<VV> Balancing Engines

[Smitty Smith]

Smitty Says:  For a lot of people balancing brings up visions of gram weight scales and exotic machinery.  I have been doing it for years the same way.  I have never known how many grams I have removed or what final weights are, and I don't care, but I will put my balance jobs up against anyone.  I do it with a length of piano wire clamped in a vise so that it sticks out parallel over the work bench.  A section of headliner stay works well.  I stand a piece of 2x4 about a foot long beside and near the end of the wire.  I fix a hook on the end of the wire.  Then I hold a rod in a horizontal position with the big end hanging on the hook at the cap parting line, and then find a block to rest the small end on to keep it horizontal with the big end hanging from the wire.  Next I make a series of index marks on the long block where the piano wire is next to it about 1/8" apart.  I mark the nearest mark as zero and put numbers on the marks above and below that.  I don't care if
 this turns out to be the heaviest or lightest rod of the bunch.  It is only providing a reference to set the tool up.  For a street engine I balance opposing rods together.  If one tries to get 6 of them the same weight he has his work cut out for him and sometimes can't be done with one set.
  Next I balance them for total weight which always upsets the big end weight a little.  You can take this as far as you want to.  A variation of this is used to balance pistons.  The key to this is repeatability of how and where you hang the component.  Each must be hung exactly the same way.  It always throws me when someone asks how much difference do I find in rods.  Oh, about three marks.    ggg