I'm having trouble posting this thread so this is my second go at it. Shite!

I'm building a track engine that I want to pump out about 115 RWHP and I want it to spin up faster than stock. Wishful thinking, maybe, but I'm hoping that my game plan will get me there. I may jump around a bit as I'm picking away at the task as best I can when the resources pop up.

I'm doing a low brow high-performance job attempting to do much of the work myself and using used OEM and eBay parts. I bought my 851 because I wanted to tinker with it myself.

To start, I've finally made chips while lightening my crank.

Not having been down this path before I was conservative with this operation and merely aped what I saw in Ian Falloon's Desmoquattro Performance Handbook. If I reduce the crank weight too much the balancing shop will merely have to add it back on which is expensive.

I finally came up with a cheap plywood fixture to aid in machining the crank. It fit the bill because it was cheap, fast to make, effective and robust enough to lighten several cranks before it's too tired.

The two parts slide together around the crank and then I ailign the crank edge to the fixture and clamp it in place. I flip the crank end for end to get at both sides.

First to the bandsaw to remove the bulk of the material. I believe that the cranks are casehardened. A sharp bi-metal blade helps get to the chewy centre!

[IMG]http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t72/chrisdfournier/?action=view¤t=Netandcranks011.jpg&newest=1

Next to the Bridgeport clone mill to clean the crank faces up.

The machined crank "ready for the balancing shop".

Well, it's just about time for incompetance to step in as it so often does with my projects: "Well hello these crank faces aren't square; Chris did you not tram the mill before starting? 'Why no I didn't, I thought it was ready to go. Is this a problem?'"

Well the situation wasn't really that big of a deal but I didn't want the balancing shop to know what a boob I was so early on in our relationship so I set up the crank on a little surface grinder that I bought used a while ago and cleaned up the crank web faces nice and tidy. Now I can stand behind my work.

Inspected for other "issues" I have to say that the cranks came out very nicely.

The scale in the background is for my conrod operations, not another line of work... Would you believe that one of my conrods weighs 2.8 grams more than the other? For shame. I'm going to find out where the excess baggage is and trim it off in my next posting with pictures.

If this thread is not interesting let me know and I will cease and desist, otherwise please make all donations payable to... 😁