Stocker Crankshaft Heavy Metal

[art leong]

I once had a story about a "Mallory Metal" crank.
A friend of ours that did some of our machine work. Was pioneering 409 cranks in big block chevies. And he would cut the counterweights down, to get a real efficient scrapper system. He wanted to try it out on one of our hemi cranks. We had a crank break on us (didn't do any damage other than the crank and a thrust bearing) So we okayed the mod. We never thought NHRA would find the mod.
Well John Hoffman (RIP) had a deal with our friend to to work for each others personal stuff at no cost.
So after modifying the crank he sent it to John. John called our friend and told him he ran out of "mallory metal" finishing our crank. We got it back, not realizing what that meant. Noticed a lot of welding on the counterweights. Built a scrapper and put the motor in the car.
My friend calls us a few days later telling us the price of the materials for our crank. This was in 1978 now. Over $1000 his cost for the weight alone.
We ran that crank till the next time we pulled the motor. Then took it out, a little worried we might get caught. We put a plain Kellog crank in the motor. And it didn't slow up a bit.
Everytime we came up with a hairbrained scheme. We would mention the $1,000 crank.
And think real long and hard about how much it would help. We wound up with a few other brain storms, Like the first ever lightweight A 727 (worked great, worth a tenth in the short times) and the first ever trans brake for a Mopar torqueflite (didn't help at all)