H or I beam con rods for stroker small block

[crash340]

So, I guess you want to run a light rotating assembly on a stoker 360 right? I want to used a forged crank, just because. What about con rods, H beam are stronger apparently than I beam, what about weight though. What say you engine guru's, forget about the price for now, what about simply best option.

[Chryco Psycho]

assuming H is aftermarket & I is stock seeing as an H on its side looks just like an I
A rod failure is very rare overall , unless you own a Pontiac with cast rods , any forged steel rod will take a ton of abuse , the strength of the rod is all proportionate to the weight of both the piston & rod , more mass requires more strength .
 The aftermarket H beam rods are generally very strong & not as heavy & with a stroker as much as 8 pounds of mass can be removed from the total rotating assy so weight can be removed from each piston & rod & resulting mass of the crank can be reduced as less counter weight is needed . the makes for a stronger assembly .

[V02Barracuda]

I just purchased K1 Technology H-Beam rods for my 340.  They are forged steel and they weigh A LOT less than the factory I-beams. 

[crash340]

A lot lighter and a lot stronger right?
cool, then unless there is a big reason not to, I'll go that way, I think most have floating pins right?

[Chryco Psycho]

not nessisarily , I prefer pressed pins , I have seen too many lock rings in the oil pans

[1 Wild R/T]

not nessisarily , I prefer pressed pins , I have seen too many lock rings in the oil pans

Generally nothing wrong with pressed pins but floating allows easy trial assembly so you can move components to attempt to equalize compression heights.... In theory all rods should be the same length but in reality they can vary slightly due to cutting the caps for sizing.... You can sometimes use this to equalize things...

If your seeing lock rings in the pan first I'll assume they are the internal snap rings not double spiral locks...   The other thing is back when standard internal snap rings were used you needed to pay attention to how they were oriented, you wanted the holes for snap ring pliers to the bottom or top, if they were positioned to the side the snap ring could develop a harmonic bounce at high rpm's...

[crash340]

Interesting, will keep that in mind,,,,, hopefully!!

[go-fish]

Interesting, will keep that in mind,,,,, hopefully!!

I have the K1 forged H-beams with pressed pins on a forged Diamond piston. Also, a K1 forged crank. Engine is a 360 based 408" with main girdle. Heads are Edelbrocks with upgraded valves, seats and springs. Centrifugal Supercharger as well.

If you are going to put extra money anywhere make it the rotating assembly.

[crash340]

Thanks Go-fish, thas pretty much the build Im planning, prob not the forced induction however, that aside, I figure build the block with overkill and get it right = piece of mind. K1 seems to be popular, I had not heard of K1 until now, not that I have been researching much but interesting. I plan on a fuel injection induction only at this point, heads are a bug bear for me now. Ohhhhhh the decisions, not in a huge hurry as the Aussie $ means I'm paying 43% more now than I was this time last year.

[go-fish]

Thanks Go-fish, thas pretty much the build Im planning, prob not the forced induction however, that aside, I figure build the block with overkill and get it right = piece of mind. K1 seems to be popular, I had not heard of K1 until now, not that I have been researching much but interesting. I plan on a fuel injection induction only at this point, heads are a bug bear for me now. Ohhhhhh the decisions, not in a huge hurry as the Aussie $ means I'm paying 43% more now than I was this time last year.

I would have to pull the card out that came with my cam but it is about the same as the 5.9 Dodge Dakota R/T truck cam but it has a wider lobe separation angle to account for the forced induction. It idles and runs very smooth. I got all my stuff from Hughes Engines. The built my Edelbrock heads from a stock a pair. They did a Stage II or III or Stage something, forgot. This was one of the first iterations of Edelbrock aluminum heads so they have better versions now. Hughes now has CNC porting and they do other things that makes me believe they are one of the better places to get a set of prepped heads. They also ave iron heads from from Indy and Iron Rams that they can prep. They are cheaper and still can flow big numbers. I got every single component from them. Great one stop shop.