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I have a .030 over '74 440 that threw a rod in 2004. I have been tempted to buy a single new piston and a reconditioned connecting rod and screw the motor back together.
I am aware of the heavy six pack rods and their excessive mass, though I don't recall ever seeing them up close. I'm curious about the standard 4 barrel rods, since the short block I have was originally in a police car.
A side note: I am a little hesistant to use any of the rods in this 440 since it seems to have been a cursed engine. Besides breaking a rod, one of the rocker shafts from this motor snapped while in yet another motor. THAT was interesting... immediate loss of oil pressure and power after 4 lifters popped out of their holes!

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I have a .030 over '74 440 that threw a rod in 2004. I have been tempted to buy a single new piston and a reconditioned connecting rod and screw the motor back together.
I am aware of the heavy six pack rods and their excessive mass, though I don't recall ever seeing them up close. I'm curious about the standard 4 barrel rods, since the short block I have was originally in a police car.
A side note: I am a little hesistant to use any of the rods in this 440 since it seems to have been a cursed engine. Besides breaking a rod, one of the rocker shafts from this motor snapped while in yet another motor. THAT was interesting... immediate loss of oil pressure and power after 4 lifters popped out of their holes!

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Unless the rods are really beat, the stock 440 rods are extremely tough. Chances are they broke from other factors (rod bolts, succumbing to detonation, rod bearing problems due to oiling issues, etc.)

There are only two rods. The six pack or heavy duty rods and the standard rods. Personally, I'm not a real fan of the 6 pack rods since they are a lot of extra weight for no real benefit. All the extra metal is in the beams. Typically the week point is in the broached area for the rod bolts. This is one of the benefits of rods that use cap screws instead of bolts.

I would have the other rods checked. If the check ok, I would replace the broken one. If more are on their way out it might be cheaper to invest in some aftermarket H beam rods. With this being a 74 engine, it probably has a cast crank so an after market rod will probably necessitate re-balancing. At that point it might also make more sense to replace the crank with a steel one.

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I have a .030 over '74 440 that threw a rod in 2004. I have been tempted to buy a single new piston and a reconditioned connecting rod and screw the motor back together.
I am aware of the heavy six pack rods and their excessive mass, though I don't recall ever seeing them up close. I'm curious about the standard 4 barrel rods, since the short block I have was originally in a police car.
A side note: I am a little hesistant to use any of the rods in this 440 since it seems to have been a cursed engine. Besides breaking a rod, one of the rocker shafts from this motor snapped while in yet another motor. THAT was interesting... immediate loss of oil pressure and power after 4 lifters popped out of their holes!

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Unless the rods are really beat, the stock 440 rods are extremely tough. Chances are they broke from other factors (rod bolts, succumbing to detonation, rod bearing problems due to oiling issues, etc.)

There are only two rods. The six pack or heavy duty rods and the standard rods. Personally, I'm not a real fan of the 6 pack rods since they are a lot of extra weight for no real benefit. All the extra metal is in the beams. Typically the week point is in the broached area for the rod bolts. This is one of the benefits of rods that use cap screws instead of bolts.

I would have the other rods checked. If the check ok, I would replace the broken one. If more are on their way out it might be cheaper to invest in some aftermarket H beam rods. With this being a 74 engine, it probably has a cast crank so an after market rod will probably necessitate re-balancing. At that point it might also make more sense to replace the crank with a steel one.

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there was a 3rd rod. i believe it came out in '63 and was for sure used in the '64 stageIII s/s wedge engines. it had more material in the rod bolt area.

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There are several more than those two, 1969 440 6 pak had its own forging number, the LY rods and some early 413/426 street wedge rods also OP, if it is a 1970 to 1975 police car 440 it probally has the later six pak style rod in it I have a bunch of OEM LY rods, some still on pistons, I'm sure I could come up with 8 good ones, you will probally need to have the crank assembly rebalanced if you switch from the heavy rods to the LY rods

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.... A new set of quality rod bolts gives you a decent package....as far as weight, it's a heck of a lot easier to shave the 20 or 30 grams from the piston selection.

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.... A new set of quality rod bolts gives you a decent package....as far as weight, it's a heck of a lot easier to shave the 20 or 30 grams from the piston selection.

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Not trying to start anything here..............

but once you upgrade the rodbolts and reduce piston/recip. weight wouldn't a good set of LY's do the job just fine???

I know most would question the past history, but for sake of conversation lets say you has some LY's that were NOS.

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.... A new set of quality rod bolts gives you a decent package....as far as weight, it's a heck of a lot easier to shave the 20 or 30 grams from the piston selection.

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Not trying to start anything here..............

but once you upgrade the rodbolts and reduce piston/recip. weight wouldn't a good set of LY's do the job just fine???

I know most would question the past history, but for sake of conversation lets say you has some LY's that were NOS.

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They sure would, even non NOS. MoparBilly is a testament to that , pretty sure he sprayed a set for many 100's of passes ...

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Yep, ly rods would be fine...but the 906s are still stronger. Depends what you want.

Dave

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Yep, ly rods would be fine...but the 906s are still stronger. Depends what you want.

Dave

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Want? With better technology the "overkill engineering" of the 6-Pack rod is excessive mass that will slow rpm's for whatever level of pumpgas motor I'd build.

Maybe if I was going to lean on it hard with nitrous they would come in handy.

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Yep, ly rods would be fine...but the 906s are still stronger. Depends what you want.

Dave

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Want? With better technology the "overkill engineering" of the 6-Pack rod is excessive mass that will slow rpm's for whatever level of pumpgas motor I'd build.

Maybe if I was going to lean on it hard with nitrous they would come in handy.

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I want to say that a CCJ H beam rod weighs close to the 906 rod , but they are better material and bigger bolts .

For me 906 rods are for those building trailer poodles that have to have correct original parts installed where they will NEVER be seen at a car show ...

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Yep, ly rods would be fine...but the 906s are still stronger. Depends what you want.

Dave

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Want? With better technology the "overkill engineering" of the 6-Pack rod is excessive mass that will slow rpm's for whatever level of pumpgas motor I'd build.

Maybe if I was going to lean on it hard with nitrous they would come in handy.

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If you have pistons that are 100 grams lighter, the 20 grams in the rods for better strength isnt a big deal...but as john ssid there are lighter AND stronger rods available now. I still say the 906s get a bad rap that is largely undeserved. If you want to whine about stock parts, start with the pistons...or the heads!




Dave

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They made their own bad rap but the half hearted design carried out by Chrysler ..

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They could have been better, but they are still stronger than LY's. I'd rather take the weight out of the 1100 gram pistons where the weight contributes nothing than the 860 gram rods where the extra metal actually does something.


Dave