Re[2]: Balanced! Sorted!

[Toby Erkson <Toby_Erkson@ccm.jf.intel.com>]

Patrick, Patrick, Patrick,
Well, at least you are true to the pure stock VW.  However, Toby B. is correct 
in his statement that "...other attacks of precision help..."  Doing anything to
improve upon the stock engine will help the engine perform or last (or both).

Many of you forget that the reason VW didn't do these performance mods is 
because they wanted to build an inexpensive vehicle.  They also didn't have the 
technology and research of *many* years that we have today to find these 
performance mods.  And to perform such research would've bumped up the price of 
the vehicle and that's counter to what VW was striving for.

Given one pure stock engine and one similar stock engine that has been balanced,
ported, polished and blueprinted (all of which cannot be seen when the deck lid 
is opened) I will take the 'modified' one and bet it's pink slip that it will 
last longer, operate smoother, and pump out an extra horsepower or two over the 
pure stock engine and still get the same or slightly better gas mileage.
     Toby "technology is our friend" Erkson
     air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
     '72 VW Squareback 1.6L bored and stroked to 2.0L
     '75 Porsche 914 1.8L NOT for sale
     Portland, Oregon
     http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/8501/

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Balanced! Sorted!
Author:  type-3-errors@umich.edu at SMTPGATE
Date:    9/2/97 9:54 AM

...
* AHA;
* I think perhaps I was confusing "counterweighted" with "balanced
* rotating assembly".

That makes sense.  Balancing is a good thing.  However, the Volkswagen
engine is quite well balanced straight out of the box.  Yes, when doing a
rebuild, it is good to have the rods balanced - it would be a poor choice
to use rods that varied in weight from 595g to 615g - and 311B rods do vary
like that.  But if you balance things out in relation to eachother -
balance the entire package.  From the fan all the way back through the
flywheel.  Watch them do it and ask questions.

* Balancing an engine that's been rebuilt is (in my 4
* rebuild opinion) well worth the money- it reduces vibration, DOES seem
* to 'free up horsepower' and a balanced engine lasts longer, even if it's
* just driven (and revved a bit) on the street.

I wouldn't know about that.  It may run smoother for awhile, but things can
get quickly out of balance depending on other factors like heat.

* Of course, porting,
* blueprinting, and other attacks of precision help, too...

Depending on the application, yes.  For a street engine, no.  This merely
makes your local machine shop happy to take your cash.

-- Patrick
1963 Beetle
1967 Variant