Hello there fellows, my name is Taylor. Before I get strung up on a pole for being a Ford guy with a Ford related question...actually more of a manufacturer question, I have owned 2 third gens with multiple modifications, and I have used the search engine on this site, so be easy on me please lol!! My question comes from reading on another site somebody mentioning that there was info and personal experience from some members with CAT products(not Catapillar)here on NastyZ28.com, specifically their crankshafts. The company has been out of business for roughly 10 years I believe, and there is very little on the internet about them other than people with no experience just bashing them for being import chincom crap. I bought a SBF 4340 forged 347 crank through Speedway Motors(great outfit in my experience)for $349 to my door. I don’t know why but I didn’t ask for the make(I know right?)as I assumed it would be a Procomp at that price and that’s what I wanted, and the selection of 347 cranks in that price range is very very limited so there aren’t many options. I have heard of CAT years ago but never thought anyone would still have those units new around for sale so I didn’t even think that that may be what they send. Anyhow, here I am with this CAT 347 crank that I took to my machinist(I wanted to get it checked out)halfway scared he was going to rip me a new one for bringing that crap in his shop, but he didn’t. He said actually, if this was one of their earlier cranks(2000-2002)they were manufactured and machined by Sunnen, which were made very well. We magfluxed, checked for taper and roundness, checked for straight...crank was perfect. I’ve read a ton of horror stories from people with horrible machining on their cranks, rods, bent, out of spec etc. I must have gotten one made on a Wednesday lol. Does anybody have any experience with CAT products of any kind? Good or bad? Thanks a lot for any help you guys may have, I really appreciate it!!
Used to use cat cranks in GN builds for a long time, until the supply dried up. Machining was decent, they lived through a lot of abuse. With a good tune, the crank would hold more power than a stock 109 block would...
Thanks for the input SRGN, do you recall about the year(s)you had used them? Did you have to have anything machined to the spec you needed, or were they acceptable tolerances right out of the box? My machinist said the mains and pins were slightly loose which he was pleased with being a stroker. Anything at all to do with your experience with these, even down to where you used to get them will be appreciated. I’m trying to locate as much history on the company and products as possible.
I’ve contacted the current CAT company and they weren’t much help as far as anything back in the early 2000 era.
I started getting out of GN stuff around 2010 and the cranks were pretty much gone at that point. Most were pretty good out of the box, the last few I used a couple needed a polish and .001 undersized bearings to get the clearances where I wanted them.
It sounds like the tolerances cut on your crank were similar to mine being slightly loose. So far we’re batting 1000 on this haha! The other thing about the crank I have is I can find nothing on its balance/imbalance specification, my machinist looked at it and said it’s probably going to have to be externally balanced with 28oz, but I’m not totally convinced. He specializes in Ford performance engines so he is very knowledgeable in this sense. However, almost all SBF forged cranks(aftermarket) are generally internally balanced and need to have weight removed, I’m thinking this is true for mine as well. There’s plenty of weight in the offsets to work with almost all rod/piston combos to get a neutral balance, and I’ve researched it a lot to find out before I purchase them, but haven’t found anything definitive. I weighed my stock cast 302 crank with 3.00 throws and it came in at 36.2 lbs, the forged jobie came in at 48.2 lbs., big difference, I should be able to work with that I think. I definitely want a neutral balance as harmonics destroy these strokers, and I don’t want to have to worry about indexing the flywheel and pressure plate when I remove them etc. With all that being said I was just in my freezing ass garage having coffee and a smoke this morning staring at the cranks part # Ck-1302B right in my face and I’m thinking hmmmm...”B”. The “Ck” I’m sure is Cat crank or something similar, the “1” I think indicates if it’s a cast or forged maybe? The “302” is obviously a 302 block based crank, and then There’s the “B”, and it dawned on me and remembered in my research, some of the other companies , Scat, Eagle, RPM(not sure exactly as I JUST thought of it and remembered) put a “B” in their part # to indicate neutral balance. SRGN, do you recall part numbers relative to what you know the cranks actually were? I know they’re be different being GN but it may help, I know it’s asking a lot but I appreciate it!!
