[Alan Roehrich]

The old 6223 forging, which many of us have used for years (we have a couple with several hundred passes on them), are a 1053 alloy twisted forging. These are the cranks originally used in most 396 and 427 high performance engines and the medium truck engine of days past. They may or may not be "TuffTrided" which was a GM trade name for nitriding. The "TuffTrided" cranks are a darker gray in color, and are a little smoother, because they may also have been shot peened and inspected, similar to the "Pink" rod and the "dimple" rod.

There is another older forging, 7415 is the correct number, I believe, that was used in the L-88 and ZL-1 engines, it is shot peened, "TuffTrided", and cross drilled.

The newer 6223 forging is 5140 steel, and it is a non twist forging. It will have a very different appearance from the earlier cranks, the forging number is "pressed in" rather than raised as it was on the old forgings. The new forgings were made for the newer medium truck engines. They are 5-7 pounds heavier than the older forgings.

Eagle makes a fairly nice 4340 forged crank for the 396 and 427. However, it is heavy, none of the rod pins are drilled, and they profile the counterweights the same as a 454 crank. The "flats" on the counterweights are cut 1/8" too close to the main journal centerline, as they would be to clear the bottom of the piston on a 4" stroke 454. This forces them to make the counterweights longer in order to offset the weight of the rod throw. That is made worse by the fact that even though GM did drill the front and rear rod pins, Eagle does not drill any of them, even though the rest of their forged cranks have all four rod pins drilled. I got one of their very first NHRA approved cranks. It works okay, but I was very plain spoken and critical when I called them and told them what I thought of it. They were polite and said those were valid criticisms. I doubt they'll do anything about it.

Callies should have their crankshafts for Stock Eliminator ready soon, if they are not already.

Remember, just because a crank is approved for Super Stock does not mean it will pass tech in Stock Eliminator. Some of the "off the shelf" crankshafts that are approved for Super Stock have "options" that are NOT legal in Stock Eliminator. We have a Bullett prepped GM 6223 forging that is a super nice piece, and was bought for Super Stock, it is NOT acceptable for Stock Eliminator according to 2-3 tech inspectors I asked about it, because we were just going to use it instead of buying an Eagle, and buy a super nice peice for the Super Stock engine.