WEll, I have had this oil problem for a little while now. I was leaking oil and we found that it was the crank seal. So, we replaced the leaky crank seal. I still had an oil pressure problem (it was running low) so, wereplaced the dented oil pan, oil pan gasket and oil strainer. We put it all back together and tested the psi with an electric Auto Meter oil guage. It all fell within specs. So, I drove home. After a few miles, the oil pressure drops down to almost nil....less than 10psi. I get it back to the house and we start trying to figure the problem out again. Only thing that we can think of is a bad oil pump. As we are tearing it down to get the oil pump out, we get to the front balancer shaft gear and while spinning it, notice that the rotation is ****-eyed a bit. Well, after examining it more, we have come to find that the shaft is slightly bent......it appears to be bent OUTSIDE the block though. Like somewhere in the inch and a half area between the gear and the seal.
First question: Does anyone have any idea what this shaft does?
Second: What effects will this likely have on the engine if I don't replace it? Is this something that, being slightly bent as it is, going to cuase me some problems?
Third: Any ideas as to how this would have happened?
Thanks for the input

 

I have no clue how that would have happened!

But it is not a necessary piece. You can usually just remove the balancer belt and run without them

But I would be concerned w/ the fact that it's bent; you don't KNOW for sure that it's not bent on the inside. The balancer shafts are lubed by oil just like the main and rod bearings. If it's bent, or something's FUBAR'd in there, it may be letting the oil pressure go and that could explain your low oil pressure.

 

Are you sure it's bent? It's weighted to one side, so when you spin it by hand, it will appear to have a wobble. That's perfectly normal.

And a balance shaft does exactly what the name implies: it balances the rotating mass of the engine. It's a counterbalance to the reciprocating weight of the engine.

As far as your leaky crank seal is concerned, I have to say it's rare to have a crank seal leak. A much more common leak is the cam seals and the balance shaft seal.

 

I know it was the crank seal leaking, because we took the lower timing belt cover off and ran the engine. WE watched it leak out. After repalcing it with a new one (and watching it leak even worse!) we come to find out the shop that did the swap actaully put the seal in backwards....tards! so now that that is fixed, I have no leaks whatsoever.....jsut low oil pressure somewhere. I am heading to Honda today to ask some questions about the oil pump and have them take a look at a few things on it that or a little weird. There is some weird rubbing happening and I am not sure if it supposed to or what. I also noticed that the crank shaft has 2 flat spots on it, while the inner gear of the oil pump has a flat spot and 2 little mountain looking things where the other flat spot should be. All the manuals show the gear as having 2 flat spots (I guess for gripping the crank?) That and a couple other things are on the list for a Honda Tech. We will see what they have to say.

[QUOTE=AngryTroll]Are you sure it's bent? It's weighted to one side, so when you spin it by hand, it will appear to have a wobble. That's perfectly normal.

And a balance shaft does exactly what the name implies: it balances the rotating mass of the engine. It's a counterbalance to the reciprocating weight of the engine.QUOTE]

The shaft does have a wobble to it. We eyeballed it right at the seal, and when we turn the shaft, it appears that there may be a small gap at the seal at a point turn the revolution. However, we have NOT seen any oil leaking from there. I was unaware that it would wobble. There has never been any weird vibrations or anything from the engine, so we may just be seeing this wobble and jsut not realizing it is normal.