legacycentral bbs

Long story short: I have been driviing with manley h-rods and cp pistons for 6months now.
I put the engine together all by myself, without balancing the parts..

Since its a boxer and the items are of high quality, i thougt i didn't need a balance.

Since my headgasket is blown (cheap ebay mls headgasket) i will take the heads off and so on..

Something in me says i should balance it now?

You should be fine without balancing them. I didn't balance my components for either of my rebuilds. It would be a lot of work to split the block again and redo all that for what probably won't make much if any difference in how the engine runs.

But that's just my thoughts...

A balanced rotating assembly really isn't worth pulling everything apart. Lots of machine shops even have balancing as an extra cost option, it's a high-performance thing. If you want to spin your motor north of 7k often, then it's probably a pretty good idea, but aside from that you will be fine on almost any motor.

Stock engines aren't balanced and Subaru still made the redline 6500. I'd say you are more than fine with it as-is.

Then my initial thoughts was correct. It's a shedload of extra work to split the block vs. change headgaskets.

Thanks guys, hope i remember to take som photos and post them.

Cant wait for the parts to turn up from the UK.

I would add on caveat...

Did you weight your components? If all your new pistons, rings, rods, ect. all weight the same, your good. Most builders will at least do that.