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Searley

X-Flow 200in Forged Conrods

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Hello Fellow Fordys,Hope you're all going well and getting "Back To Normal" I'm Curious about the Forged Factory ConRods that appear to exist only on the 200 cu X-flow and pre-crossflow I think.Are they Better than the others? Are they worth useing in other performance applications? I look forward to reading your Replys. On another Note years ago (decade) I was surfing the net on Ford Performance sites for the 250 X-Flow and there was a Bloke who seemed to be a X-Flow Black-Art Guru Wizard who for $1500.00 each a Pop would exchange a Carby Inlet Manifold or a Cast Exhaust Manifold that would in return give so-called remarkable HP Performance increases.Everything looked the Same on the outside,no visible mods etc yet he was $Chargeing $1500.00  a Pop for each just exchange over.I've got it recorded somewhere on a Usb stick or a old PC.Does anyone have any knowledge of this bloke and what he did?I suspect he either Bored out the Inner workings a bit or soaked the insides with strong acid.Anyway Have a Good Great and Happy and Safe Weekend.And Watch out for "The Empty Headed Steering Wheel Attendants" ie TEHSWA.Best Regards Searley

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there's a piston (used to be available, may still be) to fit 200 conrods in a 250, gives a better rod ratio than the stock piston/rod  not sure on strength, there'd be a few on here who'd used them. slydog from memory was using the 250 rod ratio without any issue anyway and makes bulk power(read his thread)

 

i think the speedway guys used to slice an inlet manifold in half, port the bejesus out of them and weld them back together.. "stock"  but later i saw somewhere someone had recast them using a stock one as a pattern  with better flow design.. they'd be extinct i'd guess now

 

never heard of the exhaust manifold being done, but those speedway guys needing to keep them "stock" would be right up on the rules and limits of stock parts

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As far as I know, until they developed the powdered-metal rods that you see in most engines now, all conrods were forged. I can't see Ford going to the trouble of making a separate set of conrods (for an economy engine) using a completely different manufacturing method to the garden variety 250 rods.

200 rods are nothing special in a metallurgical sense. They are just longer and are used in some 250 builds to somewhat correct the high rod angle.

As a guide, forged components will have a wider parting line than cast. It's the rough ridge down the side of the conrod's beam. It will be 5-10mm wide vs only a mm or two for cast. This was a sure-fire way of identifying forged cranks. The difference comes from moulds being liquid-tight so the halves are very close together (hence the narrow parting line). Forging dies just hammer out the final shape from a series of progressive dies while the metal is in a plastic (pliable) but not liquid state.

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Hello Fellow Fordys,Hope you're all going well and getting "Back To Normal" I'm Curious about the Forged Factory ConRods that appear to exist only on the 200 cu X-flow and pre-crossflow I think.Are they Better than the others? Are they worth useing in other performance applications? I look forward to reading your Replys. On another Note years ago (decade) I was surfing the net on Ford Performance sites for the 250 X-Flow and there was a Bloke who seemed to be a X-Flow Black-Art Guru Wizard who for $1500.00 each a Pop would exchange a Carby Inlet Manifold or a Cast Exhaust Manifold that would in return give so-called remarkable HP Performance increases.Everything looked the Same on the outside,no visible mods etc yet he was $Chargeing $1500.00  a Pop for each just exchange over.I've got it recorded somewhere on a Usb stick or a old PC.Does anyone have any knowledge of this bloke and what he did?I suspect he either Bored out the Inner workings a bit or soaked the insides with strong acid.Anyway Have a Good Great and Happy and Safe Weekend.And Watch out for "The Empty Headed Steering Wheel Attendants" ie TEHSWA.Best Regards Searley
Re: the ported manifolds
@ando76 has had much experience with speedway stock classes, he would be familiar with this process. Some have been known to cut open the stock inlet manifold, port it out as they please, weld it all back together, smooth it over and carefully peen it with a hammer and 60 grit emery cloth. This gave a factory "as cast" appearance.

