[Jim Downard]

Don,
How do you prefer to balance your motors. I've always thought an internally balanced motor was the way to go, but it sure seems that a lot of people are building externally balanced motors.

On a cam change, Do you think I'll need to cut valve reliefs in the pistons with one of the profiles you recommend. I REALLY want the car to have a somewhat lopey idle. Hell, don't you need the show with the go. I don't have the cam card from my engine in front of me, but I'm remembering numbers like .473 lift and 264 duration. Don't quote me on those, but that's in the ballpark. It's a flat tappet hyd. cam and was supposed to be a 292 dur. with .512 lift. However, the builder said the cam he put in the motor cut me 7 hp, but gained me 23 ft. lb. of torque. I believe he based this on the Dyno 2000 software or some similar package.
In a hypothetical sence, how would you handle this little situation. If the motor was improperly balanced, I really don't want to pull it and send it back to him. I would prefer to remedy it locally. If he would send me new bearings, gaskets, etc. whatever I needed to reassemble the motor, I would take care of the rebalance. But as I mentioned before, I REALLY DO NOT want to ship the motor. I'm not sure how to handle this. It can get really touchy here. Help.

Thanks,
Jim Downard