Almost time for the machinist!

JBurch said

Not at all stupid, it's a valid real question......plate honing, or AKA torque plate honing is bolting a plate to the block to simulate the stresses that will distort the cylinder bores when the cylinder head is bolted down. The purpose is to improve ring seal for more power

Just remember, when all the 340's, 440's, Hemi's were built they WERE NOT PLATE HONED OUT OF THE FACTORY when new and nobody ever said they were slow.........

Click to expand...

Good explanation. And exactly the point as far as street use goes... If you are taking an engine and going straight out of the box into a racing situation, then the torque plates become almost mandatory for a serious racing effort. But cylinder bores used for the street don't have that level of issue.

And neither was the factory balance any better than +/- 20 or 30 grams! So that is the same logic as for them going fast as-is.

Total balance costs are in the range of $300-500, for the shop to do it all. A crank-only balance can be at or under $100, but one poster here (in the NE USA) could not get a crank-only balance for less than $275. So you just gotta ask. If you do the crank-only, then you need to give them a bobweight, which can be computed from your part weights when properly done.

Balancing is a 2 part process. Part 1 is to match the rod end weights and piston weights to each other. This takes care of one particular balance factor. This can be done at home, but the one part that is not straightforward is to weigh the small and big ends of the rods and match them to each other. That takes a fixture; I have built my own to do that. It is not rocket science but it has to be done with care to get accuracy.

A bobweight is computed from the resulting parts weights from step 1. Part 2 is where the crank is balanced to the resulting bobweight; that takes care of a completely different balance factor.

So you can do one or the other or both and improve balance.