[T2] weighing and balancing the piston - advise

[raceingcajun]

Hi Chris,

    You would normally remove a small amount at a time from the "inner 
casting rib's", from the heaviest pistons, to match them to the lightest one 
in the set. Do this in several place's so as not to weaken the casting. You 
should weight the pistons with the pins, to get an all up weight. I have 
seen some folks weight them with the rings and wrist pin clips, but that is 
a little much in my opinion. Are you going to balance the complete rotating 
assembly, rods, crank, flywheel, clutch asm, crank pulley, cooling fan.and 
such?
     As far as longevity go's, there are to many variables to say. I will 
say this........the rules say a "BLUE PRINT" balanced engine will live 
longer than an un-balanced one. One thing to consider, we don't turn our 
stock VW engines very fast, and I don't think balance is much of an issue at 
low RPM's. Although back in the drag race days, I had a friend who, because 
of lack of money, once built a 2275 cc engine and balanced nothing. He 
regularly turned it to 9500 RPM, and it lived a whole season with out 
failure........ Recommended.....NO!        Just an example. By the way I 
don't think he ever did balance an engine after.      Again not recommended!

Howard

>
>Subject: [T2] weighing and balancing the piston - advise

>would it make my engine last 100000 miles if I balance it that way or it 
>won't make any difference.
>
> Thanks