Balancing and blueprinting a 660

[mfuller]

This may seem way outta left field, but:

Has anyone here had a 660 balanced and blueprinted? Naturally, this is more of a racer's trick, but is it really of any benefit to a production motor? I have no idea what the build tolerances are from the GM factory, but logic would say that some improvement could be made.

Just looking for some educated answers.

[TurboZ24]

Balancing and blueprinting are kind of misleading. Almost any good machine shop will spec, balance, etc the rotating mass and block/heads during a good rebuild.

[SappySE107]

I had my bottem end balanced and it made my car oh so fuckin smooth. It was seriously perfect...not even a ripple in a glass of water. That changed after a while when the compression changed across the cylinders but oh well. As far as blueprinting the entire block, im sure it would be worth the time considering GM tolerances allow for a min and max of different parts to make things quite a bit off from the total. However, i don't know how far off the average block is in the end but would guess its not too bad considering the milage out of these engines.

[EspanolaGuitarista]

Production has been very good the past 10 years. Blueprinting is basically bringing an engine into minimum tolerances and writing down them on a build sheet. Balancing is always worth the money. Period. You could take apart anything and blueprint it. They do it with injectors for better flow. Tolerances aren't standardized. They may vary from one part manufacturer to another. Is it aluminum, cast iron, cast steel, forged steel, special alloy, titanium, billet? These metals all have different expansion rates and need to be machined accordingly. Then you should take into consideration natural aspiration as opposed to blower and turbos. They all require different piston to cylinder wall clearances and ring gaps. Then the rpm needs to be considered. High revving motor take higher tolerances since they scuff the bearings harder and usaully require thick oil, like 50W. Do you need to O-ring the deck for high compression or high boost? I hope that helps out some. I'm sure I forgot some things. If anything horsepower is expensive, but blown motors get expensive too so in the end it may be worth it.