Last month when I contacted John Mummert and purchased an adjustable timing set, he stated that he could no longer get the 312 HD Connecting Rods. While I did not get into the details of what has taken place with a manufacturer, I thought I would throw the question out to all of you - is there any company that offers H-beam connecting rods for the 312 off the shelf?


Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I'm also in the market for upgraded 312 style rods as I have broke so many 312 and the truck style rods and ruined several motors so I never want to use the stock type rods in anything I have anymore. I'm sure some of my rod failures were heavy pistons.   

I may look at offset grinding the crank and using a set of eagle 6.125's in one i'm about to do..  I always plan to have custom pistons made so the the eagle rod might be the best for me.


Pat Fleischman

Pat, with the cost of getting a set of rods re-worked, adding the ARP hardware, etc, it would be better to just buy a set off the shelf like the Eagle set you mention. In the end you save money I think and end up with a much stronger rod. Just for kicks I found these within 5 minutes - have you ever gone with that size rod journal?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174128458536?hash=item288add6b28:g:WSgAAOSwZBheneZJ


Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I run both the 2.000" & 2.100" journals on the Ford Y cranks without issue. When going the 2.000" route I will target for a 1.810" journal width and then narrow the rods accordingly for 0.020" side clearance. The narrower rod bearings are available as an off the shelf item so that part of the process becomes relatively easy.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Danny, When John built my engine ( 16-18 ) years ago he went to the 1.88 rod journals, Still has the original bearings after any quarter mile runs and 13,000 street miles. Idles at 65 # cold and 30 # hot with 30 wt oil. Runs close to 70# at 2000 RPM cruise. 

We do make a 312 length H- beam rod that take 2.0" buick bearing, stock big end width, no need to widen rod throw and set up for .912" pin.  We mainly use then for making 292 cranks into 312 stroke, We do have short compression ht. pistons for stroking 312 cranks as well.  Early versions of this rod were I- beam and made by the same vendor that made our heavy duty replacement rods (no longer available).
 We just got the new H beams in stock. 

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico