it run it had a knock oil pressure was good when i took it apart Crank was broke busted number two main cap I new of this engine a long time it was not beat hard even the good factory parts had trouble for no reason.


       Balance issue. Happened often on Boss 302s. Always #2 cap or main.

chilly460

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #39 on: September 28, 2020, 12:47:33 PM »
I look at is risk/return.  If a rod breaks, how many $$$ are you potentially looking at for the damage?  Block/crank/cam/even heads could be damaged.  What's the delta in cost between an aftermarket rod and rebuilt rods?  $200?  Seems like little investment for peace of mind. 


WConley

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #40 on: September 28, 2020, 03:24:25 PM »
i have broken oem rods at 2500/3000 rpm  a good friend broke a NEW 427SIDEOILER OEM SHORT BLOCK NOT rebuilt right from a ford dealership wiped block/crank/ every thing  the block never saw 3500 rpm ...

We certainly blew up a lot of new stuff when I worked at the Ford Dyno Building!  One of the old-time dyno operators told me about a LeMans sideoiler that "unzipped" the whole bottom skirt of the block during a durability test.  He was in the room with it - old style GE dyno with the console right next to the engine  :o :o

I worked with him in that same cell on a 460 truck engine.  We were deliberately detonating it at max torque rpm to test the bearings.  Man - being right next to a detonating engine in a dyno cell will make your hair stand on end.  Definitely not OSHA approved.  Those old guys had big brass ones...

I have stories of early 3.8L supercharged V6's coming apart at 6,500 rpm.  You had to be in a separate control room for those, with an empty cell on either side of you!  They finally figured out that a cast iron crank was not going to work.  ::)
A careful study of failure will yield the ingredients for success.

SSdynosaur

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #41 on: September 28, 2020, 11:01:50 PM »
I had one of the early '89 T-birds with that engine and it was probably the most fun street car to drive I ever owned...that is, until it rained or snowed. There's definitely a learning curve to driving a supercharged vehicle. The entire production package was reliable, well engineered and over-achieved in performance.

WConley

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #42 on: September 28, 2020, 11:25:29 PM »
Yeah the Thunderbird SC's were fun  :)  I got to take test cars home on the weekends a lot.  The car was very well balanced and predictable.  You could do a full throttle 80 mph drift (before drifting was a thing!) with one hand on the wheel and the other hand holding a latte.  Try that in a Fox body Mustang!

Sorry for the off-topic.  BTW, the first few thousand cars were built with cast crankshafts.  They were all recalled once management realized how potentially dangerous an engine failure could be.  Bill Ford Jr. was wringing out a test car at Arizona Proving Ground, when drove over the crankshaft at 140 mph  :o
A careful study of failure will yield the ingredients for success.

SSdynosaur

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #43 on: September 28, 2020, 11:59:32 PM »
An old racing friend, Gordon Payne, also a Ford engineer, had told me a few of the 3.8L crankshaft mis-adventures. I seem to recall that he said that once the decision was made to switch to forged cranks, in the interest of expediency, Ford farmed production out to an off-shore supplier; I may have that part confused with one of his many other work stories.

frnkeore

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Re: Is it Necessary or Advisable to Shot Peen Ploished Ford Factory Rods?
« Reply #44 on: September 29, 2020, 12:39:14 AM »
This is again off topic. I have a SC, it was a great car while it ran. Most power and the best gas mileage of the 3 T-Birds I had. My issue with it was it gulped antifreeze and ruin the bearings, twice (I bought that way to begin with but, didn't know why the bearing were out). I understand that even the 4.2 version of the V6 does the same thing. What's with that?

I was impressed with the forged crank but, why did they put in that odd main bearing journal?
Frank