RE: Rod Reconditioning or Not?

[Steven Charette <stevec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,
	Yeah, the pistons are likely to be the bugger.  Neither KB or
Silv-o-lite show anything for the 273.  If you absolutely have to have
pistons, Egge is probably the way to go.  Diamond will build you about
anything you want for between $600-800 but...

SC 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Watters [mailto:tomwatters@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 11:41 PM
To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Rod Reconditioning or Not?

Steven,

Thats really good food for thought.  3 5/8" Bore Pistons will be more
difficult to find.  But rods are all the same length.

As I price things out and see what I can afford, It helps keep things in
perspective.

Steven Charette wrote:
> Yes, it wasn't a tough call to make.  By the time you buy the new 
> bolts, run them to the machine shop, they do all the work, you go back 
> and pick them up, they are STILL a 40 year old set of rods.  Match the 
> lighter rods with lighter pistons and you can shave a bunch of weight 
> off your rotating assembly.
>
> I have my originals all nicely boxed.  My grandkids can e-Bay them in 
> 50 years.
>
> SC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Kinsley [mailto:rlkinsley@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 8:17 PM
> To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: Rod Reconditioning or Not?
>
>
> When I built my engine I found that the cost of reconditioning the old 
> rods was barely cheaper than the Eagle SIR6123CB rods. Plus they were 
> 115gms lighter, 50% stronger and came with the ARP fasteners included.
> Seemed like a no-brainer to me.
>
> Rich Kinsley '64 Dodge Polara 4dr 318poly w/goodies
>
> =====================================================================
> Steve Charette wrote:
>   
>> Tom,
>> 	I would not arbitrarily replace the wrist pins - they are either
>>     
> good
>   
>> or bad.  I've personally never seen a lot of bad wrist pins.  And if 
>> the rods are bent, you can usually read that in the bearings on 
>> tear-down.
>>
>> 	As far as rod reconditioning, I would base my decision on how you 
>> plan to use the motor.  If it's just a cruiser, it's probably fine.
>> If you're beating it up and down the 1320, I'd definitely have them 
>> reconditioned and install new bolts.  Rod bolts are only good for 3 
>> torquings - each time they are torqued they stretch a little and 
>> after repeated stretching they work harden and are prone to failure.
>>
>> 	That said we used to build what we called "grenade motors".
>> Basically pull it down (383, 413, 440, didn't matter), clean it up, 
>> berry brush the cylinders, swap banks on the pistons, and put it back 
>> together.
>> Screw on a high volume oil pump and go racin'.  Funny, we never 
>> grenaded one.  Fastest one I had ran 11.40's in a 3200 lb Fleet 
>> Special with a hydraulic camshaft and a six-pack, of all things - 
>> shooting ducks all the way through 3rd gear.  A couple of weeks after 
>> that we were pitted in front of Mr. John Tedder hisself and after 
>> looking the car over he said "you should get rid of that six-pack".  
>> I had a cast iron manifold and a 750 Holley center section in the 
>> truck that we had cannibalized for parts for the six pack - we had 
>> the 4bbl up and running before first round of eliminations.  We won 
>> both bracket two and "King of the Hill" that day.
>>
>> 	I'm gonna have to find that picture and put it up on my Facebook
>>     
> page
>   
>> :)
>>
>> 	Anyway, if you're going to have the rods completely reconditioned 
>> (new bolts, straighten, grind the caps/resize and the whole nine
>> yards) you may want to compare prices to a set of aftermarket H-beams.  
>> I've been buying them on eBay when I can get 'em cheap ($250-$300 is 
>> my target price range).  Have had equally good luck with Eagles and 
>> Scat.
>>
>> SC
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Tom Watters [mailto:tomwatters@xxxxxxxxxxx]
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3:23 PM
>> To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: Rod Reconditioning or Not?
>>
>> When I disassembled my '65 Block, #6 rod had spun bearing. I have a 
>> spare rod from another engine, in sme condition as the other 7 rods 
>> that I have.
>>
>> I plan to turn the rod journals crank before I put it back together.
>>
>> Should I just replace the wrist pins and use the rods as-is, or must 
>> they be re-conditioned?  The block has about 80K miles on it.  The 
>> extra Rod I have was reconditioned about 2000 miles before it was 
>> taken down.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
>
> Rich Kinsley '64 Dodge Polara 4dr 318poly w/goodies
>
>
> ----
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> ----
> Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person --
directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations
as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to
the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy,
reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar
topic.  Thanks!
>
> 1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
> http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html. 
>
>
>   


----
Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person.  I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic.  Thanks!

1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.