I was reading on allpar.com this morning that the rods in 62 and earlier /6 motors were installed backwards and led to some oiling issues and premature failure. I haven't installed the pistons in my block though the rods and pistons have been assembled. Do I need to check them for correct orientation and if so how? Do I need to have them disassembled and reversed?

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Good ol' Allpar. I found the source of your concern on this page, which reads, inter alia:

Early on, they had many problems with the prototypes, one of which was excess oil consumption. It stymied all of the engineers working on it until someone discovered that the rods had all been installed backwards, thereby directing oil to the wrong area. Once that was discovered they had no problems with it from that standpoint.

Dan Stern noted: "In 1963 the conrod was turned 180 degrees (same
rod, just with the oil hole pointing the other way) which was said to
improve cylinder wall oiling."


So, the alleged "backwards rods" were in early prototype engines, and there's room for considerable doubt as to whether this particular problem happened in this particular way. I've seen lots and lots of tales of bygone days including very detailed descriptions of engines that never existed, parts that were never designed, and of course we've all endured countless recollections at the gas station by the guy who sees your Dart and starts jabbering about how he had a '59 Dart way back when, with a 383 Hemi in it. Even the best of us suffer from CRS (Can't Remember Shi...er...Stuff), and every engineer I've talked to has said the same thing: They worked on so many similar projects ("design an engine") that sometimes bits of one adventure get crossed up with bits of another adventure and those get mixed together with something their buddy in engineering over at another car company told them at a cocktail party, and all this happened 40 years ago, so...!

I do note that Allpar ran my clarification—I also remember making that clarification years ago!

The rods were not installed "backwards" in '60-'62 engines, but the rod orientation was flipped 180° starting in '63. This was done to improve oiling, not to fix a problem that "led to oiling issues and premature failure". For reasons I haven't dug deeply into understanding, the TSBs and FSMs and MTSC brochures that talk about this change all make it very, very clear, with uppercase letters and boldface type, that '60-'62 engines and aluminum-block engines of all years including 1963 are to use the "old" connecting rod orientation, and not the "new" one.

So-

All 1960-1962 iron engines, plus 1961-1963 aluminum engines: Connecting rods installed so that the squirt holes face away from the camshaft.

All 1963-up engines, except aluminum block: Connecting rods installed so that the squirt holes face towards the camshaft.

I bet Doc can tell us more detail about what changed (logic says it was a change to the block casting itself) and what the consequences would be of using the '63-up rod orientation in a '60-'62 iron engine. But for now, don't worry about it. If your rods were installed per the FSM, with the squirt holes facing away from the camshaft, you did it right and should leave them be.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

OK, that's good enough for me, Just thought I'd check even though I had never heard that before. I'll keep watching this topic in case there is something new for me to consider but until I hear an authoritative voice to the contrary I'll plan to proceed as currently configured. Thanks!

_________________
David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.