09-08-2008, 10:38 PM
Dave Wrote:are you pulling the balance shaft while doing the T-belt? (I think that's the thing that you can remove without any adverse effects...)
And seriously, go ahead and do the pan now while you're doing all this intensive work...
No, balance shafts should stay in. I think this is a retarded idea on most people to get rid of them (a lot of people do without knowing really why in the dsm community). The oem belt will hold plenty. The balance shaft belt only revolves twice as fast as the timing belt so at stock redline it is still only at 14,000, its a plenty strong belt for that. Now if your revving to 10-12,000rpm (drag cars), yes I would get rid of them, but no need for an almost bone stock car.
Negative side effects are the bearings in stubby shafts always seem to go bad, always seem to leak, and also increase oil pressure dramatically necessitating porting out the oil filter housing hole.
I will be keeping my balance shafts in my engine build and Ill be able to go up to about 9k. Im using stronger aftermarket belts though. The "Kevlar Composite belts".