Smoothing out rough castings... Worth it?

Fireman450

Fireman450

Daring to be diffrent!!
Joined
Nov 24, 2007
Messages
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Would it be worth taking the time to smooth out the rough castings on the counterweights on the crank shaft and on the rods to help with drag in the oil pan? Of course this will be done BEFORE being balenced. Will anything else benifit also?? Cummins cranks are pretty rough, Just throwin the idea around, seein what yall think.
Have at it...


Thanks
Lynn
 
I dont see any reason not to do it. Everyone is already doing it to there rods. It will really help preventing any small stress cracks.
 
Knife edged & fully machined... first did it for my RA III 30 years ago.:Cheer:

Worth it?
Always - if you can do it on the cheap or if you're in the right tax bracket (so far, been fortunate enough to be one or the other).
 
Fireman450 said:
Would it be worth taking the time to smooth out the rough castings on the counterweights on the crank shaft and on the rods to help with drag in the oil pan? Of course this will be done BEFORE being balenced. Will anything else benifit also?? Cummins cranks are pretty rough, Just throwin the idea around, seein what yall think.
Have at it...


Thanks
Lynn
Click to expand...

Sure it helps, it depends how much your time is worth. Polishing the rods will make them stronger, polishing the crank, will help oil slap down low, and you will lose some weight in the process.
 
SPEEDSHIFT said:
Sure it helps, it depends how much your time is worth. Polishing the rods will make them stronger, polishing the crank, will help oil slap down low, and you will lose some weight in the process.
Click to expand...

Losing weight on a sledpulling crank isnt the best idea though. Its better to have a heavier crank ideally... though, I doubt just cleaning up the rough areas of the crank will change the weight enough to actually notice on the track. I definitely wouldn't knife edge it though, unless its for a dragracing motor.

Just my $.02
 
SPEEDSHIFT said:
Sure it helps, it depends how much your time is worth. Polishing the rods will make them stronger, polishing the crank, will help oil slap down low, and you will lose some weight in the process.
Click to expand...

Time I got..lol And I tell ya what, I have been on the fence about weighted cranks for along time. You really want to make a difference in more spinning mass, add weight to the fly wheel, but thats a whole other subject..lol Im just lookin to free up a few ponies. Anytime you can decrease resistance you are better off Right??

Lynn
 
polishing isn't going to yield power... if you knife edged and polished the crank, you might show something, but you're not really turning enough RPM for it to matter...

in a pulling application, you're going to want more weight on the crank, not less
 
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