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I just pulled my balancer tonight to assess the damage it caused when it ground into the timing cover. I have an oil leak from the front of the engine, and don't think it's the front seal.
Has anyone had this kind of damage before? Seems from the pictures I've looked at that both the timing cover and oil pan don't have alot of thickness where mine is damaged. If I'm this far already, I'd rather just pull the cover and see if I need to fix/replace it and/or the oil pan.
I agree with dadaroo. I would replace the front seal & balancer with new and check all pulleys, belts etc. and call it good. Good luck with your repair.
My 2001 had had the balancer and front seal replaced just before I purchased it and it looked just like yours. Oil had blown back and covered the front of the engine and front spring area as well as all over the lower oil pan area.
Last edited by zachaeous; Jan 2, 2016 at 07:34 AM.
Clean up everything and then remove the crank seal with a simple puller and then just press in a new one, I'm told it can be installed with your hand and no special seal installation tool.
Yes, removal is hard but installation is easy. The outer seal surface has little rubber fingers that bend during installation so it slides right in. These little fingers also make removal fun.
Thanks for the advice everyone. After looking everything over, I think my oil issue may be from higher up on the timing cover. The plan is to replace the seal and balancer, see if any of the accessible timing cover bolts are loose, clean up the oil slick, and then run some UV dye in the oil for when I get it back on the road. Hopefully that way I can spot the source itself of doing a hunt across the engine. I really, really would like to not drop the front cradle for an oil pan gasket at this point.
I looked at this pics on the LS1howto for removing the balancer and the following two pictures make me feel that the pan and timing cover are thing in that area.
I haven't had it apart and can't tell how close/far from that curved, thin area my damage is. I'm also only guesstimating on the depth of the groove, but mine does go back all the way to the end of the lip on the oil pan.
Just helped put a cam in pirateslife4me car. His balancer was eating into the cover and pan. Wasn't cut far enough into the pan to mess up the rubber seal for the pan and cover, but was cut pretty deep. Put another front cover on and used silicone to make sure.
Timing Cover Damage from Balancer
