[American]

Ford small blocks, like others, will typically encounter more torsional loads on the first journal area of the crank. I spent many years in the engine business and usually, but not every time, I looked at an engine with a busted crank it was in the same area, typically a stock crank in a higher HP application.

It's one thing when you spin a main bearing and burn it to a crisp or toss a rod and put things in a bind enough to snap a crank, it's a another to snap a crank under 'normal' driving conditions (unless it was a 301 Pontiac). I'd say it was a bad forging... or if it was living up to Eagle's seemingly earned reputation, a typical forging from Eagle. Maybe the little Chinese boys were just having a bad day...

Regardless, expect some twist in the 1 and 5 rods, you will need to align bore/hone the mains and depending on how hard it was tweaked I'd take a very close and skeptical look/magnaflux at the 1 and 2 main caps.

Tis the reason why I won't consider much besides Scat or Callies for crankshafts.