Bent pushrods

[HerronScott]

Looks like $350-$450 for a crankshaft on eBay excluding shipping. There's one block on eBay for $275 which would give you block, crank, head, starter and valve cover but it's in PA and the seller says no shipping. :frown:

Scott

 

[tinman58]

There is a Guy here in the Bay Area that used to race TR's Same Guy that I got the head from.
It is " tufrided and nitrated and radiused (treatments intended to make the crank more durable for high stress..." what would be a fair price? P.S. I got the 87 m.m. barrels out this afternoon and cleaned out the crud in the block....

 

[CJD]

Tuftriding is a form of nitriding. The other form is ion nitriding. The most useful durability is from shot peening. Unfortunatly, you have to choose one treatment, as another will not improve the previous. If you machine the crank, though, the treatment is removed, but can be redone.

For a blown car I'd recommend peening first, ion nitriding, and then tuftriding. I can give more detail if you are interest in any of it...

John

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Just for curosity, that guy with the crank, would it happen to be Hardy Prentice, I used to race with him at the runoffs back in the 80s, he had the fastest TR3 race car, I'm pretty sure he won a championship with it in the early 90s, if it is Hardy, he real good people, and you can trust whatever he tells you.

Tuffriting and nitriting are surface hardening treatments, they normally impregnate the crank's metal about .030" and are use to make for good crank journal wear. Most all factory cranks had some sort of surface hardening process done to them, and it is retained down to .020/.020, if you have to go to .030/.30, then you compromised the hardening and there are companies they will reharden the crank for you, Ion nitriting is popular these days because it's less work, David Anton at APT offers this, than the traditional salt bath type nitriting, where the crank has to be restraighten after the process, also the journals have to re polished as well. The radius that is referred to is done during crank grinding, it is normal, and comes from the factory that way, but they are many crank grnders that butcher cranks, so having a good crank grinder who put the proper filet radius back into the journal is key to crankshaft life, without it, a strees riser is created and cranks crack at the journal because of non existent filet radiuses. I'd say 80% of the cracked crankshafts I have seen in my life were a result of the crank being ground undersize from standard by a shotty crank grinding job where the filet radius was not kept proper.

Oh and that head combustion chamber photo, looks like a recessed exhaust valve from where I'm sitting, and that head does not have hardened exhaust seat inserts, so time to think about getting that done as well.

 

[billspit]

Hardy Prentice was (and still is in my book) THE man. He used to flat tow his TR3 across the country to the runoffs behind an E-Type Jag.

 

[TR3driver]

Looks like $350-$450 for a crankshaft on eBay excluding shipping.

Wow! I had no idea.

Dan, if you are interested in picking up a complete engine near LA, email me. It definitely needs a complete overhaul, but I'd like to find a home for the engine that was in TS39781LO (and running obviously) when it got wrecked. Crank has never been ground and I'm pretty sure (but won't guarantee) that it will clean up at .010". And it still ran as good after the accident as before (I drove the car home and to two different body shops before removing it).

I've also got a couple of blocks that are going to the scrap yard eventually. Both are probably usable, although one is missing part of the starter flange. Free to anyone willing to cart them away.

Oh, and +1 on Hardy.

 

[tinman58]

Hap Thanks for the info. Now I understand a lot more about cranks.
The Guys name is John Baker, He has a race TR4 in the Garage one of the fastes back in his day of racing Put's out 190 hp at the rear wheels. Looks awesome too...
This is what he wrote back to me on the crank.


the one I have in mind has been preped for competition use, I believe its 10/10, its been in storage for many years and is dirty, though I took some croakus cloth to the journals last night and they look excellent... I can clean it up for you (or have it done) and provide rods and main bearings for 450.00 or you can do it yourself for 400.00... as I said this crank has been tuf-rided and nitrated for hardness and properly radiused by sammy hale cranks and is superior to a stock crank serviced by a machine shop.. and the rod and main bearings and thrust washers are easily valued at over 100.00.


I think it is a good deal

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Dan sounds like you found the right guy to get a crank from. If it is drop in ready as claimed, then you would spend that or more with what he has done. I double check the journal sizes, and make sure your rods, at minimum are resized to the have the right clearence with those journal sizes, I like .0015" on my street engines, as you know too much clearence can mean lower oil pressure. I guess you guys can get tri metal bearing for this engine, and that for usre would be what I would want for it, being this guy is a racer, then thats probably all he uses. You just want to confirm the journal sizes, because some times racers with the extra clearence needed for a race engine will go below journal spec ranges to get that additional clearence.

 

[tinman58]

Thanks for the info Hap. I wish that your shop was a little closer to the Pacific ocean. I am happy that I found this guy with the parts I need and his experancie in racing. Today is my anniversary so I better wait until Friday to drive up and get the crank.

 

[Monkeywrench]

Picking at details, but I'd like to see that '190whp' dyno graph.

Stock crank means a 6500rpm redline. It does sound like you're being offered a good deal though.