"I have a low miles 427 stroker kit. It is the rotating assembly only It will fit in a late model and new model 351W block. I had less than a 1,000 miles on it, It will need to be balanced." He wants $550.00 for it, deal or not?
Like Dave said, why the low miles...............and more important, what brand name parts are they...............for that price I would assume a cast crank(made in China).............but what kind of rods(made in China) and how are the pistons(what oversize are the pistons?)............sometimes when the price is cheap there is a reason..................I'd say a good quality rotating assembly should be 3 times that..................if you were to by it make sure you get him to sign something saying if you have it mag'd/inspected and it's not good you get your money back.................if he won't sign something then walk away...................IMHO
What he said in the e-mail answers........"I pulled it because it wasnt balanced and my alum heads and cam was to small to feed it what it needed. This was my first stroker build and I didnt think I would needed it balanced. It had a vibratiion between 2800 &3200 rpm. So i just drove it around to to keep the rpm under 2200."
After receiving and email like that I'd..................WALK AWAY............. usually rotating kits come balanced...........(not knowing who made the kit or what brand the parts are) and he drove it with a vibration for 1000 miles(at below 2200rpm)...................just say thanks but no thanks..............IMHO
Not to be a kill-joy, but my 331 was built around Chinese made Eagle cast stroker crank and SIR rods, they've been on the job now for 9 years. My Chinese made aluminum radiator (bought from a member here)has been on the job now for 5-6 years.
I've seen too many parts fail in the past 10/15 years (mainly cranks) since SCAT/Eagle and others have been making parts in China..............and if you were to visit the facility that makes them (there are two in China that make most of the automotive cranks/rods/pistons) you may rethink spending your hard earned money on parts that are manufacturer in China and machined here is the US. It only takes 35% work content to be able to say made in the USA..........................I'm not saying that everyone fails because they do scrap quite a few when they machine them here............just saying I wouldn't roll the dice with the possibility of coming up "snake eyes"..................IMHO
Sent another question as to what brand it all was, got this response...."Its no problem. The whole kit came from Probe Industries. Its not marked on the crank and rods. The pistons are marked."
Well, I'm running used Probe pistons in my 408, but I knew where they came from (out of the 408 built by CHP) and they checked out within spec when I put my motor back together (honed each cylinder to meet the specs on each piston) so that is a plus........................what I am going to say is only what I've heard and it is not based on fact, just word of mouth..................all of the cast cranks and lower end rods that Probe sells are from Pro-Comp(the reason the crank and rods are not marked)...............one of the other companies that has most if not all of their parts made in China....including their aluminum heads.......................and I'm not going to say anything more about where they were manufactured. You also need to ask him what the Probe part number was for the kit and if it was the GT or Street Fighter kits, as they do sell a number of different kits with different bore pistons, piston pin heights, and most importantly, what type of piston domes for which head cc volume..................as this will determine what the final compression ratio is..................................with all of that information you can make a better choice. One other thing I forgot to mention earlier is that on the Chinese cranks there have also been problems trying to balance them, some have required a lot of "Molly" to be added to the crank to bring them into balance.....the more holes you don't have to drill in the counter weights the better off you are and "Molly" is expensive.
Yes, my signature reads...... billet crank....... by Eagle that was forged/machined and made in the good ole USofA. When I refurbished the motor it was reground, shot peened and given the old nitriding treatment................I used to have a license plate that read.........."BY USA".............
I was thinking that also - if he caused no damage by running an un-balanced assembly (stopping at 3200 RPM of course), why didn't he just have everything balanced, change the heads/cam, re-assemble it and be on his merry way
I've seen lots of Ford stroker kits from Summit and others that say that they come unbalanced and must be balanced before assembly. For some reason they balance the Chevy units at the factory, but not the Fords.....
I would buy it. Sounds to me like he had exhaust drone at that 400 rpm range, and thought it was out of balance. Wouldn't an out-of-balance engine be out of balance at ALL rpms? Not just a small 400 rpm range? My gut feeling is he felt the drone, thought it was out of balance, and freaked out. As I did with my current 5.0, for the same reason. Once I worked the drone out of the exhaust, the "balance" came back miraculously! The price is ASTRONOMICALLY CHEAP, but it just might be a decent engine. If not, you aren't out much, and you still have a block and other parts you might be able to use. Otherwise, do like I did, and drive it ABOVE the rpms where the "imbalance" occurs...keep it above 3200 rpms all the time, where it is "balanced".
