[Supras] Lightweight flywheel+balancing

[Brandon]

Oh trust me i go through this stuff again and again w/ local machine shops. 
Two days ago i picked up a 3SGTE head off an alltrac, and the surface job 
looked like crap on one side,   i was told oh its the heat treat thats baked 
out of the head, thats the best that you can do, maybe try some silver paint 
before you put gasket on.   I took it to a scond shop that cleaned it up and 
when i picked it up i took it back to the first shop, and got "well i think 
we had it smoother on the intake side, but the exhaust looks better for 
sure"    no offer of money back, or anything like that.    If i really want 
my machine work done right i crate the parts up and ship them out to now 
idaho, used to be so cal.

anyway i just had to throw out the machine shop thing because well not 
everyone has a lathe handy.   I wish i did. though.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <berniek at technicaldevelop.com>
To: "Brandon" <fstrnldr at tconl.com>
Cc: <berniek at technicaldevelop.com>; <supras at supras.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Supras] Lightweight flywheel+balancing


> Yes, you are right on the premise that you think they will be careful.  No
> doubt there are some, like the one in Oklahoma (R&L Machine?) used by
> Arelene Lanman.  However, I found years ago that having a lathe and
> Bridgeport, welding equipment saved a LOT of time waste, and doubts about
> quality of work done outside.
>
> I did find a decent shop to do some work, and had them resurface the head
> and block.  But I've also seen too many instances where shops are a bit
> careless.  As an example, a shop would not refinish camshaft bearing caps,
> which I've done and have written about on this list.  They don't want to
> understand that all of the wear is in the caps, and instead they talk
> abopu align boring the cam journals, expensive and not necessary.
>
> Getting the valve clearances right was a pain, and I can't imagine most
> shops taking the time to do what we all read about with port cleanup,
> correct valve jobs, and the patience to set clearances in shim and bucket
> engines.  No doubt good shops exist, but here in North Central NJ they
> seem few and far between.
>
> Although the owner of the best shop I've found in Morris County NJ always
> has a can of beer in his hand, he seems to not let it get to his head.
> The flatness of the head and block I can check with a precision
> straightedge and feeler gauges.  Checking of flywheel and clutch I cannot
> do without making up the ring anyway.
>
> Making up the adapter ring for ball bearing to pilot hole adaptation on
> the lathe takes about 20 minutes.
>
>       BernieK
>
>> or you could just drop it off at a machine shop ;-)
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <berniek at technicaldevelop.com>
>> To: <Supras at supras.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 5:59 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Supras] Lightweight flywheel+balancing
>>
>>
>>> While not as light as an aluminum flywheel, I got a chrome-moly flywheel
>>> from AutoCom.  It a lot lighter than the cast iron stocker, and much
>>> stronger.  The price was right, too, about half the cost of aluminum.
>>> It
>>> still needs to be installed as part of my JDM rebuild, now over a year
>>> old
>>> due to work considerations.
>>>
>>> When the inertia of the pressure plate is considered, the difference in
>>> total angular inertia of the flywheel and clutch combination will not be
>>> that much different than with use of an aluminum flywheel.
>>>
>>> Just a suggestion:  If you have a lathe, make up a ring which fits the
>>> center hole of the new flywheel and a small ball bearing in the center.
>>> If the ball bearing is sealed, take out the seals and grease, and put
>>> clean oil in the bearing to minimize drag.  Put the ring and ball
>>> bearing
>>> in, put a shaft in the ball bearing, and stick the other end of the
>>> shaft
>>> in a vise.  The heavy side of the flywheel will roll to the bottom.
>>> With
>>> a Dremel tool, you can remove material from the heavy side to the point
>>> where you can make the flywheel stop at any point, so its balanced.
>>> Then
>>> bolt the pressure plate on, and repeat the process with it.  Punch mark
>>> them so they will go together during installation the same way.
>>>
>>> There is a way to do balancing in the car as well, which I did when
>>> putting an aluminum flywheel in my Chevy powered Firebird.  Run the
>>> engine
>>> at the speed where the vibration is worst to get an idea of the
>>> vibration
>>> magnitude.  Then take the access cover off the bell housing, take out
>>> one
>>> pressure plate bolt, put a couple of washers under it, and reinstall it.
>>> Run the engine again, and see if the vibration has gotten worse or
>>> better.
>>> Try this with each of the pressure plate bolts in sequence until you
>>> find
>>> the one or two at which the vibration is minimized.  Then change the
>>> number of washers to obtain minimum vibration.  That worked like a
>>> charm.
>>> At one time I believe I saw a GM bulletin describing the same procedure
>>> for balancing a Buick flex plate and torque convertor.
>>>
>>>            BernieK
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Supras mailing list
>>> Supras at supras.com
>>> http://supras.com/mailman/listinfo/supras_supras.com
>>
>>
>