My friend is building a drag Civic and he has a JDM H22A motor/tranny for it.

His question:

Is it possible to remove the balance shafts and completely balance the motor and have no ill side-effects?

I'm thinking NO because Honda probably had their reasons for including balance shafts on all Accord/Prelude motors after 1990, but then again they are made for daily driven reliability and not all-out performance in mind.

Is it possible, and what would the gains be if any?

Also, 2point6:

Is your car daily driven? My pal was thinking of going along similiar lines on his motor as you did, so what's the skinny on all of it if you don't mind telling?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer any of those Qs.

!!!

 

If this is a "race only application" then yes, removal of the balance shafts can yeild more "useable" HP/TQ. In my particular engine set up, I have kept the shafts in place but belt is disconnected. I also have the entire rotating assembly balanced. BALANCING IS A MUST! This doesn't neccessarily mean I will have long engine life as Honda originally intended... It is definately a trade off. For a race application, I feel this is (IMHO) acceptable. My car is daily driven (and driven hard at that...) And there have been no ill side-effects. Also, I would like to point out that the engine currently in my Accord is not one of R&D's engines anymore. This one is actually smaller (2.44 ltr) and it puts out the same kind of HP/TQ of the 2 larger R&D engines I have had. This engine was completely changed and built by myself.

You can check out my car at http://www.collectiveracing.net


[Modified by 2point6, 10:05 PM 6/20/2002]