am i stupid?

[Dennyboy]

I say why not do it if you have the time?

To me it's just more practice using different tools. If you don't try it then you won't be able to learn what works and what doesn't and won't have that knowledge to pull from later on when your working on other parts of the car.

I polished both of my spindles before I powder coated them:

And the lifter valley on the 455:

I also spent time polishing the beams on a set of 425 rods that I was going to use originally for my engine. Basically took down the casting flash, then hit them with scotch-brite roloc disc and then bead blasted them. They looked absolutely great afterwards and this also adds some strength to the rods by removing possible stress risers.

wow what did you use to do the lifter valley? I have an idea on how i might do it but you do some crazy work.

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Alright now I'm stupid but as I understand all olds are blueprinted so removing metal won't throw the balance off?

Steve

Any time you remove material from a rotating object it will throw the balance off so yes if you cut the crank it will need rebalanced. Blueprinting has more to do with the clearances within the engine not the weight of the crank.

 

[Pohlcat]

Ahh got cha balanced and blueprinted duh I had a brain fart 😳

 

[FE3X CLONE]

wow what did you use to do the lifter valley? I have an idea on how i might do it but you do some crazy work.

I used a combination of a few different things.

I used an air die grinder with a couple of different carbide tips to knock down the big stuff quick. Something similar to this:

Then for smoothing everything out I used a Dynabrade Dynafile air tool with an 80 grit sanding belt, switching to a red Scotch-brite belt for final smoothing:

I like using that dynafile to smooth out cylinder head ports as well.