Transplant - Bearings

[Jim Davies]

On Sun, 2 May 1999, Dave Williams wrote:

> 
> -> Please explain the term "floating rod bearings"......... I've
> -> never heard it before...... The only "floating rod bearings" I've
> -> experienced are those which spin between the bearing and the
> -> rod.......... Definitely a bad deal.... forshadows doom!
> 
>  Ford went to an insert bearing on the flathead, but the rod bearings
> were strange - they were babbitted on both sides, and floated in between
> the crankshaft and rod.  Later they went to conventional interference
> fit bearings.  The hot-rodders of the day claimed there was little
> difference between the floating and interference bearings.  I've found
> no detailed technical information on why Ford chose to do the floating
> bearings instead of interference bearings, or why they changed.  I
> suspect it had something to do with cost, as the flathead V8 was
> rigorously designed down to a price.
> 
I have run across a set of used boxed rods for a 354 Chrysler hemi that
were modified to use floating rod bearings. These were used in a fueler.
Ford also used this style of rod bearing in the GAA and GAF V8 tank
engines. Whether they were also used in the original V-12 A/C engine
I don't know. Maybe this is like the offset versus fork-and-blade con rod
designs, where costs seemed to dictate the winner but there does not seem
to be any documentation on tests etc.