Quote:
Originally Posted by daren007
I can see balancing when you are upgrading but as for a stock engine do you feel it was money well spent. My point in advertising if many think they are getting a smoother running engine seat of the pants feel) are they getting that.
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Daren, as an engine rebuilder I balance every engine that comes out of my shop. When the Model-A was being manufactured, Ford balanced every engine that came out of his factory too, ...and Ford would not have taken the time or the added expense if he did not know this was necessary. There are many components we use today during the rebuild which are not in balance with each other (-such as pistons, pins, rods) plus most of the rotating assembly has been modified in some way over the coarse of its lifetime where they are no longer in balance. That is why I choose to balance every component on my engine rebuilds.
Now the underlying issue is that you don't have any way of knowing is how poor the balance 'could be' since your rebuilder DID balance everything. If you are complaining now, it vey well could have been much worse had they not balanced everything.
So you may ask, the why don't all engine rebuilders balance their engines? Maybe it is a marketing ploy where their advertised price can be a couple hundred dollars cheaper than their competitors by making the balancing an option. Maybe it was because the consumer was looking for ways to save a buck. I will offer this mindset though, thee is more time involved to properly rebuild a Model-A engine compared to other more modern marques and yet the profit on a Model-A engine rebuild is less than most other engine rebuilds. What I have personally observed is the way many Model-A engine builders can do them cheaply is because they are using old worn equipment. With worn equipment, the results generally are sloppy tolerances. To some consumers, this is acceptable either because they don't know any better or they just don't care, however to some consumers who live in today's world, they have 21st century expectations when it comes to their Model-A too. Restoring a Model-A engine that can surpass 50k miles of life expectancy is not hard to do if top-notch equipment and skills are used, however it does come with a price that some are unwilling to pay.