Eagle Rods/Any Good??

[pro-street dart]

Eagle rods any good for a small block stroker?? Need some thought's here - thanks.

[rumblefish360]

Theres better. Carrillo, Child & Albert etc...

[dirty dan]

Originally posted by rumblefish360
Theres better. Carrillo, Child & Albert etc...

It all depends on how much$$$ you want to spend.
Eagle rods are a good rod for that price range.

[lenweiler]

I agree with DDan. And there hasn't been any reported failures due to quality.

[Doug Wilson]

I think they may be OK. Lots of people using them on this forum and no reported failures... and you KNOW any failures would be reported here!

[lenweiler]

I have a vested interest in these rods, since they're included in my lo-buck SB stroker engine. The engine will see 550hp(according to Hughes Engines).

[Doug Wilson]

len - I think they'd be fine.

How much is your low-buck 550 horse engine?

[lenweiler]

I suppose it's all in how you look at it, Doug. But I think I'll slide under the 4500$US mark. That's with W2 heads, and not getting too funky with the machine work. And doing all the port work and assembly for myself.
Now if I could only figure a way of doing all the machine work..............

[Nightri1]

Someone should make them change the name. I read another thread where someone said the Eagle castings (rods and cranks) are cast in China?
I like to have parts that are made in America, price isn't that big of a deal.
How come no one mentioned Crower? They make a great Sportsman rod that is not that costly. They will definately take more abuse than an Eagle rod.
Other than that, yeah they'll work, as long as you don't mind having foreign built parts in your American motor.

[cuda66273]

...Again....

Eagle rods and cranks as well as SCAT rods and cranks are made in China ....do you want your money going to a country who steals our military secrets, holds our citizens as polital hostages and uses the prifits from trade to develop nuclear weapons and point them at your house?

Not me.......I'll pay more and get the quality and keep my money working in America.

It's your money....what ever i guess...i'm just tired of reposting this same thing over and over and over....search China in the archives.

[Billydelrio]

Eagle Rods are so popular because so many "Mail Order" places advertise having them. Mancini, Jegs, Summit, Doug Herbert,.... the list goes on and on. I have seen Eagle H-beam and the SIR rods and personally like the craftsmanship of both. I have lately seen a CAT H-beam, and it is not on my good list. The Eagle H-beams were machined to exactly what I would have done on the big and small ends, while the CATs were tighter on the big end and not near as pretty. The Eagles also came as a very well weight matched set on all three measurements as well as center to center length. Eagle gives good instructions as well as bolt stretch and/or torque specifications. I have nothing nagative to say about the Eagles, except that they are not made in Tennessee like the box and paper work leads you to believe.

If Crower has a rod that they are proud of, then they should convince all the "mail order" folks to show Crower products in more of the sales space so the consumers can see. The same goes for Oliver, and the rest of the guys who want to sell aftermarket rods to us Hot Rodders.

I sure would like a set of the Oliver rods in my next small block. Maybe Too Much Racing will be able assist us in this department!

Billy

[DartGT66]

the things that make Eagles nice is that they work and they are decently priced. I have used them since they became available for Bb mopars and have had zero problems. I have Childs & Albert endurance rods in my other engine. They are nice too and a little lighter (I beam) than the Eagles (H-beam). But they cost double the price of Eagles. Yet they work the same in my application.

[deadhorse66]

Patriotism or performance? $hit in one hand and wish in the other. What's a man to do? The choice is yours and yours alone. I would love to see a complete Crower bottom end package arrive on my doorstep someday. Will it ever happen...........

[cuda66273]

It's not a case of whether they work or not...I've seen them fail...many times, but for severe use they seem to be OK...for EXtreme use they should be delivered in a bucket so you'll have something to put the pieces in..for most applications they're fine and slightly better than stock Mopar rods....are they $600 better than stock?..not in my personal opinion....I'd rather spend a "G" note and get something thats REALLY!! good. A set of Olivers, CA's or Crowers would last me the rest of my racing life....I don't think I could say that about Eagles, Scats or Cats....

I just couldn't stand to wind up my Mopar knowing that there's chop suey spinning my rear tires......I'm a Canadian but I live here and am as American as any of you. I follow the politics of country's like China, I know how they feel about us and how they extort the profits from so called independent Chinese Company's to build military might....Sadam Insane is a Furrbee with a nasty mouth and a low IQ compared the Government of China and I don't want to feel responsible for the consequenses when our President has to make a decision on how to stop the onslought of the Chinese Military as they attemp to take over the far east...and maybe the near east.....They've stated that a confrontation is inevitable with the USA.......I hope my Grandsons don't get called to defend our Nation against them....it won't be pretty.

