Like many of you, I keep ten 428 cranks lined up next to my bed so's I can impress the chicks. It also allows me to interject such witty phrases as "hard shaft" and "long stroke" into my seduction rhetoric. Yes, I'm a stud, butt I digress.

Ennyhoo, these cranks all have balancing holes drilled into the counterweights. Maybe one or two, maybe large or small, often in different locations, yadda yadda. I know that one was balanced for a LeMans rod/heavy TRW piston combo without a hatchet, I know one was balanced for some lightweight piston/rod combo, but I don't know which was which.

I keep my pistons in the china cabinet in the living room. I mean, who needs fancy schmancy dinnerware when you can just toss paper plates into the trash? Am I right here? You bet I am. In the racks of pistons are the combos mentioned above, and many, many other sets of slugs varying in weight and compression.

So herein lies the conundrum. Is there a way to visually assess each crank to ball park its present balance against a potential bob weight combo? Does that make sense? I mean, it makes no sense to drill up one crank when the one next to it might already be a dead match.

Failing some method I can do at home, is it possible to take the ten cranks to a balance shop and get figures from them for each one? Sort of a backwards approach, I know, but I hope it's apparent why I want to do this. Is this feasible, or am I just short-stroking here? Thanks.

If the thing had LeMans Rods and the TRW pistons/bricks they might have drilled holes and plugged it with added Mallory metal. That would be staked or welded in.

If there are more holes in the counterweight that the others that should be for lightweight rods and pistons.

You wouldn't want to take a crank with big slugs of Mallory in to balance for an aluminum rod engine if you have one already riddled with holes.

I would imagine a balance shop that done a few 428's could tell at a glance.

The Ford Engine Plant drills the end counterweights using one diameter, as specified on the drawing. Aftermarket mods are done using the favored drill diameter of the machine shop.

The only way to determine the bobweight spec is to take the crank to a balancer and have them balance the crank. The resulting bobweight tells you what the correct piston/rod weight combo should be. Piston/rod assemblies can be measured statically (on a scale) must bemeasured dynamically while spinning on the balancer.

I"ve never balanced a crank, but that is how I understand it.

JMO,
Shoe.

Otherwise it may not matter witch one you take down to the machine shop. Grab and go......I doubt that any of them will come close with what ever rod/piston combo you got. JMHO

"The Poor Mans 427"
http://www.fordification.com/poormans427.htm

1973-1979 Ford Truck Enterprise Link:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/399900



Wes Adams FORD428CJ
Built Ford Tuff With Good Ford Stuff
79 F-250 X-Cab 4x4 with a 6.9 Turbo Diesel
64 Falcon X-Ram 428
55 FORD Truck 4-link Rides on air with X-Ram 428
2000 Yamaha V-MAX VMOA#4277
2000 Yamaha 700 Mountain Max
2001 Polaris 600 Edge X
2001 Polaris 500 SP

are not out of round. Save ya time and money. Just a thought.

"The Poor Mans 427"
http://www.fordification.com/poormans427.htm

1973-1979 Ford Truck Enterprise Link:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/399900



Wes Adams FORD428CJ
Built Ford Tuff With Good Ford Stuff
79 F-250 X-Cab 4x4 with a 6.9 Turbo Diesel
64 Falcon X-Ram 428
55 FORD Truck 4-link Rides on air with X-Ram 428
2000 Yamaha V-MAX VMOA#4277
2000 Yamaha 700 Mountain Max
2001 Polaris 600 Edge X
2001 Polaris 500 SP

My two 428 cranks I had balanced, the the guy etched all the info on the crank.

Bill A

56 f-100 428

is the hollow bit in the rod journal. I have seen this 'core shift' to be way off centre leaving a very thin wall on one side of the journal. The one I remember may have been down to .040 on one side!

............differences were removed from the rods and/or pistons, Rod.

Mickey Thompson's 63 1/2 #997 S/S Hi-Rise 427 Lgt/Wgt Galaxie,
1957 C-600 Cab-over carhauler w/390-4V, 2-speed rear-end
FGCofA member #4908
MCGC member #75

"There will ALWAYS be an FE in my LiFE"

A crank is at zero balance when the bobweights equal the piston/rod weight factor.

If the piston/rod weight factor is not the same as the crank bobweight, you can rebalance the assembly by either modifying the bobweight or modifying the pistons or rods to rematch the bobweight to the piston/rod factor.

So you are techically correct, but in a circumlocutious fashion.

Shoe.

.

