Under the Hood: DodgeSRT-4
The crank is cast, but the use of higher-hardness steel and careful attention to detail makes it quite strong. The bearings are large, at 60mm for the mains and 50mm for the rod bearings, and naturally it's fully counterweighted. It's the details like the cold-rolled fillets at the edges of the bearings that really matter, though. The corner where each bearing meets the crank throw is an area of high stress concentration, so the corner is rounded (filleted) to spread out the stress and prevent cracking. By cold rolling this fillet instead of cutting it, the steel gets work hardened, just as it would in a forged crank, making this most critical area stronger. The SRT-4 drag teams are rumored to be making between 800 and 1200 hp on the stock crank (and stock block and bedplate), so we figure it's strong enough.
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