A balancing act in progress: Before any type of work begins, the entire rotating assembly will be weighed and balanced. The crank is made from high-grade 4340 forged steel, micro-polished and chamfered. The connecting rods are 4340 forged steel and are 5.7 inches from center to center. The pistons are custom-forged for Smeding, made of high-silicone aluminum with a zero deck surface for better combustion, with full floating wrist pins.
When it comes to stroking a small-block, a cam with a, shall we say, large girth can present a problem. The lobe and the top of the connecting rod's journal can come into good thing. Usually this occurs on the 2 and 6 cylinders; Smeding Performance leaves nothing to chance and chamfers each connecting rod.
All rods, pistons, wrist pins, rings, and bearings are weighed, and each weight is written down. Balancing equals power. Here's an interesting fact: A quarter of an ounce just four inches from the center of rotating assembly at 8,000 rpm is equal to 114 pounds; at 4,000 rpm it becomes 28 pounds; at 6,000 rpm it becomes 64 pounds. Weight and balance are everything.
The rods have a larger chamfer on one side. The crank's larger radius makes this necessary for bearing side clearance. Notice that the bearing is also chamfered. A normal small-block bearing wouldn't work in this application and would actually rub on the radius, causing more unwanted self-machining issues.
The valve guides on these cylinder heads are .0015; Smeding opens up each exhaust valve guide to .0020 of an inch. The reason for honing just the exhaust valve guides is because of the temperature (combustion temperatures and exhaust gas temperatures); honing gives the valvestem more room to expand when operating at full temperature. The cylinder heads used here are Edelbrock Performer aluminum straight-plug heads and 2.02- and 1.60-inch stainless steel valves with 64cc and 170cc combustion chambers. All ports have been machined and matched.
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Here a little and there a little, Moody works his magic on the crank balancing it out.
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Every Smeding-blown 383 built receives a Pro Race double-keyed balancer. The crank is also
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According to Ben Smeding, two of the pistons may be just a bit too tight on the wrist pins
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Gapping the rings on a blown enine is a bit different than a typical small-block the rings
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A small hole is drilled into each of the oil galley plugs. Why, you ask? These minute hole