BA rods into xflow? without mods???
- Thread starter MRJLB84D
- Start date
No joy fluke-ing the BA rod swap. Doubt it will work as a 'Saturady morning drop in' without running a bearing.
The only way to be sure is grab a wrecked AU engine, and trail fit the stuff to an existing X-flow.
Piston wise, you basically have to find a stock 3.68 or 3.71" diameter piston with a 1.365" compression height, and a 0.9112" wrist pin. There are none around without getting into big bickies, I've checked. Plenty in the Subarau/BMW/Porsche size, but nothing cheap in the 93.3 to 93.5 mm range which fits the bill. The piston to use will have to be customised to suit. :x
Back to the crank and rods. You have to start like with like in the same manner of a newly machined AU or BA. A quick check with plastigauge with a BA or AU rod fitted to an XA-XF crank will most likely show you that each rod and crank pin combo needs to be matched. The bearing crush and recommeded sizes will be different becasue the AU/BA crank is much stiffer, and designed to run a different grade oil, at different pressure, than the X-flow
Not 100% certain regards the oil gallery chamfer in the X-flow crank verses any OHC or DOHC crank, either. They should be basically the same, but the radius on the crank counter wieght to crank journal will be rolled on the AU/BA, and a slight miss-match could screw the stock rod bearing.
All Ford I6's since 1960 have had under piston 'splash lube' via a 60 thou hole, but the BA Turbo has an additional drilled hole for pressure lubing the under piston. However, both BA items have the same part number. It's only the Typhoon and Toranado Turbo's which have the factory 'goats knees' rods.
Lastly, the 6.06" rod basically requires a piston of EA to EL height to fit the X-flow. Remember, all OHC engines are 160 thou shallower, meaning all OHC rods are at least 160 thou shallower than any X-flow rod. The OHC's run a 68 to 48 thou smaller bore.
The AU-BA engines had a further 180 thou lopped of the piston thickness, so they are a massive 340 thou shallower than X-flow pistons.
The only way to be sure is grab a wrecked AU engine, and trail fit the stuff to an existing X-flow.
Piston wise, you basically have to find a stock 3.68 or 3.71" diameter piston with a 1.365" compression height, and a 0.9112" wrist pin. There are none around without getting into big bickies, I've checked. Plenty in the Subarau/BMW/Porsche size, but nothing cheap in the 93.3 to 93.5 mm range which fits the bill. The piston to use will have to be customised to suit. :x
Back to the crank and rods. You have to start like with like in the same manner of a newly machined AU or BA. A quick check with plastigauge with a BA or AU rod fitted to an XA-XF crank will most likely show you that each rod and crank pin combo needs to be matched. The bearing crush and recommeded sizes will be different becasue the AU/BA crank is much stiffer, and designed to run a different grade oil, at different pressure, than the X-flow
Not 100% certain regards the oil gallery chamfer in the X-flow crank verses any OHC or DOHC crank, either. They should be basically the same, but the radius on the crank counter wieght to crank journal will be rolled on the AU/BA, and a slight miss-match could screw the stock rod bearing.
All Ford I6's since 1960 have had under piston 'splash lube' via a 60 thou hole, but the BA Turbo has an additional drilled hole for pressure lubing the under piston. However, both BA items have the same part number. It's only the Typhoon and Toranado Turbo's which have the factory 'goats knees' rods.
Lastly, the 6.06" rod basically requires a piston of EA to EL height to fit the X-flow. Remember, all OHC engines are 160 thou shallower, meaning all OHC rods are at least 160 thou shallower than any X-flow rod. The OHC's run a 68 to 48 thou smaller bore.
The AU-BA engines had a further 180 thou lopped of the piston thickness, so they are a massive 340 thou shallower than X-flow pistons.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Haya, I'm looking at doing the same thing to my E series 4.0 motor.
What I've managed to find out so far is that the big end size and the small end size is the same between the EA-EL,AU, and BA engine. The Bore and Stroke is the same between my EF engine and BA engines, but there is a 4mm difference in rod length (The BA rod is shorter) so I can only assume that the 4mm is made up by locating the gudgon pin 4mm lower in the piston.
Don't quote me on saying it, but i'm fairly sure that the big end size in the 4.1 XF engine is the same as EA (So it must be the same) and if your outlaying the $ for the rods, you could pay and get a custom piston made to suit (Which is what I'm looking at doing if I can't use off the shelf BA ones).
What I've managed to find out so far is that the big end size and the small end size is the same between the EA-EL,AU, and BA engine. The Bore and Stroke is the same between my EF engine and BA engines, but there is a 4mm difference in rod length (The BA rod is shorter) so I can only assume that the 4mm is made up by locating the gudgon pin 4mm lower in the piston.
Don't quote me on saying it, but i'm fairly sure that the big end size in the 4.1 XF engine is the same as EA (So it must be the same) and if your outlaying the $ for the rods, you could pay and get a custom piston made to suit (Which is what I'm looking at doing if I can't use off the shelf BA ones).
fordmuscle83
Well-known member
In the latest Performance ford mag there are chrome nickel molybdenum alloy steel, bushed, shot peened cnc machined conrods from atomic perfromance for $1495 with ARP 2000 bolts.
Made for 600kw.
Pete
Made for 600kw.
Pete
A
Anonymous
Guest
I was talking to a mates uncle on the weekend who runs "Trackside Tuning" next to the Winton circuit, and he told me to use an EF crank & AU conrods in my 250 crossflow. Apparently the EF crank is stronger than the 250 crank, which wouldn't be to hard considering the quality of XF cranks. An AU crank won't fit as it uses a larger main bearing. AU conrods are used because they are longer than XF-EF rods, and are stronger than standard crossflow rods.