Hi all,
If you have a engine that is complete is it possible to 8 dowell the crank still in the case?? the flywheel is a no brainer

Thanks in advance.

Ian.

yes ,i did mine (my old man had a jig)

It would be easier to do out of the engine

But why both fitting 8 dowels if the rest of the engine is old ??

I don't think eight dowels with a jig would be too effective...

I have four dowell cranks like that...

my hero

I have done a couple of 8 dowel jobs on assembled engines, but it can be a pain.

The stock pulley can wobble a bit when it is supported on it, as you drill and ream the holes.

If the reason is to add 4 because the original 4 are damaged?,
then there will be raised burrs(Raymond's), which can not be effectively removed,
without total disassembly.

Once the FW is done, you can drill and ream through the FW.

The reason I am contemplating this is I am looking at getting one of those zero mile new brazilian 1600's and as I am lightening the flywheel I thought I may as well add some more dowells. This means the crank is staying in the case.

Ian.

why lighten the flywheel on a 1600 with a standard cam?

sure, try it, but you'll most likely find that a standard engine relies a lot on its flywheel for smoothness, an unbalanced crank (are these late-model cranks cast iron?) won't be happy being revved very fast, the standard cam won't let it anyway, the OE assembly probably won't last very long if you do and that 8-dowells - even dodgy hand-drilled ones! - are superfluous/useless on a 60-horse engine.

I tend to agree with the 8 dowell being overkill. However lightening the flywheel does not make the engine rev higher only a little quicker. the plan for down the track is to install ratio rockers and I will be running dual carbs with a free flowing exhaust. This should give a few extra ponies without over stressing the engine.

Ian.

I ran an 1835 with a 12lb flywheel 48IDA's etc. for years with only 4 dowels and I never had a problem with it.
Personally I would never run a lightened flywheel on a stock motor, especially a Brazilian motor.
The only time it will rev quicker is when it's in neutral. Not trying to be a smartarse, just trying to help.

Andrew

In my opinion there is no need to 8 dowell a crank unless the 4 stock dowells are crook. With 370 ftlb of tightening torque the engineering theory is that flywheel is held firm by the contact between the flywheel and crank flat sections and the dowells are only a locating and precautionary measure if the bolt lossens. My experience says tighten the flywheel correctly, use some low strength loctite (screw lock - otherwise you'll never undo it) and you should have no problem.

Ken

Sorry to highjack this thread, but Ken you have a nice collection of cars.

Could you or have you ever posted pics of them on this site?

Would like a look at the judson engine & the Porsche!

[ Edited on 5-2-2007 by BeetleJuice ]

One more pic of Judson
http://vwjudsonregister.tripod.com/ken_johnsens_page.htm 

Thanks Ken

Great cars!

Be extremely careful when 8 dowelling a crank.

In the 1980s I watched an inquest in Canberra into the death of John Egan the famous engine builder.

As well as a whole series of errors that were in some cases based on familiarity breeding contempt and after the Scat engine was sectioned into about a dozen slices it was acertained that two of the 4 new pins that were put into the crank when it was 8 pinned were longer than the others. The inner face of where the crank is attached to the flywheel had been machined down too much, two of the pins protruded and so the big nut was tensioned down onto the ends of the pins, not the outer face of the flywheel. When they checked for end float of the crank by measuring at the outer edge of the flywheel, that they were really measuring fly wheel rocking.

During a tragi-comedy of errors, the engine got out of control, flew off its inadequate mountings and the shaft that connected the engine to the dynamometer hit John Egan who was breaking the basic rule of all engine testing, never be in the dyno room when the engine is running, and it killed him.

I'm not saying that that will happen to you, but it did happen to John Egan, the head of the TAFE engineering section whose dyno they were using, the owner of one of Canberra's best known suspension companies who was a well known car racer and one of their mates.

The coroner was scathing in his criticism of them all, Egan included except for the mate, who being an amateur was allowed to know less than the professionals and therefore to make mistakes.

So, I repeat. Be careful.

SCAT - say no more!

Yeah. Believe you me. Seeing the pieces of a Scat engine that had been sliced up like a loaf of bread was something worth seeing. The forensic engineer who did it was really annoyed that he had to do it to a Scat engine to find out what was wrong with it.