My money stays home where it belongs, you Guy's do whatever you think is right.

Don
Canadian by Birth....American by Choice

[Doug Wilson]

Don - it's a serious issue, and you know I agree with you. You are aware that I'm trying to get someoone to give me pricing for Oliver rods for the Hellfish '66 Barracuda's new, race only motor. You also know that it's serious to me, because my Son's might be called to give their lives fighting the Chinese.

I wonder ,how much of the money we pay for offshore parts stays in the hands of American working people? Any idea?

[DartGT66]

Luckily for us, we don't have problems you seem to have. So, I guess it's as OK for us to use Eagles than to use Childs&Alberts. for us the situation is the same; wether we buy C&A or Eagle the money is out of our country. Actually buying Eagles is better for our country, since less money leaves the country

[cuda66273]

Doug ..my buddy.....I'm gonna be honest with you right in front of God and all the 20,000 members of this board....I haven't followed up with Oliver yet.

Reason...not excuse....when I talked to Tom at Oliver we discussed your engine and mine for the same need. They do not make a SB rod for Mopars....we would have to have them narrowed and the lower end sized out .030 This requires about 2-3 hours of machine work and becomes a cost issue.

I will be at PRI in a couple of weeks and be searching for a rod supplier of equal Quality to Oliver at a competitive price.

I am currenty starting a extensive search on aluminum alternatives and the prognosis looks excellent, I'm amazed at how far they've come in 10 years on aluminum rods.

...my research is being seriouly hampered with the opening of the new shop and all the build-out we're having to do.....have patience when I find a rod to use in my motor you'll know your getting the best rod for yours.

[Doug Wilson]

Thanks, Don. I have thought a lot about aluminum rods. From what I've read, they are good for between 150 and 500 runs before they work harden and stretch too much to be reliable. Since they cost so much, I'm thinking that the cost issue should not be all that big a factor - you're gonna pay through the nose anyway, so why not buy the best.... I don't know what is the best.

Another alternative would be Titanium. If you could give me a spec on rods, I think I could find a manufacturer who could supply them at a very "reasonable" cost. I would need an engineering spec. They would likely outlast aluminum by a factor of 10.

[DartGT66]

They make titanium rods for at least SB chebbys here in Finland too! http://personal.inet.fi/yritys/tyliteracing/
However, they are not too popular. The price is not the reason. Titanium is pretty brittle, if and when it breaks ti makes quite a mess. It's also hard, and the "hits" hurt the crank & block way harder than even steel rods. And it has somewhat odd lubricant properties and want to "stick". For example two titanium rods facing each other is a no no, there must be somekind of a "bearing" in between. Or ask Nickens Pro Stock team of how many new "hemis" they exploded when testing their new titanium wrist pins and they stuck!

[cuda66273]

I agree with DartGT, titanium is a funky metal and has limited practicality in and engine.

If we build a 500 HP motor that we shift at about 65-6800 RPM I would say you'll get 750 or more passes from a good set of Al. rods..thats 5 years or more, depending on how much Dave get's to race......

See ya tomorrow

I'll trading in my Mopar Cap for my Chef's hat at 7 am tomorrow morning...Bratworst will be ready for lunch

[Rich33]

It's tempting to run the Eagle rods based on the cost. But, you might want to consider what a reputable builder for oval track engines have to say about them. I pasted just a few of his quotes below that I found on http://www.rpmnet.com/forums/oval.html. Now, I realize that he's talking about Chebby rods, but the info is useful just the same. Sorry for the length of the response. I just thought the info might be useful.

This one's a response to a question about using Eagle rods:

HENDRENS RACING ENGINES
Member
Posts: 743
From: RUTHERFORDTON N.C. 828-286-0780
Registered: Oct 2000
posted 02-06-2002 08:25 PM
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SOME PEOPLE CAN GO TO LAS VEGAS AND WIN,IM NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE SO I DON'T GAMBLE ON SOMETHING I KNOW WILL FAIL IN A SHORT TIME,ESPECIALLY WITH MY CUSTOMERS MONEY. CROWER SPORTSMAN RODS ARE PRICED AT $435.00 PER SET.AND DON'T BREAK.THERE ARE PROBABLY SOME OTHER GOOD RODS ON THE MARKET IN THE SAME PRICE RANGE.IF YOU BREAK A ROD AND WIPE OUT THE BLOCK AND CRANK NOT TO MENTION THE RACE THAT $100.00 YOU SAVED WAS A BAD GAMBLE. BILL

