Chief con rods

[dirtyss]

Hello
I have a 39 Chief with a 48 motor which has just let go of the front piston just below the small end. The damage is bad enough, but the insult to injury was the brand new barrel not only had a nasty groove in it, I dropped it as I pulled it from the motor breaking some fins - doh.
That aside, I need to get some parts together to sort the mess out and top of the list are the con rods. Having seen the way the rod had broken, it would appear that age and fatigue were the main culprit as there was no evidence on the piston of the old rod being bent or twisted.
Fellow enthusiasts over here have variously suggested anything from changing the one rod to fitting a pair of remanufactured originals. Given the fact they would still be at least seventy years old and may have had as hard a life as mine, and, still cringing at the mess a busted rod can do, I would like to fit new ones.
Carrillo's are way out of my price range, so can anyone share any advice or help with any supplier recommendations for these parts - many thanks.
Paul

[gww]

morn n, look into Gary Stark's Carrillo copies (H-beam).

[pisten-bully]

Hello
I have a 39 Chief with a 48 motor which has just let go of the front piston just below the small end. The damage is bad enough, but the insult to injury was the brand new barrel not only had a nasty groove in it, I dropped it as I pulled it from the motor breaking some fins - doh.

Paul, you can always look on the bright side....at least it didn't land on your toe!

[tfburke3]

Hello
I have a 39 Chief with a 48 motor which has just let go of the front piston just below the small end. The damage is bad enough, but the insult to injury was the brand new barrel not only had a nasty groove in it, I dropped it as I pulled it from the motor breaking some fins - doh.
That aside, I need to get some parts together to sort the mess out and top of the list are the con rods. Having seen the way the rod had broken, it would appear that age and fatigue were the main culprit as there was no evidence on the piston of the old rod being bent or twisted.
Fellow enthusiasts over here have variously suggested anything from changing the one rod to fitting a pair of remanufactured originals. Given the fact they would still be at least seventy years old and may have had as hard a life as mine, and, still cringing at the mess a busted rod can do, I would like to fit new ones.
Carrillo's are way out of my price range, so can anyone share any advice or help with any supplier recommendations for these parts - many thanks.
Paul

Paul,80 rods are a little beefier.I like to file the casting marks out ,then polish to get a grain running parallel to the rod.I don't know what remanufactured originals are,unless you are referring to the ebay ones,Castleland parts that are around.I would avoid these because I like to buy parts from people who build motors,not just sell reproduction parts.However you may find a builder who has been successfully using them.Same goes for the crankpin and modified roller cages that these rods are usually seen with.
Tom

[sirhrmechanic]

Carrillo's are way out of my price range.... Paul

Paul:

I did a quick search and came up with about $550 for a set of Carrillos. Not cheap. However... consider what goes into a set of original rods. You have to find one (or a pair), whether eBay or flea market, etc. Then to really be sure, you have to check them for straightness and, ideally, magnaflux them. You need to put in new Little End bushes (wrist pin bushes) at $xx a pop. And pay someone to hone them on a pin hone to fit your wrist pin. Assuming everything goes right and you don't end up with several NFG eBay rods... you are still probably 80 percent of the way to a set of Carrillos.

There is a lot to be said for the old sayings "Buy once/cry once" or, my favorite "I'm too poor to buy anything but the best."

Sorry to hear about your motor. What was the root cause of the failure? Was it all on the rod being old/fatigued/stressed/??? or could the piston also have been tight? The good news is that it probably could have been much worse. And you'll get it back together, I am confident.

As for dropping the cylinder jug... I'd have preferred to drop it on my foot. Toes heal. Cylinder jugs don't. ;-)

Cheers and post some pictures as you go along, Paul! We'd love to see your repairs.

Sirhr

[dirtyss]

Thanks for the replies gents.
"morn n, look into Gary Stark's Carrillo copies (H-beam). ." - Yes I will, I also need new pistons, and as my barrels and pistons were from Starklites originally....

"Paul,80 rods are a little beefier."- Nice tip, something I would have attempted to do from the purist / ole skool point of view, however, finding some would be hard enough where I am, and we are back to using old used rods.
"I like to file the casting marks out ,then polish to get a grain running parallel to the rod.I don't know what remanufactured originals are" - And along with re-honing both the wrist pins (small ends) and the crankpin journals (big ends), that would be what I refer to as being remanufactured, which would probably end up costing me more than stronger new ones

"I did a quick search and came up with about $550 for a set of Carrillos. Not cheap." -Hmmm... thats a good 40% cheaper than what I found, Starklite 'H' beam rods are under $400 though.
"I'm too poor to buy anything but the best" I totally agree, this has been my mantra in virtually everything I do, could be why I'm always skint.
"Cheers and post some pictures as you go along, Paul! We'd love to see your repairs." - Got pictures, though I'm going to need a little help with posting them.

I pulled the engine and trans from the frame the other day, hope to have the damage fully assessed in the next few days.


Regards
Paul.