[DeTomaso] Crank Lightening
Charles Engles
cengles at cox.net
Sun Feb 10 23:21:42 EST 2008
Dear Tony,
You wrote:
>I don't know much about Crank Lightening. Anybody care to share
> generalities and Cleveland specifics?
What little I know:
Crank Lightening, just a bit: This is pretty easy, although it
does take a bit of time with a grinder to remove flashing, rough spots and
gently contour and polish the Cleveland crank. The end product is better
looking than a stock crank and is a bit lighter. The modest lightening
still permits balancing without extreme measures.
Crank Lightening, just medium: This is harder. It takes more
grinder work and begins to get into diminishing returns as the balancing
task can become more problematic.
Crank Lightening, major: This is a level where the balancing
can become very difficult and the crank integrity may be questionable.
Also, this degree of lightening would only be justified if the crank was
complimented with very lightweight connecting rods and pistons, which tend
to be very expensive......
Knife edge: controversial and of uncertain or proven benefits
in our application. Interesting, though.
After said grinding, I think you would want to have the crank
nitride treated as the grinding will remove that original layer from the
factory.
I have a crank in the Lightened, just a bit category. I
haven't weighed it. I also have some stock cranks. I really should get
the precision bathroom scales and see just what I've got. Remind me and
I'll try to get that research project done this week.
The Lazy Engine Researcher, Chuck Engles
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