[Vwdiesel] in deep

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

when balancing pistons,
is it best to weigh and do pistons n rods separately?
or together as a unit??
where is the best place to remove any excess metal if needed?
(hopefully very little)


  Seperately since the pistons are easier to do!  :)  I've done a couple 
different ways.  One was to balance the pistons, then the pins, then 
the rods.  Due to some really weird Subaru pins I switched to matching 
the heavy pistons with the light wrist pins then balancing them as a unit.
Much easier if you get some really out pins!  The diesel stuff is pretty 
close.
  Generally a lathe is used to remove material from the bottom of the piston. 

I don't have a lathe so I use about a 5/15 to 3/8 drill bit and lightly make 
dimples in the bottom of the piston dome (up inside).  It makes for more 
surface area plus removes a little metal.  The domes are nicely thick and 
you really don't remove much.  
The rods should be done for each end but that's difficult to do so I tend 
to DIY it mostly for total mass.  Grind lenghwise not across.  I mostly 
just remove casting flash along the side and remove some metal top 
and bottom, if there's enough weight nub there to do it.  Some have 
them, some don't (engines, not one VW to another).  It's not as good 
but it works.
  My former machinist said not to bother bringing import 4 cylinder 
cranks to him for balancing.  Save my money.  Most of them are so 
close he couldn't believe it.  Instead he said to spend the money on 
balancing the flywheel, pistons and rods.
     Loren