I just got my MGA crankshaft and connectiong rods back from the shop.
The rods went through the normal balancing procedure. When the
crankshaft was spin checked, it was determined that it was already nicely
balanced and needed no further attention. This one is from an MGA 1500
engine with only 55,000 miles (reported), just reground to .010"
undersize on general principals.
The shop guru claims that it is very common for the MG crankshafts to be
nicely balanced from the factory, being small and symetrical it's easy to
do. Also being small, it's unusual for them to get distorted enough to
get out of balance. So unless you're building a racing engine, or have a
general desire to "do everything right", you may want to save your money
on this one.
I think the connectiong rods do have quite a variation and do benefit
from balancing. A new set of pistons should already be matched within
1/2 gram, but check the labels to be sure.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA
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