I'm assembling a 455 with stock rods and crank. Some of the rods are tight (can barely rotate) on the crank. Bearing clearance seems to be even at around 0.0015 to 0.002". My guess is that the caps were mixed and the side-to-side is not in proper alignment.

Since I have a good amount of money in this engine I'm thinking of buying Eagle rods from Summit. I could try matching the caps or getting them machined; however, I don't trust the mix and match and it will probably cost a few dollars for machine work.

For approximately $460 I can buy a set of Eagle rods and they have floating pins (which should work with Keith Black pistons that come with retainer clips).

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Go with the eagles but you'll need to rebalance it. They are much lighter than the stock rods. You may still have double check side clearance. There's still no guarantee it'll be right.

 

Reassemble rods out of the block and you can feel if there is a mismatch at the parting line. You can also mike the thickness of each vs. width of the crank pin. Stock they usually have around .010" to .012" clearance ideally but might be a little tighter. For high rpm and performance, the aftermarket rods are significantly better.

 

You may have to clearance the block for the eagle rods as well, some will hit the cylinder skirts, some wont.....

 

Have the Eagle rods checked before assembled.I highly doubt that you will be able to take them directly out of the box,and install them right into the engine.They would like to make you think that,but it almost never happens that way.

 

x2

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Before I do anything I'll try assembling the caps on the rods out of the block and look for a mismatch at the split (thanks!). Something I didn't mention is that the rods have new ARP bolts and the caps are a little tight going on and off.