Ford - cast iron RACING crankshaft

[jonners]

Before any of you accuse me of being completely nuts please be assured that i am not talking about standard crossflow cast iron crankshafts.

My crank is a genuine Ford AVO crossflow Mk1 Fiesta crank - homologated for the so called Monte Carlo Fiesta driven by Ari Vatanen.

It's a proper racing crank - with counterbalance weights and cross drilled.

It's very obviously not made of the same cast iron as a standard production item and my race engineer (my Father) who is very old school (because he's even older than me) tells me tales about how cast iron - to the right specification - was used in aerospace long before Ford watchers decided (rightly) that it's sensible to dispose of the standard crank and go for a steel one if you want to go racing.

This crank just looks different and my Father tells me that very superior cast iron is a very suitable material for a racing crankshaft.

I also believe that Ford sold these cranks in vast quantities to the Hot Rod fraternity who had to comply with rules that required use of cranks made from the same material as the standard crank in the engine used. I believe that in Hot Rod racing these cranks were revved to 8500 rpm all day long - can anyone out there verify this?? Any old Hot Rodders out there from the right era??

So - my question - is this crank suitable for circuit racing?

I know all about the reasons why standard Ford crossflow (infact all Kent engine cranks) are unsuitable for racing but this is a different kettle of fish - am just finding it hard to accept that cast iron could be ok even tho my very highly qualified aerospace engineer father tells me it's fine.

Views????

[GORDON STREETER]

I can confirm that we used to rev most of those 1500/1600 Kent engines to 8500 in the old hot rod days and very rarely had a problem.
A well built 711M with a STD crank will put up with a fair bit of grief and I personally haven't seen one break unless it's been in a blow up or a FF where the flywheel continually hits the track starting a fracture.
As for "all day long" don't forget that hot rods are on and off the loud pedal all the time on the ovals so the dreaded resonance that causes a fracture to start is minimised. IIRC there were loads of cranks released by Ford for homologation purposes that even got into normal road cars on the assembly line in the day.

[tzei]

If Mr. A. Vatanen has already abused it (or one alike) and it survived i'd say you are good to go.

[zefarelly]

as long as its well balanced it'll be fine . . . I use std Twin cam cranks and 1600 crossflow cranks and never had a problem revving to 7600 typically and to 8000 if I'm in a rush. making sure its balanced and running smoothly is key, same goes for anything else nailed to it.

[greenamex2]

A standard late Toyota 4a-ge cast iron crank will rev to 8000RPM+ all day without issue so I can't see why not.

[zefarelly]

for 99% of applications its all over by 7500 anyway, so use it!

[Notso Swift]

Originally Posted by Denis Bassom

A standard late Toyota 4a-ge cast iron crank will rev to 8000RPM+ all day without issue so I can't see why not.

Aren't they factory forged? (Like most 80's Performance Jap gear) Or did they change when the went to big journals
Either way you never hear of problems with them