200 rods

[lyonsy]

hey
i read with interest in one of the tech sections that american 200 six's had forged rods in them from the factory is this true?
if so whats the aviability of these rods and how do you chack that there infect forged ones?
and will they bolt into an aussie xflow engine?
thanks mark

 

[xctasy]

The Aussie rods are forged too.

There are two types of 200.

Short deck.
Early Aussie 1964 to 67 200, and the same US 200 from 1964 to 1984.

Long Deck:
The Aussie 3.3 non cross flow (71 to 76) and x-flow (76 to 93). The Aussie 200/3.3 is very tall, and has very long 6.27" rods.


The EARLY Aussie and all US 200's have short fry 4.71" rods.

There is no interchangability between rods of these two engine types, although the pistons and rod bearings are the same.

In addition, after 1975, Ford America's small I6's tended to revert to cast iron rods rather than forged ones, although there were a few expections. They are avaliable ex US via a reworked part number 7974-16, and they cost about U$166.45 for totally prepped rods whicn won't brake. Jimbo65 used them on his 2v headed 200 Mustang.


Don't discount the little 200 US or early Aussie XR 200 block. The weight saving with the little 200 I6 is over 73 pounds less than an Aussie 200 or 250 over the front wheels, and is some 67 pounds lighter tha the Capri 3.0 V6.

 

[lyonsy]

hey
so the forged rods are only in the short deck 200's and the rods arnt interchagable between them and 250's?
if so there goes my cheap set of unbrakeo rods.
thanks mark

 

[xctasy]

The Aussie engines( 200 short and 200 tall, and all Oz 250's), have forged rods. It's just that they are spindly when you start puting 400 hp through them via nitrous or a turbo. Over the 450 hp mark, turbos tend to bend rods due to lack of beam thicknness. There is one documentaed case on the forum with forged 200 rods on a short deck engine.

Cheap rod options for the long 200 six we use in Australasian Fords:

Go for the later 6.06" long AU-BA rods. You can use over size 253 (+60) ACL Race pistons on a tall deck 200.

For the 250, you can use stock pistons with the 6.06" rods if you add a steel spacer 180 thou tall to the block, and get longer pushrods.

There are ways of making things fit if you know the sizes of the available cheaper bits. AU-BA rods are the same as XR6 Turbo rods except that they don't have under pistion oiling. It's kind of funny, Ford Cortina 2000's have had under piston oiling since 1971! Epoxying in just one 1.5 mm oiling hole per rod helps prevent pistons over heating, and doesn't hurt the strength one bit.