Phoenix con-rods wanted!

[Daniel Normandy]

Bonjour from France,
I am looking for a set of Phoenix con-rods, 1 1/2. I you have, or know one who has, one for sale, please let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel

[Ian Williams]

Not being flippant here Daniel, but just ring Phoenix, I doubt you will find secondhand and if you do I doubt you will save much.

[Peter Johnson]

Are you set on having Phoenix? There alternatives available - including those from John Barlow.

Maybe worth a look?

Peter

[Daniel Normandy]

Not being flippant here Daniel, but just ring Phoenix, I doubt you will find secondhand and if you do I doubt you will save much.

Thank you Ian. I am just looking for rods, not used ones especially. I don not want to same money... but just drive my Seven (my egine seized).

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Are you set on having Phoenix? There alternatives available - including those from John Barlow.

Maybe worth a look?

Peter

My engine seized. I had Phenix con-rods, and still have a Phoenix crankshaft. I am also looking for strong alternatives and already contacted John Barlow.
Thank you Peter for your help and advice.

[Ian Williams]

Peter I am confused, if you have Phoenix Crank and rods where they all damaged when the engine seized, is the crank still serviceable? I would suggest a call to Phoenix directly my be a very sensible move, I have always found them very helpful to my needs.

[Greig Smith]

HI Daniel

We also have a Phoenix crank and during the engine assembly process we noticed 3 things, firstly the oil pockets on the Phoenix cranks are rather small, secondly the oil feed holes to the bearings are set at 90* to the pockets and thirdly the oil pockets are not exactly in line from side to side - this means that even if you set the oil jet to spray into a pocket, when you roll the crank 180* that same jet doesn't always spray neatly into the opposite pocket which could equal possible oil starvation to that rod bearing.

What we did was to open up the oil feed holes in the end of the pockets, I ground them open as deeply as I could quite and radiused them to facilitate the flow of oil from the trough into the hole.

We then pumped paraffin through the motor and adjusted the jets to spray as best we could. We also made a second set of oil jets (The Mike Forrest double oiler conversion) and did the same with those jets.

We are confident that our crank will get the maximum oil feed that the uprated pump can provide. There are pictures of the double oil jet conversion on my Supercharged single seater thread or I can post some more here if you wish

Aye
Greig

[AustinWood]

I think the Phoenix oil troughs are a big improvement on the Austin ones. The oilway goes straight to the big end without the 2 right angles of the Austin. Also the troughs are designed so that they hold oil in them rather than letting it be flung out. The main force sending oil to the big ends in centrifugal not from the momentum of the oil from the jet.
The troughs are closer to the crank centre line so have to be adjusted and checked as described on this forum.

[Ian Williams]

I concur with both Jim and Greig, perhaps not quite as important on a standard car but I have witnessed big end failures in competition engines due to failure to take note of the points Grieg raises. Although personally I have found it unnecessary to add the Forest mod even if it may be sound thinking, the key if doing this is ensuring your oil pump can deliver sufficient volume to cope with the additional oil jets.

[Daniel Normandy]

Hi guys,
Thank you for your posts; I will discuss these points today with my mechanic.
Anyway, the reason of the failure is clear: the engine supposed to be remodeled was not. And one of the oil jets was clogged ... by a bit of wire brush. It is as stupid as that!