The method that was used a lot in the States but I haven't heard of being done here is extrude honing. They basically pump silly putty that's impregnated with abrasives, through the ports under high pressure until a certain amount of metal is removed and a decent surface finish has been achieved. They did this a lot with 5.0 Mustang manifolds as they were so long in the runners that porting was impossible. They would pick up quite a lot of power doing this, maybe 40 hp or so. It's a redundant process nowadays because it's much cheaper to just buy a good 5.0 manifold in the first place.

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7 hours ago, deankdx said:

there's a piston (used to be available, may still be) to fit 200 conrods in a 250, gives a better rod ratio than the stock piston/rod  not sure on strength, there'd be a few on here who'd used them. slydog from memory was using the 250 rod ratio without any issue anyway and makes bulk power(read his thread)

 

i think the speedway guys used to slice an inlet manifold in half, port the bejesus out of them and weld them back together.. "stock"  but later i saw somewhere someone had recast them using a stock one as a pattern  with better flow design.. they'd be extinct i'd guess now

 

never heard of the exhaust manifold being done, but those speedway guys needing to keep them "stock" would be right up on the rules and limits of stock parts

Thanks Mate,That helps join the Dots a lot more,Vely Interesting.I wonder which Speedway Guy was the 1st to Spark this in their Noodle?

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6 hours ago, gerg said:

Re: the ported manifolds
@ando76 has had much experience with speedway stock classes, he would be familiar with this process. Some have been known to cut open the stock inlet manifold, port it out as they please, weld it all back together, smooth it over and carefully peen it with a hammer and 60 grit emery cloth. This gave a factory "as cast" appearance.

The method that was used a lot in the States but I haven't heard of being done here is extrude honing. They basically pump silly putty that's impregnated with abrasives, through the ports under high pressure until a certain amount of metal is removed and a decent surface finish has been achieved. They did this a lot with 5.0 Mustang manifolds as they were so long in the runners that porting was impossible. They would pick up quite a lot of power doing this, maybe 40 hp or so. It's a redundant process nowadays because it's much cheaper to just buy a good 5.0 manifold in the first place.

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Thanks Mate,Its starting to make Sense now and Takes away the "Black Art Mystery Guru Crap"!

 

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6 hours ago, gerg said:

As far as I know, until they developed the powdered-metal rods that you see in most engines now, all conrods were forged. I can't see Ford going to the trouble of making a separate set of conrods (for an economy engine) using a completely different manufacturing method to the garden variety 250 rods.

200 rods are nothing special in a metallurgical sense. They are just longer and are used in some 250 builds to somewhat correct the high rod angle.

As a guide, forged components will have a wider parting line than cast. It's the rough ridge down the side of the conrod's beam. It will be 5-10mm wide vs only a mm or two for cast. This was a sure-fire way of identifying forged cranks. The difference comes from moulds being liquid-tight so the halves are very close together (hence the narrow parting line). Forging dies just hammer out the final shape from a series of progressive dies while the metal is in a plastic (pliable) but not liquid state.

Sent from my CPH1920 using Tapatalk
 

Thanks Mate,That clarifys things a bit.For some reason every time I was reading about a Hotted 250 X-Flow I'd see "And its got Forged 200 Conrods which made me think that 200s were made with Special Conrods but they were'nt.Whew Thank God I did'nt dismantle all those 200 cu/in motors from U-Pull-It just for the Conrods!

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Thanks Mate,That clarifys things a bit.For some reason every time I was reading about a Hotted 250 X-Flow I'd see "And its got Forged 200 Conrods which made me think that 200s were made with Special Conrods but they were'nt.Whew Thank God I did'nt dismantle all those 200 cu/in motors from U-Pull-It just for the Conrods!
Funny enough, there are some people who go hunting for them. As 200s and 3.3s weren't too common, it's a bit of a find when you do come across them. If I was going to build a stout 250, I would probably go that way if pistons were still available.

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