Great article - Balance Shafts!

[Kracka]

http://www.jackstransmissions.com/pages/keep-your-balance-shafts

[Alpha D]

This makes me a little bit sad... and for some reason worried...I guess if my Engine makes it, before i finally throw the towel in ill re-install my balance shafts. Never took them out, but ive always been for keeping certain major engine parts in the ENGINE if they were designed to work...like the famous piston oil sprayers and all their controversy...i wonder when theyll decide to install those as well. Good article for sure though. i wonder how quickly those people experienced those critical component failures....Mines been fine for a few years now....

[mark4g63t]

I've read to get that torsional whip you would need a very high revving engine, higher than like 11K I believe it was which put the balance shaft spinning at over 20k..was reading about f1 engines which used to go up to 24k before they put a ban on the rev limit.

[Goat Blower]

While I agree with many points and almost put the balance shafts back in my 2.4 last winter, the idea that the balance shafts have anything to do with minimizing crankshaft harmonics doesn't make sense. The balance shafts are both connected to the crank via belts, even if they were direct gear driven, I can't see it making any difference. They are simply there to smooth out the engine overall, not the crank.

I find it interesting that the harmonic whip could actually affect your drivetrain all the way back to the pumpkin. Seems a little far fetched to me, but I have had that coast down gear whine forever and I've rebuilt everything from the tranny back to the rear diff, maybe there's something to that. Just for that alone, I'd probably put them back in this winter, it's getting smoother and quieter with every new mod I do.

[Tachyon]

You know what else will make your car last 200k miles? leave it the fuck alone.. But that's not really the point to our hobby, nor why any of us are here.

You want to increase your car's performance beyond factory limitations? There is going to be a trade off in increased wear and an associative decrease in reliability. If that upsets a person, perhaps this is the wrong activity for them.

*edit* I would also suggest several points are more aligned with a marketing agenda than anything else.

[JET]

Yeah, not buying it. 1AM physics doesn't agree with it either. Crankshaft whip is a physical force, but the balance shaft is not physically connected to the crank. Now I think it may actually be an issue, but not because of crankshaft whip. The balance shafts can actually take out 2nd and 3rd phase harmonics which could resonate in the crank. When everything is balanced it will only minimize 1st phase vibrations.

That said, with all the engines out there with no balance shafts I don't think it can be that big of a deal.

[Kracka]

I'm curious to see what other engine builders, if any, agree, and start to follow suit. When something has been done a certain way for 20+ years (removing balance shafts on built 4G63 engines) there is bound to be some controversy when someone finally bucks the trend and basically disagrees with every other builder out there.

[Halon]

Didn't he also claim he knows the cure for 4G63 crankwalk, but won't tell anyone what it is and will take it to his grave?

[Kracka]

No idea about that to be honest. Mostly what I know of him is that he's one of the leading experts in the Evo X transmission and has put out a decent number of technical articles on such. From what I've seen, he does very good work and is who I would use if my transmission were to need anything major.

[Halon]

Yeah I agree he does put out some good articles, so my above response didn't come out exactly like I meant it to. Props to anyone who puts articles like this together as it just gives us small time folks that much more info to ponder, info we probably would never be able to attain ourselves. And the more info we have, the better our ability is to make decisions when building our own setup.

However the whole crankwalk thing is one thing that always rubbed me the wrong way about him. But besides that, he definitely does try and add a lot of value to the community, and that deserves some credit.