WETTE VETTE

Maybe a shipment of scrap Eagle cranks made it over to Grand Rapids instead of the Sturgis scrap yard!! Just kidding. My Eagle has about 60 HRS. on it and is just as it was out of the box. It has 40 in a 12:1 compression 496 iron head solid roller motor, and 20 in the current 498 13.2:1 aluminum head solid roller motor. Of those hrs there are a few cruising, a few idling, and the rest at WOT which is normally between 5900 and 6300 rpm. The motor is balanced to very tight tolerances and the main caps are doweled so movement ain't gonna happen. I also try to keep her out of detonation, which is hell on main bearings. So far I have been pretty lucky, now I need to find some wood to knock on.

Elite Marine

The info that you guys have shared has helped me alot. Though I'm not slamming the Eagle Cranks, I think for the rebuild I'll try someone elses crank. Like I said, it doesn't appear that the block was line bored, which may have contributed to the 14 hour bearing failure. So far i have sent the bearing and seal to the engine builder, they have yet to call me or return my calls... I heard they were a reputable builder, which is part of the reason i bought the boat last month. I'll keep you posted, i think some of you know the builder.

JimV

WETTEVETTE

I'm glad you haven't had any problems with your crank. The crank that broke was in a 38 cig. that was doing a poker run from Lauderdale to Key west WFO with the drives in and tabs down crashing waves. The rest were being thrashed about the same, WFO. When we upgraded to the better cranks all the problems went away. 99% of our customers want to turn the key and go, they are not mechanics and don't want to turn wrenches. (That's OK by me). If there is one problem it's a big deal and must be adressed. The weak link was removed. It cost me a lot of money to learn this. I have tried neutral balance $450.00 with heavy metal which made the cost of the crank the same as a Callies and neutral balance the rear and external balance the front that didn't work either, again when we switched to the better cranks the problems went away.

bob

Kaama/
I have some Merc Clas 1's and they used the LA crank. Haven't had a problem to date.

jr

I've got a cast eagle in one of my engines. No problems so far. I did notice the larger radius between the journal and the counter weights on the rod journal. I just switched to a champhered bearing with no problems. I would rather have the larger radius. There is less chance of a crack there because the larger radius gives less of a stress concentration.

KAAMA

Well, I think the Eagle cranks that had lots of failures initialy were the 4140 forgings (I think those are the forging numbers)---Anyway, it was Eagles standard forging crankshaft that were supposed to handle something like 800hp as advertised.

The Eagle cranks that I have are the 4340 forging which are superior or supposed to be superior to the 4140. The 4340 may be okay, but I can't honestly say for sure. All I know is that I had major bearing failures (one engine) with only 4-5 hours on both engines. (my boat (32'A/T) is smaller and lighter weight than a 38' Cig) My blocks were brand new from the factory and the mains were align honed during all the other machining processes prior to assembly. The rotating assemblies were balanced on a Heinz balancer. I wanted to do all the correct machining to the blocks to make sure everything was RIGHT before they were assembled.

As of now one my engines has a Lunati 4340 fully counterweighted crank and the other still has the Eagle 4340 which is not fulley counterweighted. The Eagle has 50 hours on it thus far (it was the one that had to be turned .010") the Lunati only has dyno time on it at this time. By the way the Eagle that was replaced by the Lunati is for sale---may need to be turned .010".

dyno

Mark will that crank fit in my 454's????

jspeeddemon

I would like to throw a positive for Eagle, I have a internally balanced 4340 version in my blown 540 with problems to date. I have approximately 30 hrs run time it, mixture of cruising and wide open. Last year I ran an internally balanced Scat, and it did just fine as well. I willmention however that with the same rods, the Scat had a thousandth too much clearance on the mains. Point is check it out before you run it.

Turbojack

JSpeedemon_ I am assuming you mean NO problems to date.

26scarab

Hey if you have a ton of money to spend you could have Windburg build you a crank.
A drag racing friend was telling me about them. He saw one and said it was so nice you could put the thing on display on your front room coffee table. I think the price was something like $5k.