I dropped my new (new in 1980) 350 (.30 over) block and crank off at the machine shop a week ago to get the block cleaned, magged, cylendars deglazed, and the crank ground... the guy called me up today and told me the crank is farked. He said it has been ground too many times before... This sucks ****... now I have to find a new crank!

I have two 305 cranks, but I would think they are not balanced the same as a 350 crank...

Does anyone know how much you can take off a crank and still be useable? I think he said that it is already .40 on the main journals.. and .40 on the rod journals. Don't they make .60 bearings?

 

I don't think you can take a crank as far as a cylinder bore. Core charge for a rebuildable crank should be $50 or less, I'd pay it.

[This message has been edited by 87kevroc (edited March 02, 2001).]

 

i think .030 under is all you can buy bearings for. the shop can tell you for sure and the 305 crank is balanced differently than a 350 even with the same journal and pin size and stroke.

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ICON Motorsports

1st & 3rd

 

psst, buy a stroker kit.

[This message has been edited by RednGold86Z (edited March 02, 2001).]

 

anything over .030 is pushing it, IMO. what happens is you make the crank smaller and replace the cast iron with a bearing. this weakens the journal. on a daily driver that doesnt see about 4500 rpm, .040 would probably be ok. but if it was me, it would make me nervous. but thats just me.

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Wide Open Till You See God...Then Brake

 

also, i think reman crank shafts are 130 bucks or so. depends on who you get them from. the problems with some reman cranks are that they are already turn out to much, for example, it may be .030/.030. if you ever have to rebuild this engine again and need to have it turned, you are out of luck again and will be shelling out more money for another. some companies have limits on the reman cranks, and will only turn them no more than .020/.020. sorry it was so long.

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Wide Open Till You See God...Then Brake

 

Cranks are cheap and are everywhere. In fact, I thin kI might have seen a cast 350 crank laying by the side of the road the other day.

I've never seen bearings past .020" under from anybody claiming them to be for a performance application. If you grind a crank much farther than that, you go all the way through the surface-hardened part of it anyway, so it's garbage unless you have it re-hardened. But by the time you do that, you've spent more on some old cast garbage than a new forged one would cost.

Don't sweat it. Get another one.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

You can buy a 350 crank new from summit for about 180$.

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88 firebird formula
350 Vortec TBI
214int/224exh, .471int/.491exh
Edelbrock headers
SIX-speed
open 3.73's
2 1/4 stock catback
I love pissing those LS1's off
My Formula