You say you "saw" a vibration in the dampener... Do you also "feel" a vibration when the engine is running?
I know that it's a dampener , but why do some aftermarket cranks come internal/ external balance , meaning the damper is neutral bal. And the flywheel is weighted (offset) balance if the damper is not also a balancer..
Crankshaft will actually twist back and forth, up around 2°, the damper resists torsional vibrations, I believe the heavy outer steel weight leads and lags a bit. Or is supposed to, once the elastomeric dries out it slips. Cracks can develop or, even the crankshaft breaks. There is a specific RPM (or RPMs) where the crank achieves what is called resonance. That's when the trouble starts. That's why they are sometimes called harmonic balancers. Seems to me this would beat the hell out of main bearings too, rear main seal oil leaks, and probably other bad stuff.
One definition of "balance" in the Oxford dictionary is "A counteracting weight or force", which is pretty much a dead-on description of a damper, so let's not get our ******* in a knot when someone calls it a balancer. I've read that a Buick Straight 8 crank can twist up to 7°. Not sure if the source was accurate but it must have been because it was on the internet. 7° seemed like an awful lot of twist to me.
I know this is a traditional site but what about the PC gender neutral or non traditional genders out there? How will they get the right part?
Early Top Fuel Hemis would twist up to 18 degrees, and cams were indexed to take that into account. Pretty sure my SBC's don't quite get there. I had a friend, RIP, who had a 327 in a '65 Chevelle 2 door wagon, the balancer/damper/dampener of which kept falling off. He refused to tap the crankshaft for a bolt, and just let the car sit. The results I posted in the "sitting and rotting" thread back in 2012, or thereabouts.
Yeah... Like 'anyways'... Hate that! Any one way is the meaning. ANY way. Like...take your pick. How many ways can you go at once? Don't get me started...
Just a note here...My friend Johnny Miller (commercial airline pilot) had a nice little '58 'Vette he bought cheap, had the young street racer next door re-***emble the 283 for him, short block was in ch***is, everything else in the trunk... Engine smoked some, I told he should have majored it. "No, just because I got it cheap didn't mean pouring $$ into it..." The vibration was quite noticeable, so I 'shook it down'...(engine off, grabbed damper and turned it back-and-forth...Damper was tight on the crank, but the crank had 'play', indicating a broken crankshaft. Johnny was in such denial that I removed the pan...the break was at the #6 crankpin, obviously turned with a sharp stone, removing the radius...Yep. Con rod brgs: .030. This was in 1966, Johnny bought a new short block, from the Chev dealer...
I wonder if maybe they mean +/- , for a total of X°? It would be cool to see some high speed recordings of the twist. There's some interesting valve spring action at high RPMs so ...
squirrel wrote - probably because so many folks use the wrong term, they have to go along with it... Every now and again...someone's gotta "try" to get things on the right track. OR. did Forrest Gump have it right ? Mike
yup...I try by setting a good example, I don't worry too much about trying to change the world. I know I can't do it.
You sure it's welded on and black silicone??? Sbc cranks sometimes leak out of the crank snout bore because of a gap in the keyway.... Or how about a sheared keyway in the dampner bore or the wrong flywheel/flexplate.... Just thinking out loud here....
A little more nit-pickn……. The speedy sleeve was for where the seal surface area was worn. Used so your timing cover seal would work. It had nothing to do with holding the "big round thing on the snout" onto the crankshaft.
OK, going to try and post some pictures of the welds just for posterity sake or a good laugh! The blobs you see are not grease globs, they are welds!
That looks rough. If I didn't want to get inside the engine, I would cut the inertia ring off and see what happens. Anything after that will be a true test of will.
get a hole saw that will just fit into the hole in the damper, and carefully cut the welds. Then you can take the engine apart, and discover that you have to replace everything, anyways.
Well that is what I am afraid of. Waist time on this when the engine needs to be replaced anyway. Can't see the welds with out a mirror. I would have to pull the radiator and possibly the grill to get at the welds. If I had the skill set and $ I would replace the engine.
Karl it might not be all that bleak, those welds look like **** and you might be able to break them off or like has been said using a hole saw without the pilot break them and then using a quality puller threaded all the way into the damper/balancer pull it off. I'm afraid you are going to pull the radiator and grill anyway. Pat
I agree, in fact a puller might work without any cutting or grinding. Those half ***ed welds aren't very strong. Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
looks to me like the welds are better on one side, than the other, which is not surprising...you'd have to turn the engine to get it into position to get a good weld on the other side, and whoever did this "repair" was probably too lazy to do that
Hell, one "glob" is already broken. Just try using a good puller, might just come off. Put pressure on the puller, smack the pullers shaft with a good sized steel hammer, more pressure, another hammer whack and stand back. Mike
I'd bet the crank snout is junk if they welded it on. I'm speaking from experience, my tight ***ed buddy that would never buy a new Damper had the task welding his on at the Street Rods Nats in St Paul many years ago After driving many more miles he decided to build a new motor for his car and was dreading removing the welded on part, tapped it with a hammer and it came right off, looks like your will also.