Boxed rods - gone and not fondly remembered

[biker]

Ran Dons boxed rods for several seasons in an old 6-71 blown 392 hemi - on avgas to start with then on methanol - never had a problem, mind you only about 25PSI boost back then!!

[mt-engines]

Not seen any TF rods personally, but several sets of more mundane four cylinder stuff that came out of higher revving engines in one piece, if a little on the heavy side

I guess, as with a lot of things, it all depends on who is doing the fab, welding & machining

Didn't a firm called 'Meckhart' (sp) used to make a cast Stainless 'Eiffel Tower' boxed type rod, even fairly recently ?

Mechart were investment cast stainless hollow rods, I hadn't seen a set in about 20 years. I freshened a backup engine with a set in them, and was told to scrap them. Couldn't imagine them in anything above 500hp. Or 7k rpm.

[machine shop tom]

Not old enough, but grew up with boxes of Hot Rodding books and magazines starting from the early 50's.

The learning and engineering years, it's all pretty much Cookie Cutting now, pick a recipe, buy it all, bolt it all together.

Yep, ""Back in the day" one had to make horsepower, it was hard to buy.

[pitts64]

How about the old timers who welded and then hand filed there cams!

[Kingbee]

How about the old timers who welded and then hand filed there cams!

Back in the early 70s I found a junked 3hp Briggs and Scrapiron that looked the same as the one in my mini-bike. After reading in one of by big brothers car magazines how performance cams were made I took the cam out of the junked engine, ran a couple bird shit beads across the lobes with dads 225 Lincoln then proceeded to regrind by eye.

I never did get it installed but am sure it would have finished off my good engine. My dad probably found out what I was up to and stopped me before sending another Briggs to the scrap. So for awhile I bragged to my buddies that I was a race cam grinder. I'm just glad they never asked me to prove it.

[PackardV8]

Ed once told me a reground cam for a Briggs & Stratton is the single most profitable item Iskenderian ever sold. The cores cost nothing and watching one of Ed's sons grind those on a shop-built machine which used a bicycle wheel as a speed-reducer, was a real hoot.

BTW - Ed is now 101 and anyone who ever knew him will never forget him.

[Kingbee]

Ed once told me a reground cam for a Briggs & Stratton is the single most profitable item Iskenderian ever sold. The cores cost nothing and watching one of Ed's sons grind those on a shop-built machine which used a bicycle wheel as a speed-reducer, was a real hoot.

BTW - Ed is now 101 and anyone who ever knew him will never forget him.

Ed is a great guy! For all his accomplishments there's not an arrogant bone in his body. Every time I've talked to him and trying to hear all his stories he's been more interested in what I do. I'll never forget back in 2016 I was at a diner a little ways down the street from Isky cams and Ed got up, went to the bus boys station and started scraping the dirty plates into to-go boxes. He said he takes the table scraps back to the shop to feed the alley cats out back. That alone made him a hero in my eyes!