Conrod balancing

Hi

And for my new topic, conrod balancing.
As some of you know, I'm in the middle of an engine rebuild.
The case has been line bored, and the crank polished,luckly it did not need regrinding.
I have my scat cam and lifters on the way.

Now, before I start to reassemble, someone mentioned to me that I should balance the corods.

What are people's view on this? It looks fairly simple to do, but any tips are welcome

 

A halfpenny epoxied to the lightest certainly sorted mine out, but that was pre-decimalisation, things may have changed.

 

Are you lightening them as well? Worth the effort if you intend to have the whole shooting match dynamically balanced afterwards...

 

Was not planning to lighten them, just balanced.

 

What engine are you building? And what sort of rpm will you be doing?
If your going high you'll want the rods and crank dynamically balanced at least.

 

I have read that piston weigh and the volume of the cylinder heads should be all identical think it was on ratwell

 

you'd weigh the rod, cap, pin, bolts and piston as a unit...find the lightest set and use this as your basis for the other three

 

So am I long nights at work with lots of free time on the tinterweb

 

think it's a bit like baking a cake...weigh each gudgeon...note the weight...weigh each piston...note the weight...each cap...note the weight etc....make up the lightest set...that would be the easiest way to get a balanced top end...there won't be much in it for individual parts , but by the time you've added them up you'll have a bench mark

 

It's going to be a 1641, c25 scat.
So not high rev, it will be in my camper.

 

This man will tell you about balancing the crank assembly.
http://johnmaherracing.com/2013/01/project-2110-part-4-dynamic-balancing/
Some might say overkill for a stock engine, but if you've been in a balanced one it's smoother and easy to imagine it lasting a whole lot longer.

 

I always fancied the idea of blueprinting an engine, but don't have the facilities..
JM did my crank....was the last one he did in Manchester before he moved up to the ar*e end of Scotland

 

I did find this handy little youtube clip

 

Yes, why did he do that? Stop people dropping in? That'll have worked nicely!
I'm considering stripping mine down over the winter and sending the crank stuff up to him to balance, I need another 1,000 rpm.

 

Buy a ford Focus...

 

'ark at 'eeeee

 

looking at some of these videos of geezers building engines to the nth degree, wouldn't it be nice to have access to all those tools and equipment...?
Guess it's down to how much you can afford and whether it's a rich man's hobby, or a not-so-rich man's livelihood