[email protected] (Dave Williams)
gnttype  28 Jan 1994
- -> Oh, and the price was the exact same as the turbo stock replacement
  -> crank! (~$435)  And my GM guys says he located a few ... boy, it
  -> almost tempts one, but THAT one is going to be a tough one to sneak
  -> by the wife!!! <*Grin*>
- Why buy it?  Just drill yours.  You can do it with a plain old handheld
  electric drill.  Center-punch the journal, block the crank where it
  won't roll, use a milk crate or something to get the right work height,
  use a brand new sharp drill bit, someone to spray soapy water as a
  coolant stream, polish up your brass cojones, and just do it.  I've done
  several cranks that way.  Nowadays I'd just toss it on the milling
  machine, but I didn't always have toys like that.
- Center punch the BITCH out of the crank.  If the drill walks out of the
  hole and skitters down the journal, you will have Excedrin Headache
  #25525742.
- Clean up the hole with your trusty die grinder, make sure there are no
  burrs inside, and you're ready to go, don't even have to have the crank
  turned.

dave williams
[email protected]
- -> do not find added crank flex to be an acceptable tradeoff, personally.
- I have never seen a failure at a main journal, cross-drilled or not.
  I've seen plenty of failures at a rod cheek, and a couple of lost
  snouts, but no main problems, even on small block Chevys, which have
  notoriously undersize bearing journals to start with.
- That's not to say no crank will ever break at the main journal because
  it was cross drilled, but I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist
  over it.

dave williams
[email protected]
- -> I always wondered if you couldn't just do it that way ... everybody
  -> has told me that you'd screw up the journals and it would eat
  -> bearings.  I never understood that
- I've not had any trouble.  A hole is a hole, as long as you don't slip
  and scar the journal.

[email protected] (Dave Williams)
gnttype  03 Mar 1994
- Ken, remember if you port the oil galleries and crossdrill the crank,
  you may see LESS indicated oil pressure in the engine.  What you're
  measuring is back pressure in the oil system, not flow.  Most of your
  oil is going right back out the oil pump bypass instead of to the bearings.
- Depending on how much pump volume you have (I've never done any oiling
  mods on a Buick) your pump might send all the oil through the bearings
  instead of just part of it.  If so, the indicated pressure will fall.
  This is absolutely nothing to be concerned about.  Unless it's your
  first major engine job and you're paranoid.... 
- Oil pressure is a virtually negligible part of how a plain bearing
  works.  All the pressure does is guarantee adequate flow, which is used
  for cooling.  It has almost nothing to do with load-carrying ability.
  The rotation of the journal bearing floats it off the bearing.  That's
  how old cars got by with splash oiling for so many decades.

[email protected] (Dave Williams)
gnttype  26 Jun 1997
- -> The Turbo TA cranks were cross-drilled from the factory. I haven't
  -> heard of those cranks being particularly breakage prone.
- Crossdrilling won't hurt a thing.  Most crank breakages are across one of 
  the throws or a journal cheek, nowhere near a drilling. 
- The factories typically don't crossdrill unless the engine has a rod oiling 
  problem at the stock power level or they're qualifying the piece as a 
  factory crossdrilled part for racing use.  Each hole costs money, and an OEM 
  cost accountant would part out his family to save $0.22 per car. 
- On the flip side, if the engine's oil pump capacity (volume) isn't 
  sufficient to handle the increased oil flow resulting from the crossdrills, 
  the overall oil pressure may drop below acceptable limits at idle.  This 
  won't hurt the rods and mains any - the plenty of oil will be passing 
  through them - but there may not be enough pressure for the hydraulic 
  lifters to work properly and you can get into things like lifter tick at 
  idle.
- If you're starting to smoke rod bearings, you need to crossdrill.  If you're 
  not smoking rod bearings, crossdrilling won't hurt, but it won't help, 
  either.