Connecting rods

[California 72]

Who out there has replaced their Cleveland connecting rods that could provide a source?

I'm currently trying to find standard size forged and sleeved, I-beam style for floating wrist pins. I've found H-beam rods at Summit but those are definitely overkill for what we are building and want to spend. I genuinely don't wish to rebuild a stroker so while understanding the Cleveland was a short-lived production life, it really remains one of the better motors Ford designed. Imho.

While I did realize the add-ons were scarce, what I didn't realize was that it's light in availability of the performance parts engine rebuild end of things. As I stated above about building a stroked motor, it appears as if all of the internal parts production has been limited to entire kits.

As it stands and I don't find the I-beam style I'm looking for, I can either shell out the $700 for H-beams or probably end up spending twice that trying to reuse my current rods by having them gone over to make sure everything is the correct symmetry and not a weak link due to a hairline crack or some other fatal flaw from age and prior abuse.

After all, every P.O. out there is always very gentle and conscious of maintenance and never abuses their classic rides. Seriously though, it's one thing to be a teen during the 70's with your foot in it all of the time, but as we age, we're intended to learn the benefits of preserving these things, especially the respect of how much it costs to put one back together.

 

[Hemikiller]

If you don't have any odd wear on the rod bearings or pistons, then you can likely just have them magnafluxed, checked for straightness and twist, and simply replace the nuts with ARP. Cleveland rods are quite stout and are not usually on the "must replace" list.

 

[California 72]

If you don't have any odd wear on the rod bearings or pistons, then you can likely just have them magnafluxed, checked for straightness and twist, and simply replace the nuts with ARP. Cleveland rods are quite stout and are not usually on the "must replace" list.

Hemikiller, Thanks for the post. Appreciate you chiming in.

I'm trying to move to floating wrist pins on the pistons so I'm waiting on a quote to have the small-bore end sleeved for that. The other work quote was the next step depending on the cost to do the machining.

I've moved a couple machine shop duties to our last NAPA engine shop in Richmond VA due to a lighter workload than the previous shop. Spoke with them today and the guy that would be doing that was out to lunch and they'd get back to me later. What has me most concerned is the labor dollar per hour with the once over on the old rods and the fact that the "stoutness" of the Cleveland rods plays heck with the tooling that cuts the opening for the sleeves.

The bid process will be moving slower because I'm backing into it from learning the availability and cost issues of the new rods. At this point, if it all comes in the same price as the new rods, I might as well just do the upgrade.

In the end, if I could locate a set of new I-beam, standard size forged rods, they've been running around $375 a set, based off of what I have learned so far, the rework of the old rods will be more than that. Trouble is, like I mentioned earlier, no one, that I've been able to find, has the I-beams.

 

[Q1SVT]

What is the total cost to recondition your C-Rods, balance them, open the small end & bush them? [you hinted it's more]

Connecting Rods and Pistons go together... What Manufacture and specific piston are you looking at?
Do you know what your finished deck height is? You are going to spend money the question is where it makes the most sense...

Scat Pro Stock I-Beam Connecting Rods Ford 351W
Part Number: 942-25955912 $389.00
better for boosted motors [stronger]

351 PREMIUM PRO SPORT 4340 FORGED H-BEAM CONNECTING RODS
SKU: 2-351-5955-2311-912 $695.00
better for NA and spinning up and down the RPM range [lighter, faster rotation]]

JE Pistons was charging $10.00 [$80.00 for 8] to move the pin height... Many if not all old motors have very different compression heights... Same $10.00/80,00 to set what ever compression you want.

Making a change to Rod length does not stoke the motor... have to change the crank.
Running a 351W rod just need to run 351W rod bearings.

jm2c

 

[Paul M]

Who out there has replaced their Cleveland connecting rods that could provide a source?

I'm currently trying to find standard size forged and sleeved, I-beam style for floating wrist pins. I've found H-beam rods at Summit but those are definitely overkill for what we are building and want to spend. I genuinely don't wish to rebuild a stroker so while understanding the Cleveland was a short-lived production life, it really remains one of the better motors Ford designed. Imho.

While I did realize the add-ons were scarce, what I didn't realize was that it's light in availability of the performance parts engine rebuild end of things. As I stated above about building a stroked motor, it appears as if all of the internal parts production has been limited to entire kits.

