I would not hesitate to use the OEM 198 rods. I have a set living in the Project V. Over 6000 plenty of times.

Why waste time and effort with overkill? You have more important problems to solve. Just my 2 cents.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I don't have any cast crank rods so I am making some out of cheap Chevy rods. I'm now convinced the 198 rods would also do fine so they will go in the aluminum engine. What I was trying to decide was whether I narrow the 198 rods for the cast crank engine and put a dish in my forged 2.2 pistons or use the shorter rod and do block and head milling. If I'd used the 198 rods then I would have to come up with other 7" rods for the aluminum engine.

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Joshua

Does anyone know what a cast crank rod weighs? I read that Doug got a set of narrowed 198 rods down to 535 grams which is exactly 200 grams lighter than my 198 rods.

My Chubby Chevy rods after narrowing are 623 g which is 88 grams heavier than my 198 rods. The 225 forged-crank-rod and piston assembly I have weighs 1442 g. This is almost exactly what the Chevy rod and forged 2.2 piston weigh which is 1430 grams without rings.

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Joshua

I went back and looked for the posts by Larry Bird concerning the other rods that we could use for the cast crank engine. And by everything that I can see they have disappeared! I see there were 7 or 8 updates in my emails about replies on Slant 6.Org for the cast crank rods in the Jan-Feb, last year, time frame. They are all gone. The only thing I can think is that they were in a parts wanted or parts for sale post and they auto-deleted! Lots of good info there.

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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

There were only a couple of us that stepped up for the new group buy. I believe we needed about 7 people to commit. Larry was going to buy a couple sets to get us to the minimum, but then decided to go with the Ford option.

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

What's the Ford option? I know it's not the flat head rod as the big end width is too narrow for even the cast crank.

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Joshua

Probably the 240 6 cylinder rod. Its 6.800" long, but smaller housing bore, so it could also allow offset stroking the Slant crank if you choose. May have to trim the B/E width to fit the journal but it's another option that's out their.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

I don’t recall what the Ford option was. I seem to recall it was a newer V8 application, but could be wrong.

I just stepped in to help him reach his group buy goal. They would have probably set on a shelf with all the other 198 rods I’ve accumulated over the years. I even still have those 198s I got from you so many years ago, still in the same box you sent them in...

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

I thought the ford application was newer like a 4.6 or 5.4 3 valve.

The 5.4 Ford rod is 6.658" long. It's the right width, but that's about it. If my BBC rod experiment hits a dead end I'll probably buy the Molnar rods and narrow them. Unless Rob wants to sell me a set of 198 rods.

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Joshua

Yeah, too bad Larry did not complete the group buy. I also was in for a set or two and he switched to the Ford rods.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Ya wanna try again on the group buy, Lou?

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Thanks, Rob, but I think I'm outta that space for a while. Too many other things I've agreed/planned to buy or projects that need parts, and kinda stagnant on projects at the moment. Finances are a bit different now too...

Best,
Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I don’t know positively as I have never set a cast crank K1 rod right next to a steel crank K1 rod, but it seems that on could mill the sides of a steel crank rod to the thickness of a cast crank rod, re cut the chamfers on the big end and be done. The lock slots may need to be re cut also.

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Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

I've found more 198 rods so I'm going to narrow them. It's far faster and easier to narrow the rods on the lathe than to get one of these BBC 6.800" rods down to weight with hours of hand grinding. It also relieves me from having to deal with re-bushing the .990" pin bore. I also won't have to ask the crankshaft shop to do anything unusual which reduces chances for error.

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Joshua