Elite Marine

I'm looking purchase a quality forged crankshaft for a 1999 454. I've seen Eagle and Scat listed as prefered marine cranks for supercharged engines.

Are there others that you would recommend??

Any that you would advise me to avoid?


Thanks

INCOGNITO

many quality crankshafts, CROWER --CALLIES--LUNATI--SCAT--EAGLE--COLA--A FEW OTHERS MAYBE I MISSED--THE QUESTION IS WHAT MATERIAL 5140//4340 AND OPTIONS ..I GUESS THE ULTIMATE QUESTION IS PRICE..THE THINGS YOU NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN PURCHASING A CRANKSHAFT IS HOW MUCH HORSEPOWER DO YOU WANNA PRODUCE,IS IT GONNA BE BLOWN OR ASPIRATED IF YOURE GONNA USE THAT 454 BLOCK I HOPE AT LEAST ITS A 4 BOLT MAIN..4340 IS STRONGER AND MORE EXPENSIVE THAN 5140 ---BUT 5140 IS FINE UP TO 650 MAYBE 700 HP.N/A--HOWEVER BLOWER APPLICATION IS A BIT DIFFERENT--YOU COULD RUN UP TO A 4.25 STROKE IN THAT STD DECK 454..BUT NOW DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS IS ANOTHER STORY ALL TOGETHER..HOPE THIS HELPS A LITTLE..

Mr Gadgets

I have been told to stay away from the Eagle cranks, the machine work is not very accurate as I was told. I do not have any first hand experience with this brand. I use Callies.

Good luck.

Dick

WETTE VETTE

My Eagle crank has been great and I know several big name engine builders using them on a regular basis without issue making 1000 plus HP blown, nitroused, and naturally aspirated. However no product or engine builder is perfect. I have heard that Lunati has had a drop in quality since they were purchased by Holley. Start off with a good engine builder that has the ability to check the crank out. If it is off when you recieve it send it back!!!! If the engine builder is good he will check these parts before assembly. If he assembles the motor and then says the bearings failed because the crank is no good he should be fired for not knowing a good crank from a bad one, especially if it is still in 1 piece. A friend of mine detonated his motor and holed some new JE pistons. To this day says JE is junk!!! We all know that is not the case and that JE is probably the best piston on the market. Just remember when people say stay away from a certain part that they probably screwed up at some point and find it easier to blame a part than themselves for their problem.
Just my .02!!

Mr Gadgets

Wette Vette,
It is good to hear that you can dispell my hearsay. I hate to hear that others have found a product to not be up to par. Like I said this was hearsay from a machinest.. I dont mean to knock Eagle cranks, but with all products it must be checked for accuracy..
I had a machine shop not check a crank that came through with -.010" mains.. When my oil psi when south they swore it was not the bearing clearances. Well I proved them wrong and then fired them. I worked directly with the crank company and they stood behind their product 100%. They took care of me and my problem. Like I said, I will go with Callies on my next crank!!

Dick

H2Xmark

Boy you hit the nail on the head with that statement Wette Vette, very true, look and see what the big engine builders are using, check with Chief, Teague, and others, they warranty a lot of their engines they will tell you what breaks

Elite Marine

I have an Eagle Crank, and though I don't want to speculate on the cause yet, I had a main bearing failure at 14 hours. I sent the bearing to the original builder for evaluation and then will have a local builder inspect the crank. It does not appear that the block was line bored. I will have the block inspected also. I'm not head hunting yet, just hope that we can determine the true cause of the failure both to avoid the same in the future and see if there is someone at fault ie bad crank, bearing or assembler.

Thanks for the input everyone.

KAAMA

I haven't had too good of success with the 4.25" 4340 Eagles. But I honestly don't know if it was the quality of the crank or the quality of care/workmanship of those who assembled my engines. After only about 4-5 hours on my brand new engines from last year, one of them started having oil pressure problems. The engine was pulled and dis-assembled. The bearings were all pretty much shot. These were one of the top of the line "H-Series" bearings and the material was flaking off of them and I was shown several pictures of bearing failures and the various reasons why bearings fail. Apparently, by comparing my main bearings to the ones in the pictures I was told it was from "hot rodding" or "overloading" the engines as described in the picture. Well, I didn't do any hole shots and I didn't run the peewiminy out of the engines either---like standing on it at wide open throttle, etc. I'm not new to boating, but the boat was new to me---no "seat time", and I was trying to familiarize myself with it and breaking in the new power I had just installed in it. Actually, I was a little nervous and apprehensive about it for the first few times. I didn't have to pay for the labor, but I still had to pay for the machine work and parts---the crank had to be turned .010" and the mains align honed.

If other engine buliders are using them with success then (in my case) it could very well have been an assembly error or maybe the crank flexed---I had both of these engines dyno tested and they made about 620-630hp @ 5400rpm. We checked the other engine and the crank was okay, but it needs polishing. I had it removed and installed a fully counterweighted Lunati crank.

I talked with one of the sales techs down at Lunati last January and asked him about any problems and he said it was the plant manager more or less---but that he's been replaced since last fall and the workers like the new manager.

I do have the Eagle H=beam connecting rods which seem to be fine at this point.

I think the next time I have a pair of engines built I will probably go with Crower cranks.

I was told the Scat cranks were a little nicer finished/machined coming out of the box when comparing it to an Eagle brand crank.

26scarab

I'm putting around 675hp thru a Eagle crank (4130?) and haven't had any problems with the crank or bearings BUT due to the rod journals having to be repaired right out of the box (radii were too large leaving no rod end play) there is excessive rod end play causing lower oil pressure readings. With a System 1 oil pump set at 75lbs I'm reading 38-40lbs at WOT while this doesn't really hurt anything I still blame it on the crank.
I will not use an Eagle crank again, I would go with : Callies
LA billet
Moldex
Cola
Scat
Lunati

Just my opinion.

KAAMA

Chuck,

I haven't heard much about LA Billet cranks lately---for several years as matter of fact. Do you know of anyone running their cranks in Marine applications with any success?

BTW, what's Denny's phone number again please?

Thanks,
Mark/KAAMA