810 812 Rod Differences

Pete, why on earth would they have used a connecting rod with a circular cross section instead of the much stronger "H" cross section?

Hi Terry
Duesenberg SJ used tubular steel rods.

Gary the Cord V8 was designed to take the supercharger right from the start. They found the firing order had to be changed to get the supercharged engine to run better so the camshaft had to be changed. Consequently the connecting rods would have been common to both engines.
J Model Duesenbergs were fitted with forged aluminium connecting rods.

Thanks Terry. About all I know for sure is each engine has the drivers and passenger side rods numbered for each cylinder. The numbers I posted are the cast inplace on every rod from the factory. I will look closely at all my rods for an engine serial number as you have shown. I suspect all rods are the same but need to ask questions about the different numbers. I know factually the Duesenberg rods come in the supercharged and non supercharged types. I'm not certain if the Cord roads are the same for supercharged engines. I'm thinking there was no "better" rod for those engines. I know my engine was made from two complete engines that came with the car in 1961 because the original block had a small crack. I traded that cracked block to Henry Portz in around 1976. I asked him who he sold that engine block to after he rebuilt it and repairs the crack. He did not remember. I have had the honor of looking at every car in the master book of our club historian. My engine was not found. I just wonder where it is. I have a feeling its still in California. I hope someone is NOT passing it off as an original to their Cord. Thats being dishonest.


Gary Parsons

Gary I think normally each engine had its own set of rods that were stamped with the same engine number. I am guessing now but I don't think there was any difference between the rods used in the supercharged engine and the standard engine. I have not read anything in print to say otherwise.
My engine had been switched in the early 1950s. My original engine was FB582. The attached picture show the much later engine FB 3213.
Incredibly a significant stress concentration was introduced when the rods were stamped with the corresponding engine number. It would have been safer to stamp the numbers in the side of the rod between the outer flanges.

My 812 engine has has a mix of rods. One rod has the numbers Atlas3   F1800-BA and others are Atlas4   F1800-C
What are these and is one better than the other
Thanks...


Gary Parsons