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Balanced Rotating Assembly Installation

Old Mar 30, 2022 | 08:28 AM
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Default Balanced Rotating Assembly Installation

Searched and couldn't find a clear answer.Purchased and received a balanced 408 K1 stroker rotating assembly from Texas Speed. My balance sheet came with all weight of pistons, pins and rods noted, but no information as to their position on the crankshaft.

There are weights written on the pistons, but only in whole grams. Balance sheet indicates they were weighed out the the hundredths of grams. No weights were noted on the rods or pins.

I've reached out to Texas Speed but haven't heard back yet.

How do I determine where in the assembly the piston/rods need to be installed on the crank or is that even necessary give the close weight of all the individual components?

Any help or insight is appreciated.
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Old Mar 30, 2022 | 09:06 AM
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Im no expert on this but.......Have you tried to call them?
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Old Mar 30, 2022 | 10:40 AM
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Usually the piston number is stamped in the underside of the piston, either a numeral or a number of dots.

My machine shop balances all the rods the same, so no order to the rods.

Wrist pins are normally left in the piston they are balanced with.

Put up some pictures of the underside of the pistons and we can look with you.
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Old Mar 30, 2022 | 03:13 PM
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Ok…this assembly is new and balanced, so it doesn’t matter which hole you stick any of them in. Rods are identically balanced, as are the pistons/rings. As said above KEEP THE PINS IN THE PISTONS THEY ARE WITH. DO NOT MIX THEM UP. Now…your responsible for ring gap, and that will absolutely matter which piston/hole, when mocking this up. You will want to label each piston with a sharpie before you start gapping, and keep the ring pack with each piston. I go ahead and put the rings on the pistons as soon as final clean is done, to ensure I keep the correct ring pack with the correct piston. You must orient the rod cheeks correctly for install, so take your time and think about rod orientation as you are assembling the rods to the pistons. Of course I’m sure your aware that the pistons must be correct per bank, meaning you must have the valve reliefs in the right orientation according to what bank your putting it on. Once the assembly has been ran, then it matters which piston goes in what hole, so if you ever have to tear it back down, label each piston with a sharpie as you disassemble to keep it in the correct orientation. Of course if it’s hurt, this step won’t matter upon tear down as it’s getting re-done anyway.
You’ll end up building (mocking it up) this thing 3 or 4 times before final assembly to check bearing clearances, thrust, rod clearance at the big end, etc. Keep good notes.
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Old Mar 31, 2022 | 07:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Che70velle
Ok…this assembly is new and balanced, so it doesn’t matter which hole you stick any of them in. Rods are identically balanced, as are the pistons/rings. As said above KEEP THE PINS IN THE PISTONS THEY ARE WITH. DO NOT MIX THEM UP. Now…your responsible for ring gap, and that will absolutely matter which piston/hole, when mocking this up. You will want to label each piston with a sharpie before you start gapping, and keep the ring pack with each piston. I go ahead and put the rings on the pistons as soon as final clean is done, to ensure I keep the correct ring pack with the correct piston. You must orient the rod cheeks correctly for install, so take your time and think about rod orientation as you are assembling the rods to the pistons. Of course I’m sure your aware that the pistons must be correct per bank, meaning you must have the valve reliefs in the right orientation according to what bank your putting it on. Once the assembly has been ran, then it matters which piston goes in what hole, so if you ever have to tear it back down, label each piston with a sharpie as you disassemble to keep it in the correct orientation. Of course if it’s hurt, this step won’t matter upon tear down as it’s getting re-done anyway.
You’ll end up building (mocking it up) this thing 3 or 4 times before final assembly to check bearing clearances, thrust, rod clearance at the big end, etc. Keep good notes.
Thanks so much for the well explained reply. Responses like this are what keep forums like this alive. I was able to reach Texas Speed yesterday and what you explained is pretty much what they said also. However, they did not mention wrists pins. Only staying the parts could be assembled in any location on the crank. The wrist pins were packaged together in the box with the piston, but we're not separated out with their piston. There is no labeling on the pins to indicate which piston they belong to. I meant to snap a pic of the balance sheet, but forgot. I'll take a look when I get home and see the spread on the pin weights and guess I can always just pair them with the rod and piston weight spread to get the closes to an even weight across all 8.

As for the rings, thank you for the advice. I had planned to be very diligent and methodical when it came to ring gap and bearing clearence. With what's invested so far, does t make sense to cut and corners or rush the process.
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