Balance belt delete?
01-09-2004, 01:09 AM
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Balance belt delete?
First, a big thanks to Clark and his great collection of information. I just finished tightening the balance belt for the first time. Not too bad of a job except I didn't have a 27mm wrench and couldn't find one at this late of an hour (don't ask how I got things tightened up).
My question is, has anyone ran without the balance belt? I assume it would make the engine a little rough, but should add a few hp. I remember reading a few post where people had there balance belt slip off and didn't realize it, so it can't be too bad. Any long term effect to the motor?
Just curious.
My question is, has anyone ran without the balance belt? I assume it would make the engine a little rough, but should add a few hp. I remember reading a few post where people had there balance belt slip off and didn't realize it, so it can't be too bad. Any long term effect to the motor?
Just curious.
01-09-2004, 01:20 AM
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Some have altogether deleted the balance shaft assembly. If you search you'll find much information on the topic 
In fact there was a recent post about lightening the crank and flywheel, now a page or two back, which discussed the theory of the balance shafts in great detail. Excellent read
Cheers,
Sach
In fact there was a recent post about lightening the crank and flywheel, now a page or two back, which discussed the theory of the balance shafts in great detail. Excellent read Cheers,
Sach
01-09-2004, 01:47 PM
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Mine was broke for awhile prolly broke soon after my last inspection of it but I had bad motor mts too. After replacing the mts I still had a slight vibration that I eventually traced back to the bal. shaft. You can delete them during a rebuild but need to have your recip. assembly bal. tha more complete it is the better. Tony G has done this ask him what it's like.
01-09-2004, 10:59 PM
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I deleted the balance shafts from my 91 S2 using the kit from Under Pressure Performance.
Upsides: the kit comes with some very cool short aluminum inserts which you place inside the balance shaft housings in place of the shafts (to preserve oil pressure where oil hits the shaft at the bearing). You simply reseal the housings with Loctite 574. You lose a lot of engine weight this way and there is only a small amount of buzziness or vibration at certain rpms to complain about. The kit comes with an aluminum block off plate for the upper shaft housing's front hole.
Downsides: the kit unfortunately also requires you use the same type of block off plate for the bottom housing. Which means you would have to delete the lower front assembly with the tensioner points for your power steering and AC belts and fabricate something to tension the alternator belt. In my case, I was already deleting the power steering so I was halfway to a solution. I had a spare lower shaft cover/tensioner mount off a crap engine, and had the front hole on it welded up to seal it, and didn't use the kit's plate. This is the only defect in the kit, so if you can apply a little ingenuity, I would recommend it, the shaft inserts are very trick.
Upsides: the kit comes with some very cool short aluminum inserts which you place inside the balance shaft housings in place of the shafts (to preserve oil pressure where oil hits the shaft at the bearing). You simply reseal the housings with Loctite 574. You lose a lot of engine weight this way and there is only a small amount of buzziness or vibration at certain rpms to complain about. The kit comes with an aluminum block off plate for the upper shaft housing's front hole.
Downsides: the kit unfortunately also requires you use the same type of block off plate for the bottom housing. Which means you would have to delete the lower front assembly with the tensioner points for your power steering and AC belts and fabricate something to tension the alternator belt. In my case, I was already deleting the power steering so I was halfway to a solution. I had a spare lower shaft cover/tensioner mount off a crap engine, and had the front hole on it welded up to seal it, and didn't use the kit's plate. This is the only defect in the kit, so if you can apply a little ingenuity, I would recommend it, the shaft inserts are very trick.
