Manx Club

I was the lucky recipient of a new crank this past weekend. For $20 I got a box full of misc. parts and another heavier box with an unused new stock 1600 crank. I had intended to run a counterweighted crank in my engine however with this new gain and in a cost saving measure I may use this one. What concerns me is the fact that it has four flywheel dowels instead of eight and two of those are missing. I can replace the missing ones so that is not an issue unless the holes are wallowed. My concerns are these. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a crankshaft having four or eight dowels? What are the advantages/disadvantages between counterweighted cranks and those that are stock? My original intent with my engine was to rebuild a 1641cc with a counterweighted crank, 110 cam, and dual carbs since that was its original configuration before its oil starved demise.

I would go with the counterweighed crank, sounds like your motor and its other components were chosen to work well at higher rpms, this is where the counterweighed crank really helps. Is your flywheel lightened? If so, you defenetely want counterweighed. Since you had a counterweighd crank before, why take a step backwards?