CB Performance Cranks & parts any good?

Arnolds64 · Post by **Arnolds64** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:11 am

I am in the process of beefing up my 1641 to a 1955 76 x 90.5 or a 2010 78.4 x 90.5. My intention is a long living Street motor that will see an occcasional 1/4 Drag run here and there.

I see CB has a 4140 Moly Crank for 190.00. Is this Crank any good or weak? I have been told by one shop in KC that they are soft and not very good. Have any of you had any experience with there products. What about their Drop in Long Rod 76mm stroker setup with supposedly no case clearancing. Is this hype or for real? By the way, do you need any clearancing when going to a 69 mm Counterweighted crank?

Performance Sportz Bob · Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:34 am

I have used several of the 76x90.5 kits and they are great for street and some strip if you can get the kit with a nitrided crank and if you use it on the strip you may want to wedgemate. They are a drop in kit but you may have to do a little case clearance work but very minor and it can be done with a rotory file or just a 1/2 round file but all cases don`t need this done so just check. I am running a 78.4 x92 in my racecar and it has worked very well if you go 78crank you need the case clearanced. My best runs have been 11.61 at 114mph 1/4 with this combo. There are more expensive cranks but you have to decide . Get the rod bolt upgrade to arp2000.

Arnolds64 · Post by **Arnolds64** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:15 am

Thanks for your insight. So you have use the 4140 189.00 Crank on you 76mm motor? The Nitrided Cranks are like 384.00. Kinda want to go low Cost. I guess you could go with the CB Econo Kit with the 90.5 1776 setup and add a Nitrided 78.4. That might be a good compromise. I like the Long Rod deal though.
You must have some serious equipment built around the motor! 11.61. That is hauling!

turboblue · Post by **turboblue** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:46 am

Look at this guys deal on CB cranks.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... ?id=107438
They come in several configurations and they are nitrided CM cranks.

Arnolds64 · Post by **Arnolds64** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:53 pm

That is cheap. The Samba is pretty cool. I have a shop that can get me a Moly crank for 335.00 delivered. I do not know if it is Nitrided though. This is CB's best I believe. You figure another 30.00 for freight and you are at 295.00. 40.00 could go for Moly pushrods or something else.

dstar · Post by **dstar** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:34 pm

Why does the name Steve Serrano(guy on Samba wif da cranks) ring
a bell with me..........

MOST o the time, you get what you pay for.......

if Rick(CB Performance) dint want them, I don't think that *I* would
want them either.....

Kinda like getting seconds from Big Lots.......

Don

Post by **Piledriver** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:42 pm

Nitriding costs what, $50 a crank these days?

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:08 pm

Don,

Steve Houston works for Serrano's, and the deal is that CB offered quantities cheap as a promotional deal, as I hear it. Serrano's is one of the few that I know of that does not jack the prices through the roof. They always have good prices. They were selling a bunch of H beams from CB pretty cheap too.

I bought a 76 and a 78.8 and both are perfect.

turboblue · Post by **turboblue** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:09 pm

MOST o the time, you get what you pay for.......
if Rick(CB Performance) dint want them, I don't think that *I* would
want them either.....

Yeah I would have thought the same thing. Those are the real deal.
The price of crankshafts have come way down recently. That same crank used to cost me well over $300 as a dealer as recently as 2 years ago. Those are the same part numbers as CB has on the shelf. Steve must buy them in huge quanities to sell them that cheap. These and most others are all Chinese cranks and the nitriding process there must be dirt cheap as well.
I just bought a pair of 48 IDA's from him for $746 shipped. My vendor charges nearly a $1000 a pair for them. I don't know how he does it either. A truckload of HP VW parts must have crashed in his front yard.

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:11 pm

They just don't jack the prices, and he buys in quantity AFAIK.

Performance Sportz Bob · Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:40 pm

When I run the 76crank I use the 5.5 rods and when I use the 78.4 crank I use the 5.4 rods Deck will come out closer for set up and usually people wanting to run 78on up cranks are going to be racing and I prefer short rods on my race engines and I highly recomend the nitrided crank. My racecar is a 63sunroof that is 1645lbs. 12.25 to 1 Comp. Cb 044heads my port work 42x37.5 valves fk89 cam 1.4 rockers. Its a blast and Reliable.

turboblue · Post by **turboblue** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:47 pm

mharney wrote:They just don't jack the prices, and he buys in quantity AFAIK.

Yeah but the parts truck crashing in his yard sounds better.

I'm sure it's a thin margin and a large turnover of product that makes the prices what they are.

The Burnout King · Post by **The Burnout King** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:46 pm

dstar wrote:Why does the name Steve Serrano(guy on Samba wif da cranks) ring
a bell with me..........

MOST o the time, you get what you pay for.......
if Rick(CB Performance) dint want them, I don't think that *I* would
want them either.....

Kinda like getting seconds from Big Lots.......

Don

I sold thoes cranks to steve, there no diffrent than the ones we have on the shelf now. I have one in my motor. 10.17 @ 131.......

I know steve very well, i used to live 2 blocks from that shop until i moved up north to work for cb. Great Guy and great Service.

mharney · Post by **mharney** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 4:04 pm

I agree.

Don, would you like some salt?

Island bugs · Post by **Island bugs** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:12 pm

I ordered a crank & flywheel wedgemated from Steve for a friend. First class service all the way. Highly recommended! Wayne