Flathead Rod
- Thread starter Chipg56
- Start date
FlatheadsForever87
Member
Stock raptor rods dont have bearings. I have a ton of lightly sued ones if you need one or two. Not sure on sizes can find out if you need me too
XXX#40
2A supporter
Stock raptor rods are the reason the billet rod was allowed in flathead, they were imported from china and vented plenty of blocks
Remember it well, in fact my brother lost one not even racing, running slow laps drying off the track. Going so slow it didn't ruin the block.
CarlsonMotorsports
Site Supporter
Short history on the Briggs rods:
Earlier rods were made here in the states and the problem we had was actually breaking the stock steel dipper due to vibration and increased rpm.
Then we were allowed stamped and/or heat treated stock dippers. Then came the aftermarket steel dippers.
Soon after, we were allowed billet aluminum dippers. I designed one of the very first ones. Shortly thereafter, there were dozens of copies of that dipper, as well as much cheaper to produce injection molded plastic dippers.
It was when I approached B&S to offer our billet dippers for all of their product line, that they convinced their casting company to change their mold to include a dipper cast into the rod cap. That change saved the company millions of dollars and nixed my business plan to become a millionaire. LOL
The next problem was that the new cast rod dipper was too long and hit the bottom of the block at high rpm (and you guessed it, broke.) Sometimes you got lucky and it just broke the very tip of it off (and was found at the next oil change.) For this reason, the rules people allowed us to purposely "break" the bottom of the dipper off, or to continue using the old style rod with add-on dipper.
The casting at some point then moved to China and the finish on the rods looked considerably smoother. Unfortunately smoother was not better in this case. That's when we started seeing rods break -- that, coupled with the desire to turn more and more rpm with these little engines.
The challenge was to "find" good cast rods by hanging them from a string and striking them with a spoon or metal object and listening for the resulting ring. (That's where we are with other factory engine cast rods being used today, btw.)
Then, after seeing all the broken rods and the outcry from racers and engine builders alike, WKA allowed billet rods.
As the rpms continued to increase, so did the price. In addition to that rod progression - there's a similar progression of more aggressive slapper camshafts, aftermarket springs, billet lifters, heat treated retainers, welding and chamfering of lifter bores, back facing the spring chamber...(that was pretty much all in a year and a half!)
The engine topped out at around $1500 at the time and basically took two 12 hour days for the avg. professional shop to build.
Today, clones require MUCH less work and are bringing the same money, but can be done 2 in a day (according to some I know on the clone building side.) They have seen a very similar progression in rpm with spring and cam technology...but are still stuck with a $6 Chinese connecting rod that occasionally goes boom.
-----
Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Carlson Motorsports on Facebook
32 years of service to the karting industry ~ 1Cor 9:24
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
Earlier rods were made here in the states and the problem we had was actually breaking the stock steel dipper due to vibration and increased rpm.
Then we were allowed stamped and/or heat treated stock dippers. Then came the aftermarket steel dippers.
Soon after, we were allowed billet aluminum dippers. I designed one of the very first ones. Shortly thereafter, there were dozens of copies of that dipper, as well as much cheaper to produce injection molded plastic dippers.
It was when I approached B&S to offer our billet dippers for all of their product line, that they convinced their casting company to change their mold to include a dipper cast into the rod cap. That change saved the company millions of dollars and nixed my business plan to become a millionaire. LOL
The next problem was that the new cast rod dipper was too long and hit the bottom of the block at high rpm (and you guessed it, broke.) Sometimes you got lucky and it just broke the very tip of it off (and was found at the next oil change.) For this reason, the rules people allowed us to purposely "break" the bottom of the dipper off, or to continue using the old style rod with add-on dipper.
The casting at some point then moved to China and the finish on the rods looked considerably smoother. Unfortunately smoother was not better in this case. That's when we started seeing rods break -- that, coupled with the desire to turn more and more rpm with these little engines.
The challenge was to "find" good cast rods by hanging them from a string and striking them with a spoon or metal object and listening for the resulting ring. (That's where we are with other factory engine cast rods being used today, btw.)
Then, after seeing all the broken rods and the outcry from racers and engine builders alike, WKA allowed billet rods.
As the rpms continued to increase, so did the price. In addition to that rod progression - there's a similar progression of more aggressive slapper camshafts, aftermarket springs, billet lifters, heat treated retainers, welding and chamfering of lifter bores, back facing the spring chamber...(that was pretty much all in a year and a half!)
The engine topped out at around $1500 at the time and basically took two 12 hour days for the avg. professional shop to build.
Today, clones require MUCH less work and are bringing the same money, but can be done 2 in a day (according to some I know on the clone building side.) They have seen a very similar progression in rpm with spring and cam technology...but are still stuck with a $6 Chinese connecting rod that occasionally goes boom.
-----
Thanks and God bless,Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Carlson Motorsports on Facebook
32 years of service to the karting industry ~ 1Cor 9:24
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
FlatheadsForever87
Member
We always ran a stock rod up until we ran out of track in 2010. 6800 ram with 04 3 cam. Never had a problem? Wonder why?
XXX#40
2A supporter
96-3
7x
7x-ez 71-7200 rpms.
Don't see how you didn't end up with one, rebuilt every 3 race weekends odds were you were going to end up with a bad one.
But there were lucky ones, we lost one of the best engines we had.
Last edited:
combative hodaka
Member
I never had any failures even with my Fred Sanford one race specials...In my Biggs catacombs i have some of the Cryo treated rods NOS .