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That's exaggerated. The balancer itself can't blow up or fly off the engine. The outer ring can either slide forward and bump against the steering rack or slide back and chew up the timing cover. I suppose if the belt broke it could whip into the hood and cause damage.
^^this^^
I have an 05 mn6, the belt chirps on cold days for about 2 minutes and I have a slight wobble. It has been that way for about a year now and every once in a while I check it to see if the outer ring has moved. It was 72 today and no sound at all. I plan to just keep my eye on it as long as the chirp is only when cold.
On a friends 98 the outer ring slid back and chewed up up the timing cover breaking the seal with the oil pan. It was a DYI repair for us and with some wrenching experience not all that hard IMHO. The failure mode was the adhesion of the rubber ring to the metal outer ring. I can post a pic if you would like to see it.
That's exaggerated. The balancer itself can't blow up or fly off the engine. The outer ring can either slide forward and bump against the steering rack or slide back and chew up the timing cover. I suppose if the belt broke it could whip into the hood and cause damage.
LOL.....the laws of physics have no mercy on things the size and weight of a balancer spinning at 5 - 6-K even if there is a rack hopefully in the way. While it may be unlikely that one could fly all over the place....if someone told me that their balancer came through the hood, i'd have no problem believing it.......
I picked up my car yesterday, and wow, what a difference. So, even if you think a little wobble is acceptable, you may be missing out on performance and not even realize it.
I went with an ATI damper from Summit Racing, if anyone cares.
I picked up my car yesterday, and wow, what a difference. So, even if you think a little wobble is acceptable, you may be missing out on performance and not even realize it.
I went with an ATI damper from Summit Racing, if anyone cares.
I picked up my car yesterday, and wow, what a difference. So, even if you think a little wobble is acceptable, you may be missing out on performance and not even realize it.
I went with an ATI damper from Summit Racing, if anyone cares.
Which ATI damper did you buy? Summit Racing lists quite a few. Was it for an LS3, or does it matter?
My friends and I replaced the damper on my 2007 LS2. with 69000 miles on it. It took us 6 hours total, including lunch. We replaced the front crankshaft seal, the damper, damper bolt, and the belts. The damper had a pretty good wobble but no belt chirp. I put a Powerbond replacement damper on it. The new damper wobbles a little, which I believe is normal for the LS engines. Removing the steering rack takes the most time and it took two us to apply 240 foot pounds of torque during the install.
Think of it this way, I did and it convinced me to change it out. What does the name "harmonic balancer" bring to mind, maybe it is supposed to balance something right? So now I thought well if its supposed to do something along those lines what if it itself is wobbling, then think of it spinning at say 5000 RPM's. That was enough for me and mine did get worse over the last 3 years, my mechanic showed me after we replaced it with the Power Bond PB1117SS and I was pleased with my decision.
Others will tell you a little wobble if OK, your choice
NSF
Just did mine a few months ago over the winter. One thing I know, no wobble is acceptable and there is no time frame when it will go, the wobble is the start of failure and every time you take that car out, you will have this on your mind because when it goes, it will be twice as bad.
Good luck
pj, how it will be twice as bad, other than you may not be at home. Nobody on this forum has experienced a catastrophic failure, other than 1 or 2 people who had it happen to their highly modified cars. In a few cases, the wobble got so bad that the belt came off. How will it be twice as bad?
If the HB breaks and moves forward, it will start chewing at the steering rack, if the HB breaks loose into the timing chain cover, it will destroy that.
ATI is vast overfill for anything that rarely sees the track. PowerBond Race Series is the happy medium and vastly superior to the OE GM balancer. Go with that and an ARP crank bolt and if you're not doing it yourself, make sure you find a shop who knows what they are doing (familair with Corvette.) Shops who know what they are doing don't take all day to perform the swap, so the bill shouldn't be outrageous. Just not much room to work with on a Corvette and that is why it's a tad more expensive than say swapping a balancer on a truck or SUV.
ATI is vast overfill for anything that rarely sees the track. PowerBond Race Series is the happy medium and vastly superior to the OE GM balancer. Go with that and an ARP crank bolt and if you're not doing it yourself, make sure you find a shop who knows what they are doing (familair with Corvette.) Shops who know what they are doing don't take all day to perform the swap, so the bill shouldn't be outrageous. Just not much room to work with on a Corvette and that is why it's a tad more expensive than say swapping a balancer on a truck or SUV.
Agreed! ATI is pretty much overkill for 95% of those replacing the factory failed HB. At $400+, it is just spending needless money when the above Powerbond will last a lifetime and you can put an extra $200 in your pocket. I've run this PB on a 600hp FIed LS3 and it acted just like a harmonic balancer should.
If the HB breaks and moves forward, it will start chewing at the steering rack, if the HB breaks loose into the timing chain cover, it will destroy that.
According to the Service Manager at my large Chevy dealership--he has been there 18 years--they have NEVER had any kind of "catastrophic" failure of an HB. He told me they do replace them for people, and they have had them get bad enough that the belt flies off, but never what you are talking about.
I am not disputing the possibility of what you say. In reality, nobody has posted that as actually happened to them, save for the one or two highly-modified vehicles I mentioned. Few vette owners outside of this forum know what the HB is.
