HELP...sbc , I want to skip harmonic balancer

HI!

Building my FED engine, Chevy smallblock...

I bought a Speedway motors cam driven waterpump(nice) and the damper wont fit, Not even the solid 4 inch moroso damper..

Do I need a damper??

Im not gonna use belts, so i dont need that funktion.

Im going to balance the engine anyway..

One said that the crank could pop , beacuse vibrations.
And some people said that, as long its balanced, no problem!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

The early 283 motors just had a mounting hub for the pulley. It was just a solid piece, with holes drilled for the pulley. There was no center bolt holding it on either, the end of the crank wasn't drilled.

On my build I drilled the end of the crank and reinstalled the stock mounting hub, bolted on. Most older motors do not have a harmonic balancer. I think the harmonic balancer was an improvement to the design, and I would want to use one, if I was racing the motor. SFI rated....

 

The only engines I've see wo balancers were blown.

 

You can use a blower hub They are very small .

 

Forget about the balancer, get a crank hub and let the loose end drag! Since the engine will be internally balanced and used only for drag racing you'll never need one. Keep it off the guardrail and have fun.

 

Call Blower Drive Service or RCI they'll hook you up

 

The "balancer" is for stoping harmonics in The crank
(twisting)There is a reason the 283s got a harmonic
balancer later. If they hadent needed them they
would been without them
Mainbearing problems.snaped cranks
You can use a blower hub but include the blower
it works as a harmonic balancer

 

Your going to need a degreed hub of some sort anyway in order to time the engine. either move the w/p out with a spacer, or try and find a KUHL river rat w/p as they are only about 3" dia.

 

every chevy engine i have seen run without a balancer stripped the teeth off the top timing gear in a short time.

 

How would you check your Ign. Timing without some sort of hub??

 

just about every sprint car engine runs without a balancer or a flywheel-waterpump is driven of the crank,drysump pumps off the front of the cam and the fuel and power steering pumps off the back of the cam.

 

I used a degreed hub on my 302 in a dragster. never a problem.

 

Terex took the damper off the Deutz Diesel to put a pulley for the magnet generator on. The engine didn't last 200 hours and it only turned 1800 rpm.

 

As already stated the harmonic balancer damps out torsional harmonics the are basically the crank ringing but in a twisting direction.
A blower hub only works if it has the blower belt on it because the belt acts to as the rubber damper to damp out the harmonics. Simply bolting it on the crank nose sans the belt does nothing.

I recommend running one but it's your call. For short blasts down the track it may last but the hard hit of a drag motor may do it in quick.

The critical issue is if you dwell in the cranks harmonic frequency for to long. Blasting through any given rpm like on a pass will negate some of the problem

 

what about using an extension like is used for injection pumps. they come in various lengths and it might move the pump ahead of the balancer!

 

Ran this hub on a dirt modified, never worn bearings, or stripped the gear on the timing chain. Internally balanced.

 

Do you have any clue how long it would take to get 200 hours on a DRAGSTER? I guessing 200 minutes of run time for a season would be a lot.

 

I have a 350 internally balanced, hub only with ring removed. 5 drag seasons running and no problems yet. peace

 

This would be a batter cam driven water pump http://www.rbssuperchargers.com/Store_Detail.cfm?ID=227286&InfoID=3921

That speedway water pump looks too massive.

 

btt good thread

 

You could probably get away without a torsional damper on a 283 in a dragster. It will have little run time, the crank has a short stroke, etc.

 

Use one if you wish it to live for a farly long time,the harmonic balancer helps a lot with keeping crank killer harmonics from letting a crack start in crank its then broke.
Any size crank when running is also twisting a lot*,how bad the twist snap back is on the crank is controled by the harmonic balancer.
Twist is from only one of the pistons being loaded by firing at a time,and a nother being pulled by intake ect. making lots of twist load as one cly is pushing and another is trying to load the other way.
I would never race a motor with out one if it's going to run over 5000rpm....

 

My ZZ-4 350/385 HP Boss Hoss bike has no dampener. None of them do, either 350 or 502, and I'm not aware of any busted cranks, blown engines or stripped timing gears. Some of the guys thrash the hell out of theirs

 

I took a stock Balancer cut the the outer ring off then turned it down the center hub till it cleared my pump. After that I put a timing tab on the motor and a degree wheel. Found TDC (with a TDC spark plug tool) and used a small chisel and number stamp kit to lay out all he marks. I.E. 0,90,180,270 corresponding cylinder number lay out and 30-45 degree timing marks.

Works great and nothing has come apart. ( I do run a Milidon 3 wheel gear drive though, so I can not say what would happen with a timing chain set up)

Bottom line your making 1/4 passes and not running cross country.





My 2 cents,,,,,,,good luck man!

 

Just bolting on a hub does do somthing-- it keeps the oil from coming out of the front cover.

The RBS water pump is a billet version of the Kuhl river rat pump. Been running one on my dragster for years now.

 

your dragster needs a water pump ?

 

I've been waiting for this response

 

Some Ive seen might as well have a radio and a heater too


Seriously though.....Harmonic balancers are more important on engines that are running at a steady state(rpm) meaning if you are racing at Talladaga you better have one

Dragster.....hub for timing marks only you will be just fine

As said before sprint car engines dont use them and I have personally run 750-800 hp unlimited sbc in a super latemodel with a hub only
We race more and put more time on an engine in one evening than you will all summer

And Striped timing gears as a cause if you dont run one...give me a break

Tony

 

Yes , I run a waterpump to circulate water only thru the aluminum heads and by doing so I have run these heads for 12 years without having to re-surface them because the area between the center exhaust valves sunk.I can also moniter rich/lean by the temp at the end of the run. Runs 6.90 @ 203 and I take it apart and go thru it every 3 years.

 

Thanks again for sharing some of your knowledge!

I have cut loose the center of a stock damper, and have got machined it round in lathe(?) And Im going to mark the deadend. And get it balanced with the rest =)

My idea is to run some runs a year, in "nostalgia" class. So its pretty much "show off" with a good looking 50´s dragster with "right" parts and so on.

Still I want to build serius stuff.

I have a heavy duty timing chain set, should last long I think!
And a 2 (maybe more o less) gallons watertank, to run it with less heat problem(I dont know "better").

One wierd thing about the speedway motors pump, when installing it on the hilborn front cover, it is twisted a little bit(!), I think I modify the polt pattern to straight it up.Looks better to me =)

I think I need to make a tread with my FED building, easier to see what I mean sometimes =)

Thanks for info and pics, keep them comming =)