Various 427 Questions, New Member

[Excaliber]

xracerbob, man aint THAT the truth!!!

The argument over '40 year old rods' vs modern rods has been hammered as often as 'which kit to buy'. Myself, I DON'T buy the argument that 40 year old rods are any weaker today than they were, say, 40 years ago! As if somehow metal fatigue sets in while the rods 'sit' over time? OK, you could ALWAYS make a case for new rods, and that seems to be our job here. Apparently our responsibility is, as xracerbob has made clear, to blow your budget for you by ALWAYS being ultra safe and politically correct, dollars be damned.

I had my rotating assembly balanced INCLUDING the flywheel AND pressure plate! The one area where I spent the big bucks was for custom pistons to move the piston UP in the hole to achieve 'quench'. I think the standard spec is something like .030 below deck for a side oiler, which means there is NO quench at all. To control compression I then had the pistons 'dished' the appropriate amount to arrive at 9.6 to 1 with iron heads. It was previously 12.5 to 1 and a real pain in the butt trying to find 'race gas' everytime I needed a fill up (which was often at 6 mpg).

See my "Engine Blog" for more info if you like:
427 side oiler engine build "Blog"

[Keithc8]

Let me tell you about a little project one of my customer had. He wanted the original 427 steel crankshaft and LeMans rods. The crankshaft was checked liked the one you speak of and the rods were crack checked and new bolts installed. Well on about the 7 pull on the dyno one of the 40 year old rods decided to break right into and it destroyed his crank and block aloong with a lot of other stuff. I hated to tell him that I told him so but I got to deliver the bad news which I had warned him about.
Some of these old parts have been around for 40 years and abused when they were used. This engine I speak of was a pump gas 525HP enginje that broke at about 5000 rpms. We had not even turned it up yet. I guess what I am trying to say, new parts are a lot better than any nused parts that you know nothing about. I do not like the Ford rod journal and I know it will work but why not put the better designed stuff in the engine to start with for performance and durability. I would not be building many FE engines if it were not for the new stuff because the old **** always gave me problems. I know that your time is worth money because mine sure is. I do not want to do this stuff over because I really loose then. You need to look at resale as well on the engine for the car and how it will affect the car.
I can sell you a stroker kit for about what you will spend on that old stuff anyway. New Eagle or Scat cast steel crankshaft that I have used to 700HP and yet to break one, Scat I-beam rods, Diamond pistons, Plasma Moly rings and bearings for 1595.00. You will spend this much on the stuff you have to get. Balancing to zero will run about 300.00. I can help you with every item that you might need. I can even build you a nice 468 or 482 Genesis sideoiler with Edelbrock heads and intake with carburetion of the dyno for about 15,000.00 that will make at least 525HP and 550 ft/lbs of torque. You might save a little going the other way but I am passing along a lot of the savings I get along to my customers. Give me a call if we can help. I also have some original parts like heads, intake, cranks, rods and such that I use on restoration engines. Good luck, Keith Craft

[elmariachi]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for posting your thoughts. I have visited your website and read a number of your posts here and there's no doubt you know what you are doing. All your points are very valid, I am just not ready to send $15k into the Great State of Arkansas just yet. I have a local builder who will help me either way, once I make up my mind. I may only get to do this once and I want to be as hands-on as I can be. I will call you in a few days to discuss the block options and to see what else you might have that could help me if I go with the vintage stuff I am looking at. Thanks.