Posted by Matt Wilson [162.158.69.102] on Saturday, December 24, 2016 at 20:34:29 :
Hi guys,
I read all the time about the benefits of balancing the flatheads, but when it comes to connecting rods, how should this be done?
I had a 230 balanced many years ago, and the first machinist I used (there's a story there) completely ground off the ribs on the caps of a couple of the rods to get them to match up to the other rods. There are no raised pads on the caps, like there are on other engines, so presumably that's why he removed the ribs. I didn't feel comfortable using those rods, as I thought the ribs were a big part of the strength of the caps, and I didn't want to launch a rod and piston out of the engine. I ended up buying some more rods and having them balanced and re-worked by a different machinist, who took a minimal amount off the ribs, and got them to balance out.
So my question is, what is the proper (safe) way to remove material from the rods to balance them? Surely not by removing the ribs?
Do the other sized flatheads have sacrificial pads for balancing? I've seen some photos of 251 rod caps and it looked like they had pads in addition to ribs.
Thanks!
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