So i just bought a reman crank from a certain scottish named auto parts store. ( Crankshaft rebuilders inc. supplied). Looking over it the journals and everything check out on tolerance. Then just looking it over i noticed these small roughly ground weld spots on the outside of the rod journals, then one just kind has a headless screw sticking out of it?!? Im not going to claim to be entirely familiar with whats acceptable for crank reman/balancing...but this just looks too ghetto to be proper, and any rebalncing ive seen involved crating new holes or filling old ones on the edge of the countereight..do i just need to tell them to take this $#!+ back? Its a 22mm(.865) snout d16 crank, so its not like theyre just on shelves everywhere. How (ab)normal is this? I would personally assume any crank reman company would leave smoother grinds and more consistency than what this shows, maybe im just trying to be too picky...either way i really wanna take a flapwheel and smooth that crap out! That grinding though!! So rough, and you can tell they almost screwed the journal wall!

Wtf is this!!!

 

You risk unbalancing it by smoothing those out, but I do agree that is shoddy workmanship.

 

Ive never seen such roughness on internals..supposed to be a pretty big and reputable place..my main concern though is that screw. My thinking is it could come loose, cant tell if its been threaded in, epoxied, or what..maybe i should just grab the tig and melt it down in a little bit? At very least it would fill the voids properly so its locked in securely without getting any significant heat in the crank. I couldnt really imagine smoothing it out would affect balance really, anything less than an all out race engine is fine within 3/4 oz/inch of balance..all smoothed out i would be suprised it theres more than 2 or 3 grams needed per just to smooth. Even at 7 grams(1/4 oz)/inch is what the highest performing nhra/nascar engines spec out..4 spots over about a foot, as long as not more than 7 grams per spot are removed assuming its in really good balance now..assuming might get me in more trouble than anything else looking at this though...maybe i should see if someone locally can check the balance for me...

 

Also, the extra oil these spots will collect probably adds half as much as it would take to smooth them, thats another concern. Oil shedding aids in cooling and reducing weight on the assembly, if i could without screwing up balance royally id hand polish the entire thing.

 

Take it back and request another one... or pony up the cash and order a new one from Honda.

 

Putting a crank that shitty into a Honda engine would be an atrocity. Huge downgrade from OEM no matter which way you cut it.

I would also very much question how well it's balanced in it's current state. Some of the "machining" marks look like they just haphazardly grinded into it. As already mentioned, that crank is going to be terrible for windage purposes.

 

...my feelings exactly...im just wondering if it can be saved...and jrcivic - this is a 30 year old engine man, honda discontinued major parts for these loooong ago. It goes in a 88-89 only, specifically, dohc zc (d16a6/a1). I wonder about having it rebalanced though, because of the fact theres only so many left. I believe the journals are fine and still retain the nitride coating which is more critical than anything else at this stage. I just dont know. Im so disappointed...how can you butcher something that they dont make anymore. Its like dukes of hazard demolishing hundreds of chargers to make one damn movie..like theyre not expensive and hard enough to find in decent workable shape as it is. Smh...

 

BigD, I simply wouldn't bother with that one. Take it back... if they cannot supply you with an alternative, I would consider another source. If you cannot find an alternative, you might consider a Z6 crankshaft instead. The Interweb will tell you that the A6 crank is better... and if you buy into that thinking/folklore, you could modify the oil journals of the Z6 crank to match those of the A6.