Lightening the rods

[Aiken Racing]

I weighted my rod, cap, bolts and pin today with an accurate scale and they were are all balanced at 759.5 grams which is far from the minimum of 640 grams.

Where can the weight be removed from safely and how close should I get to 640?

Thanks,
Chris

[Dale Carter]

Chris, most of the weight is typically removed from the bottom of the big end. Most good machine shops or balancing specialists know what needs to be done. The rods will be lightened and balanced at the same time. If you want to educate yourself on items like this, pick up a few of the HP or Vizard books on Chevy V8 engine building which can be found quite readily on the shelves at Barnes & Noble or Borders Books. A massive amount of good engine building info can be fond in these books. HP and others also have good books on Engine Blueprinting which covers a myriad of relevant tasks, techniques, methods and procdures - all of which will apply to Kent engine re-building in one way or another.

[Dale Carter]

[size="1"][ November 01, 2002, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: John Merriman ][/size]

[Aiken Racing]

I contacted an auto machine shop today who specializes in balancing cranks, flywheels and rods.

The only question I have is how close to 640 grams should I get?

Thanks,
Chris

[Dale Carter]

Well, I don't think a few grams margin will keep you out of the Winner's Circle. I think one ( or even two ) percent is an okay margin - so say 660 grams?

[Aiken Racing]

Great, that's what I was looking for. Plus if I ever had any more machine work done on them I won't have to worry about them being too light.

Thanks,
Chris

[Aiken Racing]

Well I was just informed that when people said to weight the rods, end cap, bolts and pins I thought they meant piston pins as it never dawned on me that the alignment pins in the end cap is what is meant by "pins". Well that makes totally sense now and I have no idea where my mind was....... sorry guys!

I couldn't figure out why there were so heavy... but this explains it.

I will reweight them monday and if they aren't far from the 640 grams then I will just leave them as they are already balanced.

Thanks,
Chris

[Aiken Racing]

Well I weight my rods WITHOUT the piston pins.. haha

and they came out to 645 grams which is close enough for me.

So I'm just going to have them shot-peened and a few burs removed.

Thanks,
Chris