<VV> Rod caps and balancing

[BobHelt at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/10/2008 6:19:49 AM US Mountain Standard Time,  
HallGrenn at aol.com writes:

Anybody  with experience building performance  engines have any  
recommendations or guidance as to how much rod caps can be  ground  before 
they become 
too weak?

Bob Hall



Hi Bob,
You may already have your answer from Dan. But just in case, I'll add my  
comments too.
 
As you probably know, Chevrolet just balanced the con rods in opposing  
pairs. Thus there can be a great imbalance from pair to pair. So when you want  to 
get a set of six balanced there are potential problems because of the great  
imbalances between pairs. The balance shops just try to work with what you send 
 them so thus often you wind up with an excessive amount of material being  
removed in an attempt to balance rods that are way out of balance to start 
with.  There is only one solution to that in my opinion and that is to send at 
least 18  and better yet 24 rods to the balance shop so that they can pick the 6 
that  are already closest in balance before they remove any metal.
 
Now to your question. If you even have the slighest concern that too much  
material was removed anywhere on any of the rods, just toss them and have a new  
set balanced. Rods are highly stressed on the big ends and might fail at high 
 rpms. Of course, if one might fail, it could destroy the engine. So it's 
better  to be as safe as possible.
HTH
Regards,
Bob Helt



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