They have a kit available for the 350, http://www.cleggengine.com/68-81-buick-350-5-7l-v8-crankshaft-kit.html, are they any good? Do they mess with the cranks at all balance wise, or just sell stock units?
Why not just machine your crank? Not sure how accurate they but here is a list: http://www.buickgod.com/article/3247.html
The crank I have is a 76 with the cap screw rods, and as you probably know it needs to be turned and then balanced (or can you get away with not balancing with turning it on the rods and mains?). I'd rather save that crank and my cap screw rods for a future build, be it with my motor or otherwise as they are the better type. I have a set of usable '69 rods and I need a crank anyway to match those rods (don't want to have to balance my crank twice, if one even can), and I saw this site in another thread so I wondered if they're legit. If not, I can probably scrounge up a usable early crank on here or ebay or something.
Oh okay I see.... No need to re-balance the crank just because you are cutting 10 thou off the mains and rod journals just have it machined, use the oversized bearings and re-assemble.
What Sean said, re-grinding the crank doesn't effect the balance enough to worry about. As far as re-balancing a crank, yes it can be done BUT it can get costly if weight needs to be added, the more weight the higher the cost because one slug of heavy Mallory metal is about $100 a pop. :eek2: And that is why I recommend if in someone wants to convert to internal balance with a sbb 350 that the cap screw crank is the better one to start out with. The factory sbb cap screw rods aren't all that IMHO because of how much heavier they are and they're still cast iron so that still limits the RPM range. The older style rods are lighter, combine those with ARP bolts lighter pistons and they should be good for 6,500 RPM once and a while and up to 450 HP. A well prepped set of cap screw rods may be able to handle 600 HP but as long as the HP comes in at under 6,000 RPM then you'll be fine. Unfortunately small cube engines like to spin more to make more power unless you're using some sort of forced induction. If you think you want to plan a serious sbb in the future, do yourself a favor and either get a set of nascar take out rods or the TA Performance made by Molnar sbb forged H-beam rods. If you think the plans are to ever add a set of TA Performance aluminum heads then you'll definitely need a stout low end that will be able to handle more RPM than the factory ever intended. GL Derek
