Re: 1952 327 Connecting Rod Help/Suggestions

Posted by Ross On 2018/12/23 7:45:26

Suppose it depends on the final drive ratio and what sort of revs you want to be able to see. If you were to use a normal Packard overdrive trans with the usual 4.10 rear, 80 mph is only about 3000 rpm. That puts the stress on the rods at only 56% of what they would see at the the engine's normal rated 4000 rpm. Even if you kick it down at that speed its still only 4050 or so.

Those cars will pull a right fair hill at 80 stock. With your reduced front area and increased breathing there will be no particular need for extra high revs to maintains the speeds you mention. Those rods are on the long side so if you want really high revs I'd probably go for custom made.

In my own cars I just sand off all the die flash and any sharp points before weight matching and straightening. But then, I am not a fan of high revs; don't like the sound of screaming engines. Thundering yes, screaming no. The nice thing about I8s is that they are so easy to balance with simple tools. Certainly would have the factory balance on the crank checked though.