Bad experience with Eagle

[Turboholic87]

I've been slowly working on a turbo sbc for my Monte long before I got my GN. Finally got down to getting the crank and rods a few weeks ago. Of course this project is on the cheap so it was either the Eagle or Scat crank/rods. Just reading other forums on the net it seams as if Eagle was a little better in quality & popularity as well as it had features I wanted - cross drilled mains & heavy counterweights for turbo pistons. Eagle rods are definitely better designed as I've compared them with scat side by side. I decided to go with an oddball combo 3.562" stroke, 6.1" H rods for LS1, & off the shelf 1.145 JE pistons. Looks good on paper. Here's my problem:

The 6.1" LS1 rods were and still are listed in the catalog as offset w .927" pins meaning they should work in a gen 1. Called the Eagle tech line to make sure. They said yes they will work. Got the rods and noticed they were on center. What the hell? Called Eagle they said oops got to change the catalog to reflect the design change and you’ll have to deal with the vendor to get your money back. They never changed the catalog for 07. Look at PN CRS6100L3D still listed as offset even though the ones I have with the same PN are visibly on center!
http://eaglerod.com/Big_Block_Chevy.pdf

OK well the hell with the 6.1" rods I'll just go with a 3.75" stroke 6" rod that'll work with my pistons. Made the mistake by going with eagle again. The crank I ordered was a standard weight 350 main journal. The crank I got looked like swiss cheese with the gun drilled mains, large holes in all rod throws and skinny cheeks between the main/rod journals. Weighed about 48lbs instead of the 53 it was supposed to. Looked nothing like the pics on their site. The best part is the PN on the crank was originally etched with a LW suffix that someone had scratched off with an etching tool at the factory. Called eagle again and they said all their cranks are going to a new lightweight forging but are just as strong as the old ones, 1500hp easy. Ya right.

Not to sound like a know it all but I work as an engineer in engine development on diesel engines. We do bench torsional & bending fatigue testing on crank specimens and I know how and where they usually fail. There's no way these are as strong as the old style unless someone shows me some test data to prove otherwise.

Just wanted to vent my frustration with Eagle. Anyone here using their newer style crank and notice the same thing? Just make sure you do your homework if you consider their cranks or just go with a Scat or Lunati. Seams like Eagle’s ad dept needs to communicate better with the design dept.

Greg

[turbobo]

Competition Products has good (cheaper) stuff. They sell the Howards brand. You couldnt pay me to run Eagle stuff....

[Louie L.]

Ditto on CP. You cant compare Howards to Eagle. They are way better. Howards non twist, Pro-cranks forgings are USA machined by Callies with USA steel using the same hardening processes.