Hi,
Just wondering if you really need to stand a 6 cyl crank on end or just laying it on its side is ok.

Yes, you need to stand it on end, it can warp under its own weight if you lay it on its side.

I think it may be an urban myth, possibly based on somebodies experience of laying down a welded up crank and then retreiving it some time later only to find it was "bent".

I say this because I welded on a cast iron head and it warped .230". I laid it on a shelf and ten years later looked at it and all the warpage had disappeared. Had I not seen that I would have never believed it possible.

A welded crank may have behaved the same way, lending credence to the theorey.

If somebody with another experience to show it DOES cause the crank to bend I'm willing to be educated.

As a point of fact I now store my cranks vertically, hanging by the snout bolt. This takes up much less floor space. Another benefit may be that corrosive particles in the air are less likely to cover the tops of the journals, promoting rusting.

The softer steel OEM cranks are the worst offenders of this, we had to be very careful about long term storage of them. Billet and cast cranks not so much, go figure that a cast crank was more stable than the factory steel cranks. We had crank racks to store them vertically also. I guess the best course of action is to not assume they won't warp and stand them upright anyway.

My question would be:

If stored by their snout hanging or flange down on floor. Wouldn't they also lose shape from gravity pulling them apart or compressing them? Like stretching or pulling a spring.

No, there not that unstable.

Good points.
I had checked the archives and didn't see anything so went to the google and the opinions were all over the place on this.
The counterweights don't really allow laying down nicely so I think I'll go with the vertical storage. Sounds neater and a bit safer.
Just got a couple cranks in a package deal so I have some loose parts to deal with.
Thanks

If the crank's "own weight" is what is at work here then perhaps an Einstein style thought exercise will help us to visualize:

For whatever it's worth,I've been in many machine shops and the cranks are standing on the flywheel flange.This is usually just a short time....Some say a block left on an engine stand will "sag " over time,or a cam leaning against a wall will warp.

I too have seen machine shops store them short term standing on end. That's what I do too, short term. But for any longer time period I lay them on their side, and if there are not enough load bearing contact points, I use whatever I have laying around to create more. Just put something under the crank to dissipate the load more evenly across several points. Standing on end creates a risk of knocking the whole thing down by accident and ruining it that way.

REALLY long term storage would justify making a cradle out of wood to hold it at each main bearing journal. Or if you have the opportunity, leave it sitting in the engine block on some old bearings.