END PLAY Setting crankshaft end play on engines that you do frequently can be made easy and save time. If you do enough engines, you will always find yourself lapping thrust bearings to get desired end play. Start recording the width of thrust bearings after you have...

ROD BOLT INSTALLATION When installing aftermarket rod bolts, in addition to checking the under-head radius clearance, if the nuts are flanged, always check for clearance on the cap where it seats. On some rods, the O.D. of the flanged nut will hit before the face...

V10 BALANCING ACT When balancing V-10 cranks, I use my four V8 bobweights and then two V6 bobweights on the fifth journal. I’ve double checked this by moving them around after the crank is balanced, and there is no change. It works great and eliminates the need to...

TWICE THE SCALE I adapted this rod weighing setup after seeing my friend doing something very similar. If the point of contact with the scale is not the dead center of the bore on each end of the rod, you will not get accurate readings. I turned some mandrels on the...

EXTERNAL BALANCING ACT When balancing a crankshaft that has a flexplate or flywheel, make sure it fits snugly and there is no lateral movement. Any play can cause the balance not to repeat when the flex/flywheel has been removed and installed. I like to center them up...

GO OVERSIZE FOR EASE Next time you have set of large journal small block Chevy connecting rods to resize, consider honing the big ends of them for a +.002" outside diameter bearing that the LS engines with fracture cap rods use. You will save yourself a lot of time...