im building a h23a1/h22 frankenstein motor.
i plan on having this thing boosted pretty well.
however i keep getting told to remove my balance shafts.
if i remove them what are the pros and cons? i dont want my engine shaking itself to pieces because of to much vibration. someone tell me what the right thing to do is. thank you.

 

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-prelude-4/ok-proof-balance-shafts-eliminated-properly-cleanly-effectively-503372/

just take the belt off to begin with. if you have too much vibration, put the belt back on. if you decide you like it, then you can remove them.

 

I doesn't shake that badly, you need pretty solid mounts to feel it really making a good vibration even then it's not nearly like what people describe.

 

Would just removing the belts be ok? If the shafts are in there, I would imagine you wouldn't lose any oil pressure as the shaft journals are providing the same resistance to oil flow sitting there stationary compared to spinning. The only disadvantage I can see is that you're not getting the weight savings you would be by completely removing them...

 

Do not remove the belt only. My motor failed due to oil starvation and I suspect it was b/c I removed the balance shaft belt. I would just keep them if I were you.

 

i removed just my belt, and my motor was fine for 15,000 miles when i decided to build.

there is some extra shaking...but not much. i had solid motor mounts, too

 

I've had my belt off for three years & Solid mounts. There is vibration compared to stock, but it's not that bad, I got used to it, doesn't bother me now.

 

yeah i've got es inserts and it was rough idling w/ my h23. doesn't really bother me much since it's slowly turning into a race car... putting in the h22a this weekend, got my wiring just about sorted out (92 si so not prewired for vtec) and i'm doing the tbelt w/pump tonight. soiii, are you sure it was balance shafts which caused it? theoretically, there should still be similar resistance to oil flow through the holes in the bearings since the shafts are still in place. maybe there's even more since the shafts aren't spinning... i dunno, but i'd rather not spend the money on a new belt, and bother timing them, if i can get away w/ just leaving them there.

 

If you decide to do a full removal just spin all the bearings inside so they block the oil passages and use freeze plugs to block the holes in the block, no need for some fancy elimination kit.

 

idk about this. one question still remains. will my engine blow or shake itself to pieces?

 

it wouldn't be more than a few hundred pieces.

do some research, and try to find someone that has had issues that they KNOW resulted from removing the belt.

if you still don't feel good about it, just leave it on...no big deal. your gains without it aren't phenomenal. as much boost as you say you're throwing at it, you probably wouldn't even notice a difference.

 

Absolutely not even possible.

The balance shafts are there for driver comfort only...NVH. Oil starvation was something else.

My belt has been off for probably 7 years now with no problems.

 

No, the balance shafts are for passenger comfort. It's not as dramatic as you think....

 

Now that I think about it, when I bought my motor the balance shaft was frozen in the block and that's why I elected to just leave the belt off....maybe that has something to do with it....idk

 

Ahh that makes sense.....Being frozen in the block probably points another previous (much worse) issue that caused your problem.

 

i just want my engine in one piece.
everyone i ask says its a good thing. but then others say that it would just vibrate way to much

 

GREAT.... Im about to remove that belt. Until i can save for kaizen kit with oil pump..... :D

 

removing the balance shafts can cause the engine life to drop quite a bit, unless it's strickly a drag car and not run alll the time.

 

It feels like driving down a road that has been scraped & waiting to be paved. It won't shake you to death, but there is a noticeable difference, but vibration NOT shaking.


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How so, Ive been running 6 years now no balancer shaft belt. Also the motor itself is from 1993.

I run nitrous and drive it hard everyday.

So my question is, where is your proof.

 

Balance shafts always seem to be a sore subject with some people. From what I have seen, many people that are quick to talk down on it, have never even driven a car with/ without them in quick succesion, and seen how small of a difference it really makes.

When I first deleted mine on my daily H22, I noticed an occasional vibration at very certain rpm ranges while cruising on the highway, but that was it. Within a week I couldn't even notice anything, as I was used to it.

That engine has been driven 20+ K miles with no issues, daily driving, racing, cross country trips etc. Still no worries on it to me, and that is just with no belt, and the shafts in place.

My race engine has the shafts deleted properly, for increased oil pressure to the mains, which I felt was very important on an H23 frank.

When just removing the belt, you shouldn't see any change in oil pressure, as the pump and passages are still feeding the same way. But when deleting the shafts with the KS kit or homemade setup, you block the passages sooner, and the oil increases pressure to where it still flows. The second part of increasing oiling in a frank engine is to delete the oil squirters, but that is a whole different debate.