I am ordering a forged 496 rotating assembly, internal balanced and I ordered a TCI balancer from S*mmit to go with it. Any concerns about TCI products? It was one of a few internal balanced units.

Anyway, what is the difference between internal and external balancing?

Which is better? (I "assume" internal)

I also read a few posts from a seach about breaking in ceramic coated headers. I have a set of H*dmonds 1 3/4" coming as well. I read one post that said during initial start up of a new engine, run it for about 5 minutes, turn off, let the headers cool, and repeat 4-5 more times to "cure" them?

Any truth to this? Other suggestions? I am concerned about breaking in the engine right vs. breaking in the headers right.

Thoughs? Comments?

Thanks,
E.

I am ordering a forged 496 rotating assembly, internal balanced and I ordered a TCI balancer from S*mmit to go with it. Any concerns about TCI products? It was one of a few internal balanced units.

Anyway, what is the difference between internal and external balancing?

Which is better? (I "assume" internal)

I also read a few posts from a seach about breaking in ceramic coated headers. I have a set of H*dmonds 1 3/4" coming as well. I read one post that said during initial start up of a new engine, run it for about 5 minutes, turn off, let the headers cool, and repeat 4-5 more times to "cure" them?

Any truth to this? Other suggestions? I am concerned about breaking in the engine right vs. breaking in the headers right.

Thoughs? Comments?

Thanks,
E.
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I would prefer the ATI damper.
Internal & External balance is self explanatory, internal means you do not have weight added to the damper & flywheel or some other device at the ends of the crank to balance.
External means you do.

I would always prefer to internal balance if possible. Any time you can move the weight closer to the "imbalance" position this is a good thing.
You could have a crank with no counterweights & statically balance it on both ends with weights but what happens is the center is going to go nuts dynamically.
This is sort of what goes on with external balance but obviously not as severe :D
This is the same reason extra weights are added to the center of long stroke cranks, it equalizes the weights along the axis & the crank in this case it will not "flex" as much.

This is kind of what happens when you have a tire way out of balance & you add weight to the wrong side,
Statically the balancer says you are in balance,, driving down the road it will shake your fillings out at certain speeds.

I will let someone else take up the headers,, :)

The header issue has been discussed at length in the past. Do a search for "breaking in coated headers" or something similar. If you are going to run a flat tappet cam, there are considerations for break in for that also.

Just my opinion, depending on how much power you are expecting from the 496, 1 3/4 are probably on the small side. Most use 1 7/8 minimum on a 496. JMHO.

Just my opinion, depending on how much power you are expecting from the 496, 1 3/4 are probably on the small side. Most use 1 7/8 minimum on a 496. JMHO.

What he said. My engine builder said I needed a minimum of 2" primary headers on my 496 and said I would probably pick up a little by having 2 1/8" primaries....

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I would prefer the ATI damper.
Internal & External balance is self explanatory, internal means you do not

snip...

Statically the balancer says you are in balance,, driving down the road it will shake your fillings out at certain speeds.

I will let someone else take up the headers,, :)

Thank you Mike for the explanation. I was going with an internal assembly.

Jbird,

I'll run another search with your suggestion. I didn't find much when I did mine, but it's obviously varies with the search criteria.

Purs,

I found this post. It indicated 525-600 hp = 1 3/4". I can always return them for 2" units. :-)

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125426&highlight=header+size

Thanks for the feedback!
E.