quote:Its pretty well known among engine builders that some SCAT and EAGLE Windsor-stroker cranks have undersized noses as well as missing the Cleveland shoulder behind the crank timing sprocket. This not only causes the crank sprocket to be loose, it negates the tight fit that a harmonic balancer is supposed to have on the crank nose. Feel free to return any crank thats loose upon receipt; one builder told me some 80% of these Chinese strokers get returned to SCAT or Eagle for machining errors....Oh, and Lock-tite won't correct metal missing from the nose, but welding and remachining correctly will fix the problem. 'Course, then you have a cost equal to a real racing crank.
FWIW, the undersized (Windsor-sized) crank snout on the FORGED Scat cranks for the 351C are not a product of poor Chinese manufacturing. This is by design! Ford Motorsport design as a matter of fact since Scat's forged stroker cranks were developed to the specs provided by Ford Motorsport (SVO, Motorsport, Racing? Whatever their name is now) for use in SVO blocks.
It sounds like you're "one builder" might return 80% of the stroker cranks HE orders because he doesn't know what he's ordering. I don't know anything about Eagle cranks, but I do know and trust Scat cranks. I've met Tom Lieb and think him to be a very upstanding straight-shooting gearhead kind of guy who we'd all be happy to call a "friend." Tom is an old-car guy. His collection has 22 cars, which go from early brass to 30's classics, and he's won Pebble Beach Vintage Class 3 different times with one of his 7 Wills St. Claires. He started making crankshafts in 1966 and connecting rods in 1972 and, presently Scat manufactures 100 to 120 cranks a day and an average of 1000 connecting rods a day. Scat supplies the big three with cranks and rods for prototyping as well as for their crate motor programs, and has also manufactured 1000's of MG cranks exclusively for Moss Motors in Goleta, CA since 1972.
Many years ago steel mills and forging houses started to close for obvious political, union and environmental reasons. Today there are no steel mills or forging houses left in the USA that can produce the alloys or are capable of forging crankshafts in the volumes needed by Scat. Most Scat cranks are forged in China (the MG cranks are forged in England but are machined and heat treated in Redondo Beach) in the same factory where Scat forges cranks for FORD, GM and Chrysler (Scat doesn't use the cheapest Chinese foundry). The rough forgings come from China, but they're machined, balanced and heat treated in Scat's Redondo Beach facility where they maintain tight quality control over the product as it's readied for market on their 30-some CNC machines and 12 crank grinders.
Note that the Scat "9000 series" stroker crank IS a true Cleveland crank with the correct shoulder for the timing gear. It's a cast crank, but capable of handling well over 500hp.
Why did I order the forged stroker crank then??? One word: "Ignorance!" I tend to over build my engines so I wanted the strongest parts - forged crank, forged rods, forged pistons, ARP studs & bolts, etc. But, I did not know about the Windsor snout issue when I placed my order - I knew about the missing shoulder and thought the spacer was all I needed. I didn't know about the designed difference in the snout diameter. If I were to do it all over again, I would have saved some money and ordered the 9000-series stroker crank.
So, does anyone need a Ford Motorsport tru-roller timing chain set for a 351C? Brand new in the box! I'll make you a deal!