my automotive tech teacher told me today that engine balancing can increase HP...is this true?has anyone performed balancing on a stock engine?

 

Honestly I wouldn't touch that on a VQ. Older engines would benefit from this though. My dad had his 455 balanced. But there's a huge difference between 1970's domestic pushrods and mid 1990's to 2000's Nissan V6s

 

Some engines were built to loose tolerances, i.e. all the parts fit together only so well. The idea behind balancing and blueprinting is to make the tolerances tighter, so everything fits exactly and runs better and more smoothly. You want to do this with an engine that:

A. will see a lot of race use
B. will be boosted (turbo, supercharger, or nitrous)
C. will be modified to have a higher redline

Balancing and blueprinting makes sure that everything is even so that you don't lose power or get vibrations that could shorten the life of the engine.

Older large-displacement domestic engines (like JClaw's dad's 455) weren't built to tight tolerances (to keep costs down), so balancing and blueprinting could make a huge difference in making sure everything runs the way it should. The reason JClaw is recommending against doing this on a VQ is that the VQ engines are already built well enough in general that it wouldn't make much of a difference.

 

Playing Gran Turismo?

 

Be nice now.


While I don't plan on balancing anything anytime soon, to keep those vibrations down it might be a good investment to get a engine damper kit.