Balancer welded to the crank

[William V.]

I'm working on a 65 250 horse and found that someone had welded the balancer to the crank. I suspect the bolt was broken or the threads were messed up and this was someone's quick fix. I was going to replace the timing chain & seal but now this will be put off until the engine needs a rebuild. The car is a driver and runs ok.

Over the past 40 + years,I have worked on many engines and never encountered this before. Has anyone else seen this kind of handy work?
Thanks

[Mike Swanson]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

How the hell they weld it? Fill the snout with weld? Boy, that would get you chasing your tail , huh??

Mike

[Wayne K.]

Look at it this way, it hasn't fallen off ! *NM*

[Robert Willis]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

Yup I saw that trick. A guy boke the bolt off in the crank of a Toyota Van and then give it a spot of weld. The next move was to drive to his friendly G.M. Dealer and trade it off. That was one of the better ones I have saw. The best was the "stupid farmer" that had all different sizes of tires on his pick-up truck. The Dealer laughed out loud telling us about the "Stupid Farmer" and the tires, well they put one 4 the same size and you couldn't keep the truck on the road. It seems the frame had a real big twist in it and the farmer had spent alot of time with big and little tires to get it to go straight .

[Joe L.]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

Bill-----

250 hp 327s didn't have balancer retaining bolts. So, if a crank snout gets so worn that the interference fit is incapable of retaining the balancer, I suppose someone's "solution" might be to weld it on. There would be better solutions, but some folks take the "first thing that comes to mind".

Another problem could have been that someone installed the wrong balancer. While identical in appearance, SERVICE balancers for 327s and most 283's were NOT all the same. How do they differ? Well, one has a tighter interference fit than the other. The one designed for engines with the balancer bolt has a light press fit; the one designed for engines without a balancer bolt has a greater interference fit. If one installs the balancer with the light press fit on a engine without balancer bolt, you may lose the balancer. Perhaps, that happened to this person and so they decided to "make sure that it never came off again". Ergo, the weld soulution.

[Jim T.]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

Bill I rebuilt the 327/300 in my 64 convetible in 1969. I bought a new balancer and it fell off after I got the car on the road and it had an interferance fit when I installed it. I didn't have the time to work one it and took it to the Chevrolet garage. They said it had the wrong balancer and installed a new one. The new one stayed on. The 327/300 in 64 did not have a retainer bolt, just interferance fit.

[Dick W.]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

Being raised up in a dealship I saw a lot of "best ones". The one that sticks in my mind is the local Dodge dealship traded for an old flathead 6 cylinder Dodge. Engine had a skip in it, but the did not think too much about it. Pulled it in the shop for a tune up, but alas, the skip was still there. Did a compression check and sure enough one cylinder had no compression. They pulled the head figuring that they were going to have to do a valve job. Surprise! One rod and piston was gone. In it's place was a maple plug. Seems that the cylinder wall had a crack in it. Enterprising owner turned down a maple plug and drove it into the cylinder, sealing the leak. Dealer never said a word to former owner. Figured if he was dumb enough to trade for the car he would pay it have it fixed.

'Course there were the sawdust in the differentials, 90W oil in the crankcase, booted tires, ect. I could go on for hours about the things that I saw and heard about from other dealers. OH for the simplier life when a new car could be bought for $2,500 or so.

[Ed Jennings]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

You can still buy a new car for $2500 or so, if you use 196X dollars. That's probably about $25K in 2005 dollars.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Balancer welded to the crank

The more they stay the, uh,...same(?).

On the new 2005s, the balancer has a center bolt and a slip fit. Toward the end of 2004, a batch of LS2s got out there with that balancer bolt not torqued properly. Well, these young whippersnappers got to speed-shifting near the red line and the INERTIA of the balancer loosened up the center bolt on the affected engines.

If you were lucky, you got a little warning...belts begn squealing and coming off, and/or the pulley began to wobble. If left unattended (or if you are going REALLY FAST), the problem progressed to the pulley coming completely off, and then the balancer comes off and gets trapped between the crank end and the steering rack. Wheeeewwweee...what a mess: Since the damper drives the water pump, the engine quickly overheats and pukes all the coolant. The timing cover seal isn't functional, so oil blows all over the engine compartment, and the belt flys off and beats hell out of everything in the way.

GM isn't recalling them...just waiting to see what happens. Guys with the affected VINS are just waiting with the sword hangin over their heads...probably easing around town, driving their Corvettes like Cobalts were meant to be driven. I bet welding that dang balancer on sounds pretty good to some of them right now!

[Clem Z.]

LS-2 damper problem

the diamond impregnated washer that fits between the end of the damper snout and the face of the crankshaft that prevents the damper from spinning and causing the bolt to loosen was left out on some LS-2s. mine is included in the VINs but i just check mine every once in a while with a 1" box wrench on the damper bolt to make sure it is tight enought to turn the engine and that means it is still tight

[Chuck S.]

Re: LS-2 damper problem

Clem, I thought the diamond impregnated washer was the "fix" they came up with to insure that the balancer didn't move and the bolts don't loosen up anymore. If a part (diamond impregnated washer) was left out of the engine, I don't think they could take this "wait and see" attitude without lots of legal hassles.

Driving the affected cars easily to keep the problem from occurring is probably the wrong approach: Guys with the affected cars should drive them like they stole them...at least until the warranty runs out. After that, premptive maintenace is in order...Installing the washer isn't difficult; just a lot of detailed steps.

A 2006 convertible is definitely in my future...I hope they get all the bugs out in 2005.

[Clem Z.]

Re: LS-2 damper problem

i was told that the washer was part of the assy procedure. they took the wait and see attitude even on the brake line problem they had on the early ones till they had the recall and the brake line failure would cause a bigger legal problem than the damper coming loose. they most likely have a computer model of how many of the effected cars will have the damper come loose so they will take their chances that all will not fail.