Ok please hear me out before the stoning begins..
I bought a set of pistons to replace mine that were damaged in my All-Out engine explosion.. Problem turns out that upon arrival the JE pistons have a .927 wrist pin ( std sml blk chv) well after an exhausting search i found very few manufact. that make a mopar rod with that smll pin. A well respected Mopar drag racer and engine builder recommened that I take a 6.125 sml blk chevy rod and have my crank ( that i am going to have to have turned down anyway) turned down to a chevy journal size and then go to "Wal-Mart"
and take you pick of rods. Any feelings ??? recomendations ??

Id do it, I plan on taking a 6.250 chevy rod and having a custom piston put on top since I have a 340 crank thats .040 under already.

My combo runs 6.250 rods with chevy pins. You will have to narrow the big end of the chevy rods, or have the surface of the rod journals ground wider. I reccomend narrowing the rods, grinding the crank wider will make it weaker.

I have run Chevy sized rods previously and am doing it with my turbo build using 6.200 rods. You will also have a lighter piston/rod combo. My current bob weight is only 1808 grams!

It is pretty easy in that you just have to have your crank cut for the 2.100 journal size and the machinist can set your deck height at the same time! As for thinning the rods, you don't have to do that. Just cut the crank and you will also give it a nice chamfer for the bearings. You will have about .035 side clearance which is fine.

Look around and you can find a lot of rods for a good price!

yeap I am running a 6.125 chevy rod in my 416 strocker

We have one going together now using 5.4 ford mod motor rods. Pretty typical to use whatever you need to make it work.

Chevy rods is the best way to go for a bunch of reasons. Better selection, lower prices, better choices for bearings, more pin choices, etc.

Chevy rods are extremely common in custom builds. And as stated above the selection is great and price is even better. They don't put bowties on the rods so if any of your friends see your parts they won't be the wiser....

Sidebar question: Do you have to do grind the rods if you use the callies crank that is the Chevy journal size?

No, if the crank is cut for 2.100" rods then it will already be a wider cut.

THE RODS YOU GUYS ARE SPEAKING OF ARE NOT CHEVY RODS UNLESS YOU BUY THEM FROM GM.

I was pretty sure Eagle made several rods with a chrysler sized big end and a .927 little end. You could always bush your chrysler sized rod down to .927 if you already have rods. Steel rods with a 2.100 big end allow more clearance in stroker applications and are lighter. But you cut premium hardened material off the crank to switch over to the smaller journal. Unlike cranks that are made for that journal. I have a set of C&A alluminum rods for chrysler with .927 pins. Common rod.

Leon

" But you cut premium hardened material off the crank to switch over to the smaller journal"

Leon, while I agree with that, at what levels do you think this will jeopardize the crank?

Another possibility is to machine the 2.1 big end into a 2.125 Mopar big end, and use the Mopar bearings. Not much is needed to be machined out, so weakening the rod is not an issue. Use an adjustable boring bar on a milling machine, leave a few thousands for honing, and check in a straightness fixture when done. The slot for the bearing tab can be made bigger with a dremel. But if crank needs to be reground, then it is way simpler to grind it down, leave the width and narrow the 2,1 rods. My

Why not just stick a bushing in your rod and be done with it?

Let me run some statistics on this engine build and what we are up against. The pistons were special ordered, made by JE, for a mopar 340 and the "chevy" size pin. The individual who ordered the pistons had the same problem, no rods with that pin and he did not take the pistons. I bought the pistons at a deal. Thirty years ago we would swap rods and do all kinds of things.

Issue number one. Don't want to offend anyone here because a lot of good information is available from the members of MOPARTS and all help given to us is appreciated. I have looked at catalogs and made untold number of phone calls to rod manufacturers, Eagle,Lunati,Crower,Carrella, G&R, etc. with no luck with a mopar dimension rod with the small chevy pin.

Issue number two. To the machine shop to have the little ends of the rods re-bushed. No bushing material in any catalogue that has the correct outside diameter to fit the Chrysler end and an inside diameter that can even be honed to the correct "chevy" size. Only suggestion was to buy brass and take it to a tool and die shop and pay the cost to have bushings custom made and installed.

We talked with a famous old time MOPAR builder and decided to look at a "chevy" rod. I have read all of the suggestion and appreciate all of the suggestions. Here are some numbers. Rods are available from every rod manufacturer with the small "chevy" pin and the standard "chevy" big end. Now to the crankshaft. A standard Mopar 340 crankshaft measures 1.862 inside to inside crank journal. Mopar Performance steel,shot peened and bushed rods measure 0.914, two rods plus 0.035 rod clearance equals 1.862. Two "chevy" large and small journal rods, 6.125 long measure 0.945 each plus the 0.035 rod clearance equals 1.926 that is 0.064 too wide for the Mopar crank journal.

As I see this situation we need to get the "chevy" rods 6.125 long with the 2.10 big end diameter and have the sides of the rods ground 0.064 total which means 0.016 off of each side of the two rods. Other alternative is to grind the 0.032 from each face of the crankshaft journal.

While we are talking connection rods and combos, there is a speed parts shop in Hunterville, NC which buys left overs from all of the NASCAR shops. You can get some real deals here if you know what you want. Went there looking for rods. 90% of the engine parts here are made for Ford and Chevy, remaining are pontiac, oldsmobile and buick. There were racks of connecting rods bundle together in groups of 8 and tagged. Most of there rods are 5.50 and 6.125 with crankshaft ends measuring 1.50, 1.55, 1.75, yes you guessed it these are Honda and Toyota crankshaft dimensions.

As an update FWIW, I finally installed the piston/rods in my block and measured side clearance of .018, .021, .013, .019

After cutting the crank for the smaller journal, the shop mocked up the rods and determined that there is no need to grind on the rods.

I made a few calls....You're welcome

With the airospace industry slowing down lately. The bushing they don't sell a lot of are hard to justify stocking. Not saying you can't get a steel rod Mopar big end and .927 little end but it may be a challenge. Basically they have taken that option out on steel rods. You can readily do it with alluminum but then you get into a rod bearing problem as Akerly and Childs is the only place I know selling an HD bearing for SBM.

All this said turn the crank down to 2.100" and widen the journal to fit the GM bearing size. Don't like to but its been done successfully for years.

Leon

6.300" chevy rod in my lump It works just fine. In fact, the Chrysler rod was not an option since my Callies crank came in a 2.100" rod throw anyway. The chevy dimensions give you more flexibility on parts to make combinations.

-Kenny