The 383 is torn apart: Pics
The 383 is torn apart: Pics The motor is finally apart and at the builder. Looks like I need an entire rotating assembly. The rod bolts were LOCKTIGHTED.
Keep in mind, I drove this approx 50 miles home from work like this. I started rattling a little bit on the highway at around 55 MPH under cruising load. It just sounded like a wobbling pulley, nothing else. I never lost oil pressure, the car never once smoked.... it ran damn good right up until we pulled the motor. I can't believe it ran at all!
Thank god the block is okay. The moral of this story? DON'T BUY EAGLE CAST ****.... IT WILL BREAK!!! That was yet another eagle cast stroker crank. I beam rods, SRP flat tops. It was assembled by a guy out in NY, and was put in a 94 Camaro. I bought the car after the swap had been in the car for a year. The bearings DID look okay, apparently in defiance of the STOCK WEIGHTED FLEXPLATE that was on the car when I bought it. It ran like that for 2 years, with the flexplate beating the snot out of the rear of the motor. its an internally balanced motor. There was little to no shavings in the pan or the filter when disassembled. I'm baffled.
Keep in mind, I drove this approx 50 miles home from work like this. I started rattling a little bit on the highway at around 55 MPH under cruising load. It just sounded like a wobbling pulley, nothing else. I never lost oil pressure, the car never once smoked.... it ran damn good right up until we pulled the motor. I can't believe it ran at all!
Thank god the block is okay. The moral of this story? DON'T BUY EAGLE CAST ****.... IT WILL BREAK!!! That was yet another eagle cast stroker crank. I beam rods, SRP flat tops. It was assembled by a guy out in NY, and was put in a 94 Camaro. I bought the car after the swap had been in the car for a year. The bearings DID look okay, apparently in defiance of the STOCK WEIGHTED FLEXPLATE that was on the car when I bought it. It ran like that for 2 years, with the flexplate beating the snot out of the rear of the motor. its an internally balanced motor. There was little to no shavings in the pan or the filter when disassembled. I'm baffled.
LOL yeah, only the block and a few other things. The pistons/rings I'm pretty sure are shitty tune up or possibly tune. It was a mail order tune from PCMforless.... Last time I was at the strip the car ran a 12.92 @ 107.
Its going to get all APR hardware, H beam Rods, and everything forged. It will be able to handle a decent shot when done.
Its going to get all APR hardware, H beam Rods, and everything forged. It will be able to handle a decent shot when done.
TECH Regular
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 441
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From: Deep in the heart of Texas
Unbelieveable you made it home. I look at my opti wrong and I'm walking. You ought to pack it up in a box, take a greasy **** in it and send it back to Eagle without a return address. LOL Best of luck with the rebuild. 
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TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,157
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From: Kingfisher Oklahoma
Yep they should put a meter on those cranks and when you reach close to their power limit the car shuts off....lol but trapping only 107 I don't think it was at it's power limit. I learned my lesson on these cask chinese cranks a while back so I don't go near em, I was even lucky and all mine did was eat the thrust bearings. so all I was out was about 400 dollors (price of the crank and machining of that particular crank)
On The Tree
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 179
Likes: 3
From: Eastern Kentucky
Any cast crank will break if not balanced and installed correctly. If the builder did in fact Lock-tite the rod bolts, I'm going to assume that he didn't know what he was doing. I'd be willing to bet that most broken cranks are from improper assembly. The harmonics of a crank spinning 5500-6500 RPM's is really something and all that twisting will break just about anything. A good balance is going to be the key to longevity.
I've seen engines that sere "supposedly" balanced yet there was no grinding on the rods or the pin bosses and I've seen "balanced" rods and pistons off by more than 10 grams. Many times these people swear that their builder balanced and "blueprinted" the engine when I've seen absolutely NO indication that it was done.
I've seen engines that sere "supposedly" balanced yet there was no grinding on the rods or the pin bosses and I've seen "balanced" rods and pistons off by more than 10 grams. Many times these people swear that their builder balanced and "blueprinted" the engine when I've seen absolutely NO indication that it was done.
We see a lot of broken cast Eagle cranks just like this. LOTS of guys do 355s with stock cranks and aftermarket rods pistons requiring rebalancing, we NEVER see failures like this. By your argument we should see stock cast cranks fail from the same sloppy build work. I would agree a LOT of engines get halfassed and nobody ever knows it but IMO the problem is still the cast Eagle cranks are a big step backwards strength wise.
After reading numerous threads here and other places, i think the biggest issue is Eagle's shitty cast cranks. WHY do they all seem to fail the exact same way? If you look close a tthe pics, it does NOT look like it cracked, it looks like it tore... indicating that there was a weak spot in the at metal at that point.
As this engine was built up to a 383, performance was the goal. ANYTIME power and performance is the plan, a forged crank, even a Chinese import like a Eagle crank, is required.
I'll agree that as the rods were assembled with thread locker, not the proper thread lubricant, the builder didn't know what he was doing. Perhaps he dropped the crank during assembly sealing it's fate.
I'll agree that as the rods were assembled with thread locker, not the proper thread lubricant, the builder didn't know what he was doing. Perhaps he dropped the crank during assembly sealing it's fate.
^ Id agree with you on that assumption... IF i hadn't seen so many of these things fail in the same spot. I think they are just plain ****. From what Ive been finding out, the Eagle forged stuff is NOT that bad at all. Thats probably whats going into it now, since I cant afford to buy a scat or callies.
Stock cast cranks are just fine this is not a cast vs. forged issue, this is a specific cask Eagle cranks are junk issue. We don't even see these failures on Scat cast, it is specifically Eagle cast.
The particular issues with this engine build certainly played a part but we see this too often to blame it on everything but the cheap cast crank.
I'm waiting for this same out come on mine lol. I hate that I got stuck with this eagle cast crank in my stroker. I have a stock 100k mile LT1 on stand by for this reason. Everyone who see's it sitting in the garage wants to buy it and I'm like now way!! I never know when I may need it. Yea for inferior parts!!! there so wonderful.