im building a model a 4 banger and have been looking for a counter weighted crank for her.its proving to be a little more difficult than i thought and i may have to buy the weights to add to mine? some one suggested i put a harmonic balancer on her instead. does anyone know the pros/cons with doing this? and what 1 i would get if it was a valid way of doing it?
I dont know much about the pro's and con's but I have a flathead cadillac V8 engine which runs counter weights as a stock item and boy are they heavy suckers. The 2 weights are equal to a solid piece of 2" x 2" bar which must bust be 5" long each. You sure would not want these guys to come loose when running. I like the sound of a harmonic balancer if you have a choice.
Harmonic balancer is definitly the go because of the stroke, rod length,carrot stick crank, three main bearings and a very heavy flywheel harmonics can build up and can brake a crank with sustained revs I am putting a balancer on my engine have a look at the november banger monthly here on the HAMB it was discussed then. WES
I would recommend both. Counterbalances on the crank help the main bearings, they take some of the whip out of the crank. A harmonic balancer takes care of the torsional problems.
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