I pulled my motor today to do a re-ring and re-seal. At some point in the cars 54 year life the motor was rebuilt. When it was assembled someone has installed all the wrong rod caps on all the wrong rods. There are no spun bearings and all of the bearing surfaces are wearing evenly. Would i be alright to just match the rod caps back with the original rods,keep them the way they are or am i just screwed. I dont have a machine shop around here that will recondition them for me.

I would just put it back together the way it came a part.

Why do you think the caps are on the wrong rod?

I guess if it was running OK with the wrong caps/rods then you could put it back together that way and it should run OK again.

If it was me, I'd invest the $50 round trip shipping needed to send them to across the country to get resized properly. That's cheap when compared to having it all come apart later.

Well the rods and caps are numbered,rod 1 has cap 6 rod 2 has ap 4 and so on. I found a guy on FABO thats got a recond set with arp studs for $150 shipped. I figured thats cheaper than shipping paying for the recon and shipping back.

are both the rods and caps marked? Maybe the rods still have their right caps, but the whole rod and piston is in a different hole? that, I wouldn't worry about so much. the bad part is you'll never know what someone else may have done to that engine before you had it, especially if that car went thru multiple owners....

what part of the country are you in??? there's almost gotta be a machine shop within an hour or maybe 2 from you.....
just sayin'--- you will probably need machine shop services at some point, if youre gonna be messing with engines much at all.....

Yes both rods and caps have numbers. Theres 4 machine shops within 20 miles of me 3 only do small cube chevy stuff for the dirt track racers and the other one does everything. As a matter of fact hes got two slants in his shop right now one for a show tractor and one that runs an irrigation pump. Problem is no one resizes rods cause they can buy new ones cheaper. Either way i did find a set of rods. The car has been family owned since 63 my uncle had it the last 30 years and lord knows what hes done to it all i know is its got a nice shift kit and an 8 3/4 in it and just a little california rust.

Good.....so does the cap numbers and rod numbers match each other? Oh, and to clarify.......these numbers are stamped in, and not cast on, right?

Roger

Yes stamped not cast and no they dont match.

Is it possible that someone resized them already and had them all mixed up and did not know they were numbered? In that case I would leave them as they are. That is probably unlikely I guess.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

OK......so it's been running like that for some time. Either somebody made an error putting it back together, or they were resized by an idiot at some shop somewhere.
I think I'd leave them as they are. They've already established a wear pattern, and to disturb them now would force things to start all over again. If you do elect to correct this error, it would probably be wise to check dimensions to ensure the crank wasn't ground, and install new bearings, taking the same precautions as building a new motor, instead of just a freshening.

Roger

Well i got some good news, the wife finally made a decision on countertop material,which basically freed up $800 from our kitchen budget. The motors going from a freshen up to a full rebuild with new rods in the mail today. Im sure ill be back with more questions. Thanks everyone.