Hawk - yes crank, front pulley, flywheel (including clutch pressure plate) all balanced together.
Stuart - Don't ask about cost, but not as much as you would imagine. At the end of the day this engine will have been completely built for less than 5 grand (GBP)including ancilliaries. I did ALL the bottom end work myself though, as shipping a block and then complete engine back and forth from GB to Oz would have been as much again.....
As it happens I was lucky and managed to buy a nice useable VX head off Matt, a forum member, Thanks Matt!! Why a VX head? Well it has the nice big 36mm parallel throat inlet ports and 43.5mm inlet valves as standard, very similar to the Fiat 130TC head, so this means the cost of modification is less then with a standard Beta head with 42mm inlets
Now on with the story and next up some pics of the assembled block. I have built plenty of twin cam engines, but when you are playing with expensive parts you start questioning your own ability to do the job in case you stuff something up! In particular fitting pistons to rods with those horrible wire pin retainers, and gapping/fitting fragile piston rings, as you know it will cost.....
I did a "dry build" check, using an old head gasket I fitted the head and fitted cam belt, and turned it over two complete inlet/exhaust cycles to check valve to piston clearance at TDC. The cams in this engine have over 4.5mm lift at TDC compared to standard Beta that has less than 2mm...
