The heavy cranks were used in all of the engines without a balance shaft and in all the VIN "Z" balance shaft motors with the heavy pistons, including the '95 "second design" versions. The lightweight cranks were used with the lightweight pistons in the '92-'98 VIN "W", the '95 VIN "Z", "first design" engines, and in the '96-'98 VIN "X" engines. Using the right crank in the right engine will help prevent balance problems out in the field.
However, you should also be aware that all of these engines are externally balanced with various combinations of flywheels/flexplates and dampers for balance, and that they are "trimmed" at the factory after the hot-run test by pounding balance weights into the holes that are already drilled in the damper. So, if you build them right and still have a shaker, the customer will have to add or subtract weight from the damper and/or flywheel/flexplate in order to get it right.
There is one other subtle difference in the cranks, too. Any of the engines that were installed in '96 or later and all of the '95 "S" and "T" trucks with OBD II, including all of the Olds Bravadas, any Blazer with California emissions, and about 10% of the Blazers with federal emissions, had a reluctor wheel installed in front of the crank gear for a crank position sensor that was a part of OBD II. The raised, machined area on the snout is about .100" longer on these cranks than it was on the earlier ones so the reluctor wheel has a slight press fit. Be sure to sort out the 10105865 and 10055480 cranks with this longer, machined step and save them for the engines that have the crank position sensor.
RODS
There are four different rods in two different weights that come from two different engine plants, so there's plenty of room for confusion, but it all works out if you follow these two rules:
Rule 1: Keep similar rods in sets by both appearance and weight.
Rule 2: Use only Romulus rods with Romulus cranks.
Then, the question is, how do you tell them apart so you can follow the rules? Start by sorting them by engine plant based on the shape of the balance pad on the big end. If the rod has a cast pad that's only machined on the face, it's a Tonawanda rod. These rods don't have a forging number and may or may not have a dot on the shank.
If the weight pad on the big end is long and narrow and has been machined on all five surfaces including the sides, the ends and the face, it's a Romulus rod. All of these rods will have either an 818 or 045 forging number on the shank, too, so they're easy to identify.
After you have separated the rods by source, sort them by weight and put them in sets. The lighter ones will weigh around 662 grams and the heavier ones should weigh about 675 grams.
The light and heavy rods can be interchanged in engines in sets, but it's best to use the Romulus rods only on Romulus cranks because you may end up with a ticking noise if they are used with a Tonawanda crank. The Romulus rods have a wider face adjacent to the parting line that can hit on the side of the split pin rod journal, so the Romulus cranks are machined to provide additional clearance for the rods.
The Tonawanda cranks aren't relieved in this area, so there can be light interference and a noise problem. The Tonawanda rods have the narrower face at the parting line so they can be used with either crank.
PISTONS
There have been five different pistons used in the 262 along with two versions of the lightweight piston:
1. The original, heavy piston used in the 262 was the same as the one that was used in the 350 V8 except that the pin boss was opened up slightly for the offset rod. It weighed about 745 grams with the pin and had a 9.1:1 compression ratio. It was used in all of the light duty engines without the balance shaft from '85 through '94 and in the VIN "Z" balance shaft motors from '93 through part of '95.
The parts catalog identifies the '95 VIN "Z" engines with this heavy piston as the "second design" version even though they were built during the first part of the year. They will have one of the following engine codes: ALH, ALA, ALB, ALC, ALD, ALF, ALH, ALJ, ALL, ALP, ALS, AJS, AJT, AJW, and AJU.
2. The lightweight piston weighs about 675 grams with a pin. It was used in all the high output, balance shaft engines (VIN "W") from '92 through '98 and in all the VIN "X" engines from '96 through '98. It was also used in the "first design" VIN "Z" engines that were built during the latter part of model year '95, including those with the following engine codes: AAB, AAC, AAF, AAJ, AAK, AAL, AAP, AAS, AAW, AFC, AFD, AHC, and AHD.
The lightweight piston was originally a Mahle, full-round design (p/n 2753), but GM switched to its own "RPM" (Revised Permanent Mold) design with a short slipper skirt and a narrower pin boss in '95. Both of these pistons have very short skirts, so the clearance must be right or they tend to make noise at startup.
3. There was a heavy duty engine offered for trucks and vans with over 8500 GVW from '89 through '95. It used a heavy duty, Zollner piston that had an 8.3:1 compression ratio and weighed the same as the regular heavy piston.
4. There was also a high output, VIN "B" (LU2) engine offered in the Astro van in '90 and '91. It used a special, hypereutectic, strutless piston that is available from GM under p/n 10181389 in standard, or from Zollner as a H-8269-D. It weighs about 745 grams, just like the rest of the heavy pistons.
5. There was one more piston used in the 262. It's a low compression (8.6:1), strutless, hypereutectic piston with a deeper dish that was used in the turbocharged Syclones and Typhoons from '91 through '93. The OEM standard piston is p/n 12508702 and the Zollner number is a H-8269-E.
All of these pistons are specific to the application, so they should not be interchanged. Building an engine with pistons that have the wrong weight or compression ratio will guarantee a comeback, so it's better to play by the book.
BALANCE SHAFTS
Any 90° V6 creates some strong, primary imbalance forces, especially in the vertical mode. The 262 is no exception. Chevy originally underbalanced these engines by putting about 46% on the bobweights instead of the usual 50%. This reduced the vertical imbalance that was trying to lift the engine up off the mounts, but created a strong horizontal imbalance that shook the engine from side-to-side instead. So, in order to eliminate a lot of the "noise, vibration and harshness" in the engine and make it into a world-class motor, Chevy added a balance shaft to the premium engines in '92 and included it in all of them by '95.
There are two balance shafts, a light one and a heavy one, and two versions of the light one. The light one is either a 10224542 or a 10172748 casting that comes with or without a metal wear sleeve installed on the back journal, depending on the application. The wear sleeve was used on the lightweight balance shaft when it was installed in a '92 "first design" engine with the needle bearings in the back, but it wasn't used when the lightweight shaft was installed in the "second design" engine that had a bushing in the back of the block.
This "first design" shaft should not be used in a "second design" engine because the wear sleeve shortens the surface area needed for the bushing. These lightweight shafts were installed in all of the engines that had the light pistons including the '92-'98 VIN "W", the '96-'98 VIN "X" engines and the "first design" VIN "Z" engines in '95 that were built with the lightweight pistons. (See piston section of chart on page 50 for the specific engine codes).