Calmchaos

+1 to the fuel rail crack.
I love my balance shafts. If it's just a street car why on earth would you run without them?
Using them increases the life of every part on your car.
And running without them saves what...? 3hp at most? And you drop MAYBE 10 pounds?

AR10

No balance shafts = broken oil pump pickup = broken engine!

Lorax

More than that, it just frees up space and its one less stupid thing under the hood of a 944. Personally I wouldnt remove them unless I had my oil pickup reeinforced though...

Fishey

You guys keep on with the speculation as if you have ran a car without you would know vibration is minimal and sure as hell not going to crack/dislodge anything including the oil pickup.

hosrom_951

I would disagree, as well as my 88 NA

The DareDevil

I removed my balance shaft belt, once, to see how it felt.

It was like driving a giant palm sander. Absolutely unacceptable.

RedlineMan

Pfffff.....

No wonder I love this forum so much.

Dood, the moment that your oil pickup tube drops into the bottom of the sump, and your crank journals turn blue, you MIGHT just transcend your own stunning ignorance. Or not.

But hey... it's a free country.

Fishey

I think its time to make a video on such things as well as show you what an oil pickup tube looks like.

RedlineMan

Ha!

Ever drive a 944 with bad motor mounts? I find that unacceptable, and that's with the shafts working! You have to do a LOT of component balancing to run successfully without the balancers. Still, there is a nasty thing called Second Order Harmonics - stuff you can't necessarily feel - that is still at work, buzzing things till they break and fall off.

Ask my friend Don about pickup tubes falling off. Go ahead. He's got a thread on the racing board going on that subject right now. Tell HIM that the tubes don't fail.

Didn't mean to be rude there Fishey, but you really don't have a clue on this one.

Fishey

So, let me get this right I take off my balance shafts and then my oil pickup fails? I will keep it in mind of things that are going to make my 944 fall apart. I will go ahead and list it with solid motor mounts and cabriolet weight removal.

-Fishey

P.S. I posted in your buddies thread..

hosrom_951

Extra vibrations would cause numerous things to crack or break off.

from EXPERIENCE first hand, here is what happened:

-fuel rail cracked, leaked fuel.
-p/s pump mount (which is part of the lower balance shaft) broke off.
-a/c compressor broke off (the compressor mount itself).
-dipstick tube cracked.

Mike C.

It's called high-cycle fatigue...