1275 crank casting #?

[aeronca65t]

This may be a shot in the dark.

A friend of mine just called and asked if I have access the crankshaft casting number on either of my 1275s.

He's ordering a reground crank from Storm Crank and they need this number. The original crank is stored about 100 miles away and he did not think to copy the number.

Anyway, neither of my 1275s are apart right now. Both of them are buttoned up and I do not intend to take either one apart until I finish my twin-cam Escort project.

Sooo....anyone have a 1275 crank with the casting number?

Thanks.

 

[JerryB]

Crank flange tells the tale.....6 bolts.

 

[Bugeye58]

Nial, I have in my hands right now, an original, NOS, 1275 crank. (Yup, you read that right.)

Here are the numbers I can pull from it.

On the counterweight between #1 & #2 rods:
80F3117U2

On the counterweight between #3 & #4 rods:
12G1321
EN16T

I suspect it will be the 12G1321 number that will do the trick.
Jeff

 

[Bugeye58]

Crank flange tells the tale.....6 bolts.

Not necessarily, Jerry. It will tell you if it's a 1275 or not, but, it could be an EN40B crank rather than the more common EN16T version.
Jeff

 

[aeronca65t]

Thank You very much!

And I think you're right....it's the "12G1321" number that is needed.

 

[Bugeye58]

Nial, if his original crank happens to be an EN40B version, tell him not to send it in for a core!
Jeff

 

[Hap Waldrop]

They are basiclly two

EN16T, tuffrited, pretty common, #12G1321, everything from sometime in 1968 to the end of the 1275 inline production run

EN40B, factory nitrited, harder steel #AEG566, these are the holy grail of A-series cranks, they only made a few for about a year and a half, so these are coming out of 67-68 models only.

Sounds like you have a EN16T, both are good race cranks, most of my race engine are made using EN16Ts as well as most others, in fact if I stumble across a EN40B, I sell them to the Spridget freaks, who pay big money for them, and use that money to build my engine with /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Bottom line, don't waste your time, trying to find a EN40B, they are fairly rare ( I have three in the shop right now), that's problaby 30% of loose stock in North America /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[Bugeye58]

Hap, the crank I was pulling the numbers from is brand spanking new. Still wrapped in the grease cloth from BMC.
Lee Mueller gave it to me a few years ago when he was doing some house cleaning. (That, and the limited slip diff from one of the original LeMans Spitfires.)
The crank in the current 948 is a Moldex, but if I succumb to the 1275 hybrid fad, my guess is that the EN16T crank will be plenty.
Jeff

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Oh, yeah EN16T cranks have more championships than you can shake a stick at. So you knew Lee Mueller (he is deceased,isn't he) , we need to talk sometime about the Huffaker MGB, you probably know I done a ton of research on them.

 

[Bugeye58]

Hap, Lee and I went back a long way. Yes, he died a few years back.
I remember when he was driving the 'B' before Terry (Visger) took over. Jon Woodner was driving the Midget about then. We all had a lot of fun together.
That 948 in the car I took the clutch bleeder pictures of tonight is one of Joes.
Jeff

 

[aeronca65t]

Wow...interesting reading!

The crank my friend asked about is the original in a '72 Midget, so I doubt it's the harder one....but I'll be sure he checks.

By the by, one of my 1275 engines *may* have the nitrided crank. It came in my '67 Sprite and in '68, Hank Thorpe told me it "most likely" was the nitrided job.
To tell you the truth, I've renewed the bearings in it twice and the crank always miked-out good. I never bothered to check the crank numbers (it's always been a street engine). Right now it's sitting in the Austin 7 Special replica I'm building. I'll have to drop the pan one of these days and actually look.

My other 1275 is a low-mileage '73 that's going in #11. It runs fine, but it'll get a re-bore, re-cut crank, a mild cam and 10:1 pistons. Then I'll use it for vintage (the 1500 I have now isn't truly legal, but the VRG guys have been cutting me some slack about this). I have some plans for the 1500 I'm pulling out too....my minds always working.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Hap, Lee and I went back a long way. Yes, he died a few years back.
I remember when he was driving the 'B' before Terry (Visger) took over. Jon Woodner was driving the Midget about then. We all had a lot of fun together.
That 948 in the car I took the clutch bleeder pictures of tonight is one of Joes.
Jeff

Jeff, here's a pic for old time sake, Lee at the wheel of the Huffaker factory TR7. I just recently (a year ago) help sell the red #10 Huffaker MGB, Lee drove to a 2nd place finish in the 1978 runoffs.

 

[jlaird]

Oh?

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Jeff mentioned a Moldex crank in his 948 race engine. Billet cranks are alowed in SCCA racing. Since the 948 crankshaft was made out of the softest metal of a all the A-series cranks, it was failure point on thes motor under race conditions, and since alot of guys are turning these motors 9000+ rpms with 16 to 1+ cpmpressio ratio, the billet crank is considered a wise investment on a 948 race motor. Here's one for you all to look at it, it was brand new in this photo, I built this motor for a guy a few years back. These cranks are truely a work of art.

 

[drooartz]

Drooling on keyboard...

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Here's another billet crank, with a heck of a story. THis vintage racer came to me with a engine he had bought form another racer, he had never been inside of the motor, but knew it had a billet crank. He was racing at Road Atlanta and slung a flywheel at full song (probably 8000 rpms) it totlaly destroyed the flywheel hub portion of the crankshaft. The customer told me to use a stock 1275 crank and trick it out for a replacment for this motor. Well upon disassemly, I realized right quick with one look at the crank, this was a de-stroked motor and this crank was vvery special, alng with the 6" carrillo rods and the very short deck pistons on this engine, it was going to take different rod and pistons. So switching to stock stroke crank was not a option, Fardon Engineering is who made the crank to begin with, they told me it would take atleast 8 months to get a new one made, and if went back to stock length rods and diffenrent compression hieght piston, you talking about a fair amount of money. Well it turns out that a 2.3 Ford dirt track engine builder was using Toyota cranks in 2.3 Ford to make them a stroker and part of the operation was turning the entire flywheel hub off the Toyota crank and add back 4130 weld very slowly until they got enough metal there to remachine the glob of metal to be a 2.3 flywheel hub on the Toyota crank, pretty wild huh? Anyway I got a hold og thes folks and told me they could fix this crank, now keep in mind the flywheel hub was all chewed up and completely destroyed. I sent them the stroker Fardon bilet crank, a stock 1275 and stock flywheel to measure off. Bottom line they truned the entire flywheel hub off the crank and recreated it. It just goes to prove anyhting can be done, that was 4 years ago and the motor is still going strong. Here's a few pics of the crank after it was fixedm this one still blows my mind. This repair wasn't cheap as you could imagine, but still far less than a new crank and alot quicker.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Another one of the repaired flywheel hub. Notice the slight color change in the metal just in front of where you see the end of the threads for the flywheel bolts, from the point back everything was recreated.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Here's one of the entire crankshaft

 

[jlaird]

Gota love you shareing the pics.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

In response to the above post about the billet cranks, that's one thing about being the bizz, you get to see it all. I'm pretty much a budget racer, I learned where to spend my money and where not to, learning how to build racing engines in the beginning was nothing more than a means of being able to afford to race and win. I never even considered racing a 948 in HP because of the need for a billet crank. I accumulated alot of nice stuff over the years for my racing, but it's all come mostly by my own work and alot of creative horsetrading. Alot of the stuff i work on, I could never afford, but atleast I get to see it firsthand and ecide if it is worth the investment. I frst learned how to do modify 1275 connectiong rods, because I couldn't afford Carrillos. here's a before and after pic of my 1275 connecting rods.