Tag Archives: connecting rods

Balance

imagesAs in all things, balance is needed. You can insert your own “for…” here. I’m attempting a work-life balance that mostly works, too often not.

One of my struggles is life is organic, constantly changing, so keeping up is the challenge.

Another area for balance is in my engine–not so organic, but heavy metal. Once it’s in balance, it tends to stay that way. Kind of like Newton’s law of motion.

There is a rule of thumb, since pistons reciprocate, crankshafts rotate, and connecting rods connet the two (hence the name connecting rods).

The pistons/pins/rings are weighed and added to half of the connecting rods, multiplied by 75%, and that’s the weight added to each crankshaft journal (where the rod rotates on the crankshaft).

IMG_0068 copy

images-1  The weighted crank is then spun to a closely held speed and sensitive load cells measure the imbalance. Holes are drilled to remove material or plugs are added and the process is repeated until balance is achieved.

All I can say is that a balanced engine is a happy engine.

Me too.