Who builds reliable race/street engines?

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Ever balance a crank? If you have, you’ll know a zero balance flywheel bolted to a balanced crank WILL change the balance. Every time. The question is, how much does the balance change when you bolt the flywheel on.

It depends. If you make the flywheel zero it’s still never zero. And the weight is further from center by far than the crank weights.

So a few grams on a flywheel becomes much greater when it’s bolted to the crank. Now, add the disc and pressure plate and you have a hot mess.
So if your rotating assembly is balanced with the disc and pressure plate what happens when you have to get a new clutch? Do you have to bring in your whole assembly again?...
 
So if your rotating assembly is balanced with the disc and pressure plate what happens when you have to get a new clutch? Do you have to bring in your whole assembly again?...

Just the flywheel, disc and pressure plate.

Most places don’t balance the disc, but if you have the arbor you should balance the disc.
 
Oh boy that fantasy build.... Been around too many similar 340's and it will NOT make 400hp without porting the heads. No way, no how. That particular dyno had a HORRIBLE reputation back then.

That's a 1hp/ci build

I have had a few engines on the dyno at Westech as far back as 06-07. Never a bad thing to say about anyone there. Not disagreeing with you, just would like to know where this information came from?
 
First, the article is 19 years old. Then, it's a magazine build!
Showing people how to build an easy 400 horse engine just with bolt on parts sells magazines big time.
Especially since there was no internet rags to speak of back then...
 
I bought an import flywheel years ago that was drilled for a non existent bolt pattern...close but no cigar. I have it for sale here now plugged and redrilled for an 8 bolt crank.

No disrespect to Johnny but I'm a guy who likes to have one on one contact with the guy doing the machine work on my stuff. Plus I'm incredibly anal about clearances, assembly techniques and a lot of meaningless crap I've been doing on engines since helping R&R a cylinder head on my brothers '53 Buick in 1959.

How many 10 year olds does it take to remove an 80lb. head off of a straight 8? The whole baseball team!

Over the past 50 years I have done a lot of networking with folks in our hobby. Racers, hot rodders and restorers. If you make a few calls you can find the guys who can help you get the project done.

Within my area here in WI (125 mile radius) I can do business with 8-10 good engine shops. No advertising to speak of...they all survive on their reputations. Two are Mopar specialists (although one guy is so slow I'd be dead before he got my engine done.) There's even a Ferrrai shop 30 miles away.

I've had three local shops work on my current project... Appleton Crankshaft repaired the bad journal and do the regrinding. Bay Speed flowed a cylinder head. And the original builder of this engine, Baxter Engines, is doing the block work and, now, installing 11/32" valves in the heads and touckingup the valve job. Great folks one and all.

I will give a thumbs up to BPE for doing Mopar engines... I have 60 years of hearing how great those Bowtie engines are....enough already!
 
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I bought an import flywheel years ago that was drilled for a non existent bolt pattern...close but no cigar. I have it for sale here now for a 8plugged/redrilled bolt crank.

No disrespect to Johhny but I'm a guy who likes to have one on one contact with the guy doing the machine work on my stuff.

I have done a lot of networking with folks in our hobby. Racers, hot rodders and restorers. If you make a few calls you can find the guys who can help you get the project done .

Within my area here in WI (125 mile radius) I can do business with 8-10 good engine shops. No advertising to speak of...they all survive on their reputations. Two are Mopar specialists (although one guy is so slow I'd be dead before he got my engine done.)

I will give a thumbs up to BPE for doing Mopar engines... I have 60 years of hearing how great those Bowtie engines are....enough already!
Yup no disrespect taken at all. I always tell people, we're not putting any little machine shops out of business. There are always people that want to designate every piece of their build, etc.
 
The whole internal vs external debate has been around forever. I consider it to be an "each their own" thing. many of our higher HP engines are in fact internal balance.
Guys that have certain impressions of practices one way or another certainly aren't going to change those beliefs just B/C I post on a forum.

What I try to speak to, for potential customers, is that blanket statement "facts" that I consider "muscle car wives tales"
Like "Cast cranks don't hold up"...."assemblies NEED balanced a certain way", etc.

Think for a second how many engines GM, Chrysler, and Ford produced...ever.
Did they balance every single assembly as a unit? No. Why? because in the mass production process we can QC rods, pistons, rings, cranks etc.
You should see our QC area and R&D departments...our specs are MUCH tighter than the OEM's

Now those that say... "well a stock 360 only made XX horsepower" "so thats different"
EXACTLY!!!!!!!! You don't have to apply Top fuel funny car engine logic / cost to a 6200 RPM street engine with 470 HP.

If you're building a 900 HP race engine, then yes. internal balance it down to the flywheel bolts, and use a forged fastener on everything up to the waterneck. Great. thats how i would do it too.

you simply can't always apply things that were true decades ago, to todays MFG and Material process's. Just like you don't always need race engine expense, on street engine builds.

Not arguing with anyone, not looking for one. Just my morning Coffee 2 cents worth of yammering, and some food for thought.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and again, I thank anyone thats looking at one of our engines!!!
 
The whole internal vs external debate has been around forever. I consider it to be an "each their own" thing. many of our higher HP engines are in fact internal balance.
Guys that have certain impressions of practices one way or another certainly aren't going to change those beliefs just B/C I post on a forum.

What I try to speak to, for potential customers, is that blanket statement "facts" that I consider "muscle car wives tales"
Like "Cast cranks don't hold up"...."assemblies NEED balanced a certain way", etc.

Think for a second how many engines GM, Chrysler, and Ford produced...ever.
Did they balance every single assembly as a unit? No. Why? because in the mass production process we can QC rods, pistons, rings, cranks etc.
You should see our QC area and R&D departments...our specs are MUCH tighter than the OEM's

Now those that say... "well a stock 360 only made XX horsepower" "so thats different"
EXACTLY!!!!!!!! You don't have to apply Top fuel funny car engine logic / cost to a 6200 RPM street engine with 470 HP.

If you're building a 900 HP race engine, then yes. internal balance it down to the flywheel bolts, and use a forged fastener on everything up to the waterneck. Great. thats how i would do it too.

you simply can't always apply things that were true decades ago, to todays MFG and Material process's. Just like you don't always need race engine expense, on street engine builds.

Not arguing with anyone, not looking for one. Just my morning Coffee 2 cents worth of yammering, and some food for thought.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and again, I thank anyone thats looking at one of our engines!!!

Ive done 900 HP in an external balance. Not my favorite thing to do, but it’s what the customer had.

The biggest thing you see on big power with a external balance is accelerated bearing wear. No matter what you do, moving that much counter weight to the ends of the crank loads the ends of the crank. Power and RPM make the bending loads put on the ends even greater and it shows in the bearings.

That’s one reason why center counter weighted cranks are becoming standard equipment on high power, high RPM engines.
 
Ive done 900 HP in an external balance. Not my favorite thing to do, but it’s what the customer had.

The biggest thing you see on big power with a external balance is accelerated bearing wear. No matter what you do, moving that much counter weight to the ends of the crank loads the ends of the crank. Power and RPM make the bending loads put on the ends even greater and it shows in the bearings.

That’s one reason why center counter weighted cranks are becoming standard equipment on high power, high RPM engines.
Agree. All true statements.
 
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