As it stands and I don't find the I-beam style I'm looking for, I can either shell out the $700 for H-beams or probably end up spending twice that trying to reuse my current rods by having them gone over to make sure everything is the correct symmetry and not a weak link due to a hairline crack or some other fatal flaw from age and prior abuse.

After all, every P.O. out there is always very gentle and conscious of maintenance and never abuses their classic rides. Seriously though, it's one thing to be a teen during the 70's with your foot in it all of the time, but as we age, we're intended to learn the benefits of preserving these things, especially the respect of how much it costs to put one back together.

I went with Eagle "H" beam rods. 8 for @ 550 is @ 70.00 a pc. A little more than reworking the originals. The stock rods would work fine with "work"- resized, new ARP's, pressed in bushings. Machinists @ Tulsa do not like to do this kind of work anymore. They'll resize w/ new bolts that's about it. They didn't want to do the small ends so I could use floating pistons.

 

[California 72]

I went with Eagle "H" beam rods. 8 for @ 550 is @ 70.00 a pc.

If you wouldn't mind, where did you find them sold at 8 for $550?

 

[Paul M]

If you wouldn't mind, where did you find them sold at 8 for $550?

I honestly don't remember. We're talking 2 years ago; however, I'd guess you can get them for 589 and 601 on Ebay. I may have used one of the big parts co's like jegs, summit, speedway. Don't quote me on it. If I have time, I'll look for the receipt. I also used Wiseco pro true pistons.

 

[Spike Morelli]

It is a reality of life nowadays. Things that used to be available, whether it be parts or services, are near impossible to find, and if you do , the cost is prohibitive. I used to be the engine builder at Valley Head Service in Los Angeles years ago. Before mail order came to be, and various companies offered components outright, re-building what you had was how it was done. As to rods, first, we started with un-altered stock rods, checked them for straightness, and magnafluxed them to check for cracks and flaws. The customer's rods were then side beam ground to eliminate stress risers from happening at the forging line. The grain of the grinding was done in the direction of the rod's length, end to end. Sharp edges around the bolt head's and nut's countersink reliefs were dressed down to smooth edges. At this point the set of rods would be sent out for shot-peening, a process which work hardens the exterior surfaces of the rods, again, to control any stress in the steel. This process is was done usually by Peen-Rite, an aerospace licenced contractor in the East Valley. When the rods returned, they were cleaned and the rod caps and rod bodies had their parting lines ground a matter of thousanths, edges de-burred by hand, and the big ends received high strength performance aftermarket bolts and nuts, which got torqued twice to the supplier's reccomendations. The big ends were now precision honed to spec.The small end was machined in a mill fixture which, not only opened up the pin end for the bronze alloy floating pin bushings, but also would correct any slight differences in rod center-to-center measurements. The bushings were then pressed into the rod and one or sometimes two, "pin-oiling" holes would then be drilled into the top or sides of the pin ends, and then chamfered to "cup" oil to lubricate the wrist pin. The pin bushings got precision honed for proper pin fit. The set of rods would now be fitted with mock-up bearings so that they could be installed two at a time on their respective crank journals, on the work bench, to check rod side clearances, which generally need to be larger than stock for performance useage. Only the side of the rod facing it's partner gets ground, a like amount each rod, to set this rod side clearance measurement, which can differ from varying applications. Once all of the connecting rod prep is accomplished, it's time to have the rods balanced. To check , with the big end on a scale and the pin end as the pivot in a fixture.The lightest big end is left alone, and the other rod's big ends get their balance pads ground down until they equal the lightest rod's big end.Then that operation is done to the pin end, again, leaving the lightest pin end alone, and grinding the others to match the lightest pin end. These weights would be recorded to be included in the weights used when balancing the entire reciprocating assembly, which is another whole process entirely, and necessary when building almost every single engine. So.........when you go pricing connecting rods in the aftermarket, keep in mind what it takes , and what all that labor costs to prep factory rods for performance, and know that those "H" beam aftermarket rods are still stronger than the factory "I" beams even with all the prep! Aftermarket rods are money well spent. There's even more options like rod "boxing", cyro-treating, etc, just add another decimal point to the cost.
Here's a set I did for my 406 FE in a ski boat. Those are ARP "Wave-Loc" top of the line bolts and nuts. I did my 351C rods like this as well, just because I can.