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Flywheel Balancing
slim Jim - 5/5/06 at 05:57 PM

Many thanks for the info provided by people in response to my request for info on lightened flywheels.

Now I have decided what I am doing I want to find out about getting my new one balanced. I phoned up a couple of places today and they said they would only balance the flywheel if I gave them the crank as well.

Now I thought it was ok to balance the flywheel separately. Can anyone tell me if I do need to hand over the crank as well? I don’t really want to do this because the engine is built and I don’t want to strip it down!

Also any tips on somewhere in or around Northampton to get my balancing done?

Many thanks again

Regards James

flak monkey - 5/5/06 at 05:59 PM

You are better getting the flywheel, clutch, crank and crank pulley all balanced as an assembly. Then mark all the relevant positions before you dismantle it to refit.

Little point in balancing the flywheel on its own IMO, might as well have the whole lot done...

David

britishtrident - 5/5/06 at 06:47 PM

Do a sanity check before spending too much money on a Pinto

flak monkey - 5/5/06 at 06:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Do a sanity check before spending too much money on a Pinto


Why? 150-180bhp can be had for about £500 including the original engine.

Of course if you buy all new parts then it will cost you a lot more. But careful hunting around and doing some work yourself gets you a good engine for not many pennies at all...

Bear in mind most other engine installs require expensive parts just to fit them to the car, let alone tweak them as well...

Just my 2p

David

perksy - 5/5/06 at 07:12 PM

Balance the whole assembly

Nothing wrong with a pinto, it's proven engineering.
Mate has a 2.1 with flowed head, fast cam, forged pistons etc and it's to keep up with....

chasmon - 5/5/06 at 07:18 PM

I don't see why you would need to balance the whole assembly. Mnay very good engine builders don't and the parts are all balanced individually anyway....

slim Jim - 5/5/06 at 07:42 PM

quote:
Originally posted by chasmon
I don't see why you would need to balance the whole assembly. Mnay very good engine builders don't and the parts are all balanced individually anyway....


This is what I thought, but I need to find somewhere to do this for me in Northampton as the place I have asked just dont want my money

perksy - 5/5/06 at 07:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by perksy
Balance the whole assembly

Sorry this Didn't come out right.
What i meant was Balance All the main components of the bottom end.
and ideally the Crank, Flywheel and Clutch assembly should be balanced as an assembly and then the Flywheel Dowelled to the Crank.

Marcus - 5/5/06 at 07:58 PM

I'd be surprised if any "good" engine builders didn't balance the whole assembly. If they didn't, I wouldn't use them!!

For what it costs, 60 - 100 quid, save up and do it!

Marcus

Liam - 5/5/06 at 08:19 PM

Whether you need to do the whole assembly or not depends on whether you have a neutral (internal) balance engine or not. My honda engine, for example, is a neutral balance which means the engine and flywheel are individually balanced - the engine is in balance with or without the flywheel. It doesn't matter what position i fit my flywheel. The people balancing my new ally flywheel have no need for my crank. I'd only want to balance the rest of the engine (better than it was balanced by honda) if i was desperately chasing every bhp and/or intending to raise the rev limit significantly.

Some engines though are external balanced and the flywheel is used to balance the engine. They will definately need your crank in this case. Is the pinto flywheel dowelled so it can only go on in one position? If not then the engine is definately neutral balance, but if there's a dowel it would suggest the engine is external balanced. If this is the case then this might explain why they want your crank.

Give T&L engineering a try anyway. They are in elstow, beds, so not too far from northampton.

T&L Engineering

Liam

[Edited on 5/5/06 by Liam]

britishtrident - 6/5/06 at 11:38 AM

Best practice is balance individually then balance together, then check the balance with the clutch cover fitted but such extremes are totally wasted on a Pinto.

David Jenkins - 7/5/06 at 01:34 PM

'Best practice' may be to balance the whole assembly as one piece - but if the engine's complete and running then it's going to be a total PITA to strip it down just for this one job.

Balancing the flywheel on its own isn't the ideal situation, but it's still better than not balancing the flywheel at all.

My crank and flywheel were balanced by Scholar Engines in Suffolk (they're fairly local to me) and they did them individually - I was told that I didn't need to worry about fitting things in a particular order apart from the clutch outer, which was marked to fit the flywheel in a particular orientation.

So, to summarise, in an ideal situation you have to balance everything together. However, any balancing is better than none.

rgeards,
David