doing an h22 auto tensioner to manual tensioner swap and t belt and water pump for a customer of mine...pulled the car in running, yanked the tb covers and found the balance shaft belt was broken...no biggie...finished up the auto to manual conversion and got the timing belt in place...went to go install the balance shaft belt, and the rear most balance shaft gear will not turn at all!...can't move it to it's timing marks, and the engine runs fine w/out it

what do you guys think? should I put it back together the way it is? and obviously inform the customer of the issue?

I have no idea how long this motor was running w/out the balance shaft belt, and the customer just bought the car, I was just doing the tbelt for peace of mind since the previous owner had no service records...I'm a little stumped and h22's are definitely not my specialty so if any of you guys have seen run into this before let me know

 

Unless you plan on pulling the motor to fix this problem, just leave the belt off.

I'd think you're obligated to tell your customer what's up.

Balancer shafts aren't essential at all. They're just there for NVH.

 

yeah I figured as much, I know there not important as far as running goes...I've done some balance shaft deletes on built h22's but I was freaked out when this one wouldn't move at all...I'm gonna put it back together and inform my customer and keep my fingers crossed that it never frees up again and starts hitting the crank

 

why isn't it moving?

did you pull it out of the oil pump?

and i do have a set that i'll let go just about cheap so let me know if they want them or not.

 

no, I did not touch it...the balance shaft belt was broken when I removed the tb covers...the pulley/gear that you would normally lock in place by removing the bolt on the back of the block and installing a 6mmx100mm dowel/pin will not move...tried free'ing it up with a pair of pliers and it still won't move

I'm not sure if it has any thing to do with it or not, but the car lost all of its engine oil on saturday...the seal for the oil cooler to the back of the block blew out...not sure if the loss of oil locked up the balance shaft or if it was a previous condition

anyway its all back together now...I'm going to let my customer know what happened when he picks it up tomorrow...I'm not happy about it...but I don't have time to tear into this motor right now and he needs it back so I'll just keep my fingers crossed

 

thats why it lost oil pressure and froze the bearings on the balance shaft. hope the bottom end is ok. it could have damaged the rod bearings or the main bearings.

 

even if the balance shaft does free up again it wont hit the crank there are many people who just take the belt off and dont use the delete kit

 

Sounds like rear balance seized and caused belt to break.

Out of curiosity - how well does the engine run with out it? There should be no real operational problems, but there will be vibration - the question is, how much? I think balancer belt is broken on my 94 as the engine has a TERRIBLE vibration. But, it pulls strong and it not missing. Something like failed balancer (or broken balancer on tranny side of engine) is the only thing that I can think of that would cause this. I cannot find anything visible to cause the problem.

 

If it lost oil, there's a good chance the balancer shaft bearings spun. It'd explain the unmovable shaft and broken belt. He should be thankful they don't do anything, and hope that everything else is ok in the motor.

 

you know thinking back on it...I'm sure that's what happened...the lack of oil locked the balance shaft...he's lucky it didn't lock the crank!

cars been back together and running for a few hours now...no problems, it's a ripper, and if you didn't tell me the balance shaft belt was missing, I would never know

only time will tell if the lower end will eventually lock up or not...

I was not aware that the crank and the balance shaft could not hit each other...I think I'll try to verify this myself...I've always assumed they would...and if they can't why bother using a delete kit? I mean for obvious reasons you should, but delete them requires pulling the motor...if they don't hit I can see why people wouldn't use a kit I guess

thanks for the thoughts and opinions guys

 

The balancer shafts are a few inches above the crank, and are off to the sides in the block.

Balancer shaft delete kits have never made any sense to me. Spending money to accomplish basically nothing other than save a couple pounds weight from the car. If the belt is off they'll just sit there.

 

Well Vig, they will gain oil pressure when properly done, and the 20 lbs or so of weight, those things are damn heavy!!

I will say, I did notice when I first took off my belt, it was more vibes, especially at 2800 and 3800 or so rpm, but that was only when cruising uphill at that speed. If the owner drove the car when it lost oil enough to cause this damage, I doubt they will care or notice a different vibe!