Connecting Rods

[Dart 65]

As of yesterday, I had all of the old dished pistons pressed off of the connecting rods I wanted to save. When I looked at them today, I noted that all were one of two numbers: 2899496, which is the '72-'73 318 floating piston, and 3418645, which is the '71-'86 360 pressed piston.

The problem is that of all of the engines I've disassembled for parts, only one was a 318 and I'm not even certain that I saved those pistons. Therefore, all of the other two or three engines, were 360s. That means that the 318 rods ended up in 360 engines and just because the 318 rods are supposed to be the floating type, none of the pistons had retaining rings.

Other than the part numbers, all of the rods are identical.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[pishta]

Only 340 and 360 4bbl had the beefy rods. The 318 style rod (maybe even the casting number) could be found in 360 2bbls as well as 318's. The beefy rods may have been in the 318-3 truck block, but I dont know. Seeing that this crank was supposed to be forged, maybe they kept up with the heavy duty parts.

[pcrmike]

Also used the beefy ones in 318 4-bbl police engines too. :-)PCRMike

[dodger1]

FWIW,...Info from page 45 of "How to rebuild your s/b mopar" says (forging#) 2899496, (floating pin, .100" offset), were used on all 340s as well as 72-73 318s. 3418645, (pressed-in pin, no offset), were used on all 360's as well as 74 and up 318s. These are all "heavy-duty" rods. Light-duty forgings were used on 273-318 up to 72. I don't think I'd want to mix and match anyway, due to the offset differences as well as the pin retaining difference.

[pishta]

Yeah, the same page shows a pic of the 2 side by side with the blurb " HD rod from 340 360 4bbl and standard rod from the 273,318 and 360 2bbl". Kind of misleading according to the published table.