Re: 1952 327 Connecting Rod Help/Suggestions

Posted by Ross On 2018/12/23 20:35:36

My preference for a five main is based on one fact and one surmise based on a fact:

The fivers have plenty of bearing area already compared to their power, the other 4 will only add drag.

The niners in 51-54 were all equipped with a whomper stomper humongous vibration damper. I surmise from this that because of the extra bends and cheeks the cranks were not as torsionally rigid as the fivers. My guess is that the sales department specified nine mains and not engineering. In driving I have never been able to discern a difference.

One other rather important item. Looking at the block that I cross sectioned (perhaps someone can find the picture?), there is a nice benefit to be gained by relieving the block between the intake port and the cylinder as the tilted valve causes a right fair hump for the mixture to cross. However I would not be brave enough to fit larger intake valves as the port wall is less than 1/8" thick just below the valve seat. Just carefully smooth out the humps and bumps there for a good effect.