Losing strength to save a few dollars, Worth it?

[George]

Bob Walker's lit. talks about changing them to 440 for 392, & 400 Pontiac for 331/354 size for race applications where bearings are changed frequently didn't sound economical for street engines that don't usually get taken apart.the way it reads the rod journals wern't reduced. Haven't heard anyone using chevy

[Bailiesdad]

The question was over cutting the 392 Chrysler cranks down to chevy journal sizes to save money on bearings and replacement rods.

Chrysler had reccommended 30 under maximum and some are turning cranks down to chevy rod juornal sizes and thinking the cranks are retaing their strength.

[Bored&Stroked]

Hmmm: The rod journal size of a 392 is the same a later chrysler products, so you have quite a few options - especially if you're going to have custom forged pistons made. You can run the 440 6-pack rod (just bought a used set for $90 or so) - they are about .200 short, you can run the 426 Hemi rod - which at 6.86 is about .100 short. The rod widths are just a bit different, the pin sizes can also vary. Again - if you're going to get custom pistons, then you can lots of options. You can also go to Hot-Heads and buy their H-Beam rod that is setup for a 392 (about twice what I'd like to pay). Given the price from Hot-Heads, I'm going the SCAT 426 6.86 H-Beam route - for about $425 this is a pretty dang good deal for a set of rods that can take a bunch more horsepower than the Pontian, 440, stock BBC, etc.. Also - I can then run 426 bearings and not try to find early Hemi bearings. Anyway - lots of options, just need to figure out how much you want to spend, what your piston route is, etc.. Best of luck.