HENDRENS RACING ENGINES
Member
Posts: 743
From: RUTHERFORDTON N.C. 828-286-0780
Registered: Oct 2000
posted 03-04-2002 08:37 AM
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YOU ARE CORRECT IM SAYING THAT A RESIZED AND DETAILED STOCK ROD WITH GOOD BOLTS WILL OUTLAST THE AVERAGE EAGLE ROD.I PROBABLY SEE 100 OR MORE SETS TO EVERY ONE YOU SEE SO I AM IN A POSITION TO KNOW HOW MANY ARE CRACKED.WE WET MAG EVERY ROD THAT COMES THROUGH OUR SHOP SO I CAN PROBABLY GIVE YOU A GOOD IDEA OF HOW LONG ANY BRAND LASTS BEFORE CRACKING.THE X ROD IS MADE BY CHEVROLET NOT CROWER.I RECOMMEND HIS RODS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE LEAST EXPENSIVE ONES OUT THERE THAT I SEE WITH NO CRACKS AFTER RUNNING A LONG TIME.YOU DON'T SAY WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED BUT IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE NEAR US BRING YOUR EAGLE RODS TO MY SHOP AND I WILL WET MAG THEM FOR FREE AND LET YOU SEE FOR YOUR SELF.WITH THE THOUSANDS OF EAGLE RODS OUT THERE YOU MAY HAVE A GOOD SET BUT ON THE AVERAGE THERE GOING TO BE CRACKED AFTER THAT MANY RACES. BILL

Here he's talking about Eagle H beam rods:

HENDRENS RACING ENGINES
Member
Posts: 846
From: RUTHERFORDTON N.C. 828-286-0780
Registered: Oct 2000
posted 10-18-2002 12:51 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The problem with the H beam rods is when they cut the trough down the middle they do it in one pass and the chips from the cutter make grooves in the sides of the beam,combine this with the fact they deburr them on a belt sander ACROSS the rod and there doomed to failure.the I beam rods are out of the same soft material and have the same quality control problems as far as big end size/taper and bell mouth as the H beams but have no grinding or machine marks on the sides.they will last longer without cracking but I wouldn't use them in any hi power or hi rpm application unless there was nothing else available.it tends to make customers mad if you sell them a rod like that and it fails and I don't like failures so we don't use them at all.the difference between the cost of those rods and good ones is so small I cant see why anyone uses them that is in this business unless they don't have a wet mag and can see all the cracks that we see.Bill


Here's an answer regarding Eagle cranks:

HENDRENS RACING ENGINES
Member
Posts: 743
From: RUTHERFORDTON N.C. 828-286-0780
Registered: Oct 2000
posted 06-11-2002 08:34 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haven't seen any broken ones yet but the quality is very bad.we have had 5 of them in our shop in the last year and all 5 needed to be ground to get the taper and out of round out of them before use. we ground two of them and there in street motors.the other 3 were returned by there purchasers and they bought callies dragon slayers.the callies cranks are always on size and not made out of used beer cans.Bill

[Doug Wilson]

That is really good info. Are the Crower rods priced at $435 just for small block chebbies? What are the prices for small block and big block MOPARS?? Probably $1,000.00!!

Please vote in the pole on the thread "Taking a stand". Voting on this should be important to all MOPAR lovers.

[Rich33]

Yeah, you pointed out the bad part. I don't think Crower even makes a Sportsman rod for Mopars. So, the price jump is considerable when we have to use an even more expensive American made piece.

[cuda66273]

Unfortunatly Crower doesn't make a Sportsman rod for the SB Mopar, the longest they make would be the 6.00 Chevy which could be cut and sized but it's too short...

They do have a Billet available but your looking at almost $1300 a set...I will find a rod some where....don't know where but I will....

[cuda66273]

OK I just got off the phone with Greg at C&A (Childs & Albert), this is what I've got for you Guy's on Rods.

C&A forged 4340 Sportsman rods in 6.125 length at $795 a set, with the C&A 280,000# 7/16 bolts...of course this is the advertised price......email me direct for the Moparchat discount.

[Doug Wilson]

All righty, then... you know my address... eh?

See you about 2PM tomorrow.

Please vote in the pole on the thread "Taking a stand". Voting on this should be important MOPAR lovers

[AndyF]

Manley has some of their Mopar rods on sale now. www.manleyperformance.com

[lenweiler]

I bought a set of eagle rods, simply because of the unavailability of sb rods for mopar. I even looked at buying nos rods from mother till I found out the price. If the eagles don't pan out (cracked) then I may have to go with the old Hamburger rods,but they are heavy.

[Nightri1]

The machine shop I work in is a dealer for many manufacturers. I will at least question and solicit some of those manufacturers. Maybe with a flood of emails to one of them they might see the advantage of delivering a SBChrysler rod to a very interested group. I find it nearly impossible to believe that an American company does not supply a good cost competitive unit.
Anyone else?