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On my recent trip to the heart of NASCAR engine building territory in North Carolina, I saw something really interesting. The late, great engine builder, Smokey Yunick had a saying- - - -"It's only cheatin' if ya get caught!" Apparently, that attitude is still alive and well. I saw a billet crankshaft, one that's whittled out of a solid chunk of steel on a CNC mill, that had two different stroke lengths incorporated into it. The connecting rod journal that cylinders #1 and #2 shared had the standard 350 engine stroke, 3.48 inches. The other three journals were made for a 4" stroke! The idea was that even on a technical inspection engine teardown, it's most likely that the stroke would be checked with the #1 cylinder at the bottom of its travel. Sneaky, huh?
Jerry

It was good knowing you Jerry.

I wonder how they would balance it?

It must work, a race car engine running high rev's can't vibrate much, if at all.

As long as the counterweights for a particular cylinder pair are the right position and size, the stroke length doesn't necessarily matter. CNC machining has opened up an entirely new bunch of possibilities for rule-benders to exploit. Back in the dark ages of dirt track racing, some guys would bore one cylinder bank of a flathead Ford V8 way oversize, and only pull the cylinder head over the "stock" bore half of the engine during an inspection. Those engines were fun to balance!
Jerry

Kind of makes you think of the possibilities if you only had a CNC machine. A friend of mine was one of the first shops on the west coast to have a CNC, he taught himself how to do set ups and run on it. Some people just have a knack for that type of skill set.

CAD (computer assisted drafting) and CAM (computer assisted machining) has been around a long time, and it continues to get more sophisticated every day. My son-in-law spent several years doing CAD/CAM work on Remington firearms in their Huntsville Alabama plant. He's a little lost in my shop, where all the equipment has manual micrometer dials and no computers to tinker with, though! Anybody with a few brain cells to rub together and a part to measure can reverse-engineer things- - - - -back in the late 1940's that's how the Russians developed their first heavy bomber- - - -they found a B-29 that had crash-landed after a mission over Japan and copied it.
Jerry

Hot Rod read about that B29 cept they had to force land in Russia not enough fuel to make primary landing . Russians good enough to hold our guys for little while Debrife them befor letting them go but no way they were letting go of the B29s . They had trouble getting the weight down cause of the skin thickness they didnt have a decimal equivalent on MM was too thin other too thick.

The ole NASCAR boys were quite the bunch Smokey and his 7/8s car and such . Some one had a fuel line after the fuel cell was couple inches instead of 1/2 inch that held few gallons lol Love those old storys . NASCAR has lost it for me gave it up few years back think they have ruined it .

My father's alcohol fueled flathead Ford engines were outrunning the grandfathers of the current NASCAR guys back in the late 40's and early 50's. His driver (who also ran our body shop), chased Coo Coo Marlin under the grandstands at Columbia Tennessee one night and threatened to cut his head off with a hawk-bill knife after Coo Coo spun him out on purpose. Those bad ole days were sort of "race a while- - - -fight a while!" events.
Jerry

Our local dirt track is still a free for all, always a fight in the pits. I agree with Homer, NASCAR just isn't what it once was. Went to my fist and last Daytona 500 in 2018, way to much money.

That way, the driver who buys the most drinks wins the race.

Back in the beach-racing days in the early 1950's a Cadillac/Olds dealer in Nashville sponsored a couple of Daytona racers. Those cars came back with a layer of sand in the oil pan, apparently after having gotten past the oil bath air cleaner, and the piston rings! Ever seen an engine with a LOWER ring ridge in the cylinders?

When the dirt track racers from Chattanooga would come to Nashville to race, they had a favorite saying- - - -"A race car needs water and alcohol- - - -water in the radiator and alcohol n the driver!" Most of them made their living making alcohol- - - -racing was just a hobby!
Jerry