| I built this milling fixture from two block girdles and a Cushman steering box (for gear-reducted rotation of the crank in the mill).  Link to all milling fixture images: The "Crankinator" [ http://ashspecz.com/Image%20Gallery/Crankinator/ ]
The crank in this picture isn't in my engine - the crank pictured is even LIGHTER at 30# (10# taken out). I'm saving this for my NA VG30 engine project.
This is the crank in my engine. I knife-edged the counterweights, took 1/4" out of the total radius of the counterweights, milled the rod bolsters, smoothed and semi-polished just about all of it, and ball-end milled both the front and rear rod bolsters (you can see it as the bore plunged into the far right of the crank - 0.750" dia). 
In the balancing process:
 Balancing results: Left end @ -0.6grams and Right end at -0.5grams. (This was the closest I could get it - I started seeing variations in the measuring capabilities of the machine at this point. Typically if it is balanced within 1.0grams you are good to go. :)
 I used the Pauter Chrome-Moly rods in my build, which are already a good bit lighter than the OEM rods, not to mention they have better windage benefits (aerodynamics). 
8# is 3,629 grams. Most of this weight is far from the center of the crank so the gains are going to be more appreciable than weight losses in the rods. $800 a piece for the Ti rods, X6, @200 grams lighter, total of 1200 grams less. I dropped 3X that much in my rotating assembly mass in areas where it really counts and although there is a notable difference in how the engine revs compared to any other Z I have worked with, I couldn't substantiate some $5000 invested in Ti rods for 1/3 of the weight reduction. If it came down to it, I'd mill a crank to my specs for half that much. Cliffnotes: No, it isn't worth it. There are much better things that you can do to it that wont cost as much and have better reduction in mass.

[ ashspecz.com ] [ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] Enthusiasts soon understand each other. --W. Irving. Are you an enthusiast? If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. Albert Einstein
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