My buddy just has the worst luck ever when it comes to cars. He's not a member here so I just want to warn those who are looking into buying an Eagle cast crank. From the research I've done in the past they pretty much suck yet so many people still go with Eagle junk. However, in their defense many people have had good luck with Eagle but again they by far have the most problems out of any crankshaft manufacturer that I am aware of.

Anyways my buddy bought a 383 from Cook Performance Engines for his '94 Bird last year and just yesterday the Eagle cast crank took a dump. Were talking a motor with maybe 2,000 miles on it. Said the damn balancer was just basically wobbling in there. All he did was fire the car up, take it for a normal drive to the gas station where it the car preceded to make some terrible sounds. Needless to say, he will be going with a forged crank from a manufacturer with a better track record.

Like I said many people have had good luck with Eagle products but I would stay clear. Some searching on the web will show alot of insight on how inferior Eagle is to some. Moral of the story is going the cheap route in the beginning will many a times cost you more in the end.

 

Similar story with a friend of mine, except his was forged, and it snapped and ripped through the oil pan. I personally wouldn't go with one..

 

dam, sometimes those parts work well and soetimes there junk.
the eagle products do need inspection, machining and balancing before final assembly. they need alot of work out of the box usually.

 

That they do. I am interested to know if the engine builder (Cook Performance Engines) really did all that or not.

 

i know myltwon that had the same problem and might chime in. your friend didnt happen to reuse the stock dampener hub did he? my stock stroke eagle crank kept spitting out dampener hub bolts causing the hub to walk out a but but never got the to the point where it wobbled around. if i remember correctly they work better with keyed hubs. it eventually ate a rod bearing on a nitrous pass and then lasted about 1500 miles of daily driving before it seized.

 

I don't know for sure but I think he is running the stock hub. He will be meeting me at the track saturday so I'll ask him then.

 

People know eagle is bottom of the barrel, yet they insist on using them, then they are shocked when they break. sigh.

 

just to add some to your story... my engine builders are also in the process of building a 383 SBC (not my engine)and the guy bought a lower line scat forged crank... when they went to check the balance (they check them all even the really high dollar stuff) they came to find the thing was so far out of balance it damn nearly flew off the machine from vibration... 2000 miles on an engine that doesnt sound like it was beat on to kill a crank that fast sounds like something went wrong with the shop that built it... i dont care how cheap the parts are unless this guy was spinning the cast POS to 7000 it shouldnt have failed... they probably never balanced it...

 

I tried to save a few pennies on my new build and bought an eagle cast crank, my builder charged me $112 because it was so far out of balance and needed alot of grinding. I'm at 2,700 miles on the engine so far I've been beating the **** out of it. If it breaks, which I hope it doesn't, then I'll upgrade. I just sent off to have my rev limiter increased we'll so how that goes.

 

I've heard nothing but bad from locals, know a few that snapped eagle cranks in half. Whether it was the machine shop or not, hard to say most of the time!

 

eagle CAST cranks are rated at like 500 flywheel hp. the forged is like 800 or 1000hp.

 

Seems like all the guys have problems with the crank are putting out 450+ to the wheels...... Maybe there just asking way too much from the crank. They are well over the 500 flywheel mark. Just my .02

 

My buddy is under 400rwhp by the way he has probaly 450 at the crank, it's a very mild LE1 setup and was slower than my car.

 

Although Eagle is on the lower end of engine components, it's unfair to blame the manufacturer in general when the failure was most likely related to the material in particular. Cast cranks are significanly weaker than forged cranks are. There have also been quite a few failures with the SCAT cast cranks as well. The only cast crank that has shown any kind of decent strength is the stock Gen3/4 stuff....and even they break. In my qualified opinion, the stock GM LT1 cast crank is stronger than the Eagle or SCAT cast stuff.

You are just asking for problems when buying these cheap stroker cast cranks. On the other hand, the high end stuff can break too. Two months ago, the crank snout on my Callies Racemaster crank twisted right off. There are no guarantees on anything in the high performance world.

Jason

 

couldnt of said it better myself ,that bein said im runnin a eagle crank in mine its a 358 eagle rods also ,wit srp flatops on it i spin it to 6800 on a daily basis and so far so good but im sure in time suttin will happen

 

I have over 4000 miles on my eagle crank hopefully it doesn't fail on me!

 

Does anyone know how strong the Forged ZZ4 cranks are?

 

My thoughts exactly.

Remember, these cast cranks are rated for 500 flywheel with Eagle and 450 flywheel for Scat...both can be passed easily with a H/C kit - and people spray on top of that too!!! Not fair to blame the part when they are not being used how they were made to.

 

No way!!! I never heard of a cast Eagle crank breaking. This is blasphemy!

 

Calm down, I know how you feel it came to a shock to everyone else also.