[DeTomaso] Crank Lightening

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/11/08 6:22:14 PM, tonydigi at optonline.net writes:

> Where does one begin to collect the various acceptable (or proven) 
> dimensions for these mods?
> 
I don't want to discourage you, Tony but I don't know the particulars & I 
doubt if any racing crank shop would tell you; this is their bread and butter. 
And in any case, the 351-Cleveland is close to forgotten by contemporary race 
shops. I suspect they would need to adapt whatever they know about Windsor 
cranks built for professional pavement or dirt racing. But with a couple of junk 
cranks and a good set of mic's, you should be able to figure out the critical 
size of the drill-holes that won't fall thru into the oil passages or seriously 
weaken a crank. In old photos, they appear to be more than 3/4" ID but less 
than 1"ID, offset sideways from the oil passages. Also, I think the holes are 
honed after drilling to remove possible stress risers inside.
In the mountains of northeast CA not far from our Nevada home, a retired 
friend of mine- a Pantera owner- does complex engine building like this to 
supplement his retirement. When he sold his huge machine shop 6 or so yrs ago, he 
kept his boring machines, the engine dyno and the crankshaft grinding machine. He 
has an engine balancer, too- among other impressive tools. Again, I doubt if 
he'd tell you how to do it yourself but I have his phone number if you want to 
try- offline of course. 
A third idea is to buy a surplus or even a scrap Winston Cup short-track 
crank from Roush or one of the current Ford racing teams, which uses Cleveland 
mains (better bearing sizes and Chev rods (also better bearing sizes). Strokes 
will vary and some rod journals may even be cut for 1.88" Honda rod bearing 
sizes. Checking one over will tell you a lot for the price. Good luck- J Deryke



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