Boxed rods - gone and not fondly remembered

[PackardV8]

Who here is old enough to remember when top fuel was a stock block/heads early hemi with a C-T Automotive or Hank the Crank 5/8" welded stroker and welded boxed or ribbed con rods?

What brought it back to mind is another forum where several posters tell me rods would be destroyed if one tried to weld on them.

Glad we don't have to do that any more anyway.

[englertracing]

wow id like to see a picture of that.

[SupStk]

wow id like to see a picture of that.

Me too.

I recall strokers being made from welded up stock forgings. Have a welded 440 crank in the shop from several years past. When I gave the guy an estimate to straighten and grind, he brought me an Ohio crank and just left the welded one.

[Tom68]

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.

[BCjohnny]

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 ?

[quickd100]

The antique tractor pullers,(John Deere 2 cylinder) will commonly cut the connecting rods in half and weld in a chunk to lengthen the rod. They also stroke the crank enough so that they have to cut out and extend the crankcase for crank and rod clearance.

[gordon]

Did the box job to many Road race motorcycle engines in the early 70's before aftermarket started offering them. Never had a problem doing it and most failures were due to loose nut on the throttle .

[miniv8]

I've written this story here before, but I ran a two stroke bike with a welded connecting rod.
Good salvageable ends of two burnt rods where welded together smack in the middle.
It was welded eight years before I got the bike. Had zero issues with bearing wear.

Guy who made it was my weld-shop teacher in trades school, and the grandfather of the guy I got the engine from.

[Walter R. Malik]

Who here is old enough to remember when top fuel was a stock block/heads early hemi with a C-T Automotive or Hank the Crank 5/8" welded stroker and welded boxed or ribbed con rods?

What brought it back to mind is another forum where several posters tell me rods would be destroyed if one tried to weld on them.

Glad we don't have to do that any more anyway.

That was back in the days when people actually MADE things themselves, mainly because it was not available to be simply bought.

Many, many, many things were tried when there was no set parameters which needed to be met so, imaginations were the impetus.

Watching the movie, "Worlds fastest Indian" about Burt Munro was a real treat for me.

[frnkeore]

I'm certainly old enough to remember those things @ 78.

The boxed and ribbed rods, aren't that bad, done right. First you have to know the parent material, then weld, anneal and re heat treat the rod and of course resize the ends. I would be afraid to run something like that but, by time you got done, you could buy a set of lighter weight, 4340 rods, ready to run.

[PackardV8]

I'm certainly old enough to remember those things @ 78.

The boxed and ribbed rods, aren't that bad, done right. First you have to know the parent material, then weld, anneal and re heat treat the rod and of course resize the ends. I would be afraid to run something like that but, by time you got done, you could buy a set of lighter weight, 4340 rods, ready to run.

For true, but not everyone builds SBCs. Find a set of custom length 4340 rods for an antique John Deere, Studebaker, Packard, et al.

BTW, I just remembered the cheater trick of a welded stroker crank, stock pin height pistons on rods shortened by heating the beam and compressing them in a Sunnen pin press and then aligning them on a Tobin-Arp rod jig. Ah, yes, the good old days when we had to make everything.

[Dan Timberlake]

It's twue it's twue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLDnPiXyME0&t=4s

[tjs44]

Old enough to have owned a Joe Reath welded stroker!Tom

[frnkeore]

And here is a example of a Crank Shaft Co. Ribbed, Pont rod.

[Tom68]

And here is a example of a Crank Shaft Co. Ribbed, Pont rod.

Oh dear, I could go the boxed ones, but those ribbed ones, oh dear.