Forged crank?

[Gary Stavely]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, this is my first big block mopar. Anyways (might be a stupid question) but we're these old forged cranks really this rough looking? I took my engine into a shop quite a while ago and they took it apart. I never really paid attention to it before, and I know it's externally balanced. But heck these old cranks look pretty rough, lol!

 

[Gary Stavely]

It's a little rusty, but I guess I am kinda just wondering if all looks normal there?

 

[moparedtn]

Cast crank 440's are externally balanced; forged ones are not.

 

[Gary Stavely]

Cast crank 440's are externally balanced; forged ones are not.

Yeah forsure, my engine is a 66-67 383

 

[Gary Stavely]

Cast crank 440's are externally balanced; forged ones are not.

I do apologize, I meant internally balanced

 

[moparedtn]

Yeah forsure, my engine is a 66-67 383

Same deal.

 

[dvw]

440's with 6 pac rods are externally ballanced and use forged cranks. Its hard to tell in the posters pic but that looks like a cast crank. All 440 damners for cast crank have the words For Cast Crank Only.

 

[Brandy]

Looks like a cast crank to me. My forged crank looked nothing like that. Especially after the machine shop polished it.

 

[69Bee]

It is a forged crank. It has rounded counterweight edges, and you can barely see the wide parting line at the top of the first pic. The crank looks like this because it has only been washed and not glass beaded. Most times, washing only does not remove all of the baked on varnish and oils.

 

[Gary Stavely]

Looks like a cast crank to me. My forged crank looked nothing like that. Especially after the machine shop polished it.

It still needs to be polished. The engine sat for a lot of years, if it was cast it would have a lot squarer edges I do believe.

 

[Gary Stavely]

It is a forged crank. It has rounded counterweight edges, and you can barely see the wide parting line at the top of the first pic. The crank looks like this because it has only been washed and not glass beaded. Most times, washing only does not remove all of the baked on varnish and oils.

That would make sense, it looks pretty rough around the edges. I never even really looked at it before and was just kinda wondering if it was pretty normal. I had to pull it out of the machine shop it was at due to the owner having health issues .

 

[moparedtn]

It's always annoyed me that I can't easily tell cast from forged externally.
The two types of balancers can be swapped, right?

 

[1968rt]

Yours is forged. Take a look at the differences

 

[RemCharger]

It's always annoyed me that I can't easily tell cast from forged externally.
The two types of balancers can be swapped, right?

No, see post 7. The internal balancer does not have the huge weight on it

 

[Gary Stavely]

Yours is forged. Take a look at the differences

View attachment 1716079

Yeah I was under the impression they were all forged in 1967. They look almost beaten up, I think I should probably brush some oil on the counter weights until I can get it reconditioned.

 

[69Bee]

No, see post 7. The internal balancer does not have the huge weight on it

While this is true for the balancer, you are relying on the fact that the last assembler installed the correct balancer though.

 

[RemCharger]

While this is true for the balancer, you are relying on the fact that the last assembler installed the correct balancer though.

Yes I see there's a few different ways to interpret his question.
I've had a cast 440 with wrong balancing. Had to pull the pan and check.

 

[Gary Stavely]

I was just looking at my connecting rods, it seems there is a couple that are way out of size. I don't like the thought of these ever going back in the engine... 440 source has some new ones for a decent price i think, I could just replace a couple of these or I could but a new set, any recommendations? Same numbers but this I am pretty sure would throw things off...

 

[69Bee]

They are different to balance the rods total weight and is no big deal. Have the rods resized with ARP rod bolts and you will be fine. If you get the chineze junk ones, you WILL need to rebalance the rotating assy. Just have your rods resized, you will spend less money, have a good set of rods, plus you will not need to rebalance.

 

[33 IMP]

As 69 Bee said, those differences are just balance pads, and a good indication that your engine was balanced at some point.
As I understand it, the external balance dampeners can be installed on a steel (forged) crank, physically, but of course that is a bad mistake.
Yours is a steel crank, and needs neutral balanced flexplats/flywheel/converter, and halancer.