Mickey Thompson's 63 1/2 #997 S/S Hi-Rise 427 Lgt/Wgt Galaxie,
1957 C-600 Cab-over carhauler w/390-4V, 2-speed rear-end
FGCofA member #4908
MCGC member #75

"There will ALWAYS be an FE in my LiFE"

Easyer to match the crank to the Bob weight. Taking a gram or 2 of the piston or rod would make it a mess and change everything. Besides that there would be more chance for error. Also the factory wasn't close as a machine shop. I cant say that I havent seen a hole not drilled in a crank yet.

"The Poor Mans 427"

http://www.fordification.com/poormans427.htm



1973-1979 Ford Truck Enterprise Link:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/399900







Wes Adams FORD428CJ

Built Ford Tuff With Good Ford Stuff

79 F-250 X-Cab 4x4 with a 6.9 Turbo Diesel

64 Falcon X-Ram 428

55 FORD Truck 4-link Rides on air with X-Ram 428

2000 Yamaha V-MAX VMOA#4277

2000 Yamaha 700 Mountain Max

2001 Polaris 600 Edge X

2001 Polaris 500 SP

is a few grams taken out of the crank to balance it out. You wouldn't be able to take it out of the Bob weight because it will add up to more then a few grams!

"The Poor Mans 427"
http://www.fordification.com/poormans427.htm

1973-1979 Ford Truck Enterprise Link:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/399900



Wes Adams FORD428CJ
Built Ford Tuff With Good Ford Stuff
79 F-250 X-Cab 4x4 with a 6.9 Turbo Diesel
64 Falcon X-Ram 428
55 FORD Truck 4-link Rides on air with X-Ram 428
2000 Yamaha V-MAX VMOA#4277
2000 Yamaha 700 Mountain Max
2001 Polaris 600 Edge X
2001 Polaris 500 SP

I obviously have too much time on my hands LOL. Great info, and cleared up some things for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9DZzrpjc5Y

The computer does it for ya. On the old Soft Face balancer doesn't have that. So you really have to know what your doing because you don't have a computer to tell ya how deep and what sizes bit. Here is a link for ya:

http://www.fordification.com/poormans427-13.htm

http://www.fordification.com/poormans427-14.htm



"The Poor Mans 427"
http://www.fordification.com/poormans427.htm

1973-1979 Ford Truck Enterprise Link:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/399900



Wes Adams FORD428CJ
Built Ford Tuff With Good Ford Stuff
79 F-250 X-Cab 4x4 with a 6.9 Turbo Diesel
64 Falcon X-Ram 428
55 FORD Truck 4-link Rides on air with X-Ram 428
2000 Yamaha V-MAX VMOA#4277
2000 Yamaha 700 Mountain Max
2001 Polaris 600 Edge X
2001 Polaris 500 SP

I brought that video up to give a visual in respect to the crank balancing process. You obviously are a talented machinist, and surely know many "bench top racers" talk blueprinted and balanced without having a clue of how things are done. After seeing those videos and your pages I have a much better understanding of the "process" Thanks for sharing with me.

Not me LOL! I have learned a lot from him, about how to and do not's. I'm glade that you found that video.... I'm sure it will help a lot of people understand the processes and what happens behind closed doors (so to speak).

I'm still a punk kid!!!! LOL I have a ton to learn and not enough time to do it in. I am more then happy to share what I know, witch it isn't much..... You are welcome Bob. Take care

"The Poor Mans 427"
http://www.fordification.com/poormans427.htm

1973-1979 Ford Truck Enterprise Link:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/399900



Wes Adams FORD428CJ
Built Ford Tuff With Good Ford Stuff
79 F-250 X-Cab 4x4 with a 6.9 Turbo Diesel
64 Falcon X-Ram 428
55 FORD Truck 4-link Rides on air with X-Ram 428
2000 Yamaha V-MAX VMOA#4277
2000 Yamaha 700 Mountain Max
2001 Polaris 600 Edge X
2001 Polaris 500 SP

input on this subject. I think I'll go with Shoe's suggestion of just taking the cranks in and getting values for each one, providing I can find a shop that won't hose me too badly. A quick glance didn't spot any mallory, but I have to spin some of them around to look at the lower counterweights.

BTW, what is the correct method to ascertain bobweight? Also, I thought I recall some mention of factoring in oil weight or sumpin'.

Andy, thanks for the heads-up on the rod throw holes.

Seems like they liked to make a pretty good fuss about the quantity of oil the cross-drilled 427 steel cranks could hold in the extra passages, if I remember right, the allowance was 15 grams