La Mans vs Eagle Rods

[jeff neely]

I am putting one of the new Genesis blocks together and am wondering witch rods to use? I have a set of La Mans rods ready to go in, but I am having second thoughts. My new thought is if the new motor is going to be all new parts, why put thrity year old rods in it? If I could put a new crank in it I would do that to. So did I just answer my own question or what. Also who makes the best set of pistons for a stroked 427?

Thanks for any coments.
Jeff Neely

[chopper]

Jeff:

I had a set of Le Mans rods in my old engine. When I had the engine rebuilt by Bill Parham at Southern Automotive, I originally asked him to repair the one damaged rod, resize the rest (they are matched by weight as a set, if you didn't know), and install them in the new block. He talked me out of that because, while the Le Mans rods were the cat's meow 35 years ago, metallurgy has far surpassed them today. Parham installs the late-model Chevy 454 hi-po rods in his stroker engines. IMHO, keep the Le Mans rods for souvenirs if you'd like, but there are far better units available nowadays for performance engines.

[Jeff Frigo]

If you can afford new rods, use them. If not a properly reworked set of LeMans will work fine with new bolts. I doubt that you will ever see 6,500 rpm with a stroker, yet alone 7,000 rpm which they will last forever at. This is speaking from experiance. As far as pistons go, JE is the way to go. They will make anything your builder wants for a reasonable price. Nobody makes anything better.

[CSX 4027]

Widen the crank and use a Chevy .990 bearing rod. It will be stronger than the LeMans and the replacements with the standard narrow bearing.

[Tony Ripepi]

Hello Jeff,

I totally agree even if you were building your motor out of an old casting a new crank, connecting rods, rod bolts are the only way to go. The ARIAS pistons are recommended by Gessford and they should be worth a look. The only thing worth keeping from an old engine is the block and 60% of that is just bragging rights.


http://www.gessford.com/projects/ima...ts427tbolt.htm

This link will take you to some significant information on building your AL/FE...

Best Regards,

Tony R.

[Toivo]

Wiseco makes good pistons, fast. If you do chevy rods, you'll want the (ford) full-floating little end. You should pay attention to offset at the piston...depends on how noisy your valvetrain is and RPM range.

I used a 351C bearing size for the big end, easier on your crank grinder and plenty of sizes available from Ford Racing and others in a multitude of material makeups.

FYI: Eagle rods are made in communist China by little kids under deplorable conditions. But they would work well in your Midwest (USA) cast Genesis block for a reasonable price. What price patriotism?