Have a 95 z28 that was involved in an accident with some undercarriage damage(k-member, lower a-arm, steering rack), the car is pretty much completely fixed except the balancer that goes on the crankshaft hub looks like it was hit by a rock and is pretty banged up. Have some pictures here:
balancer1
balancer2
balancer3

I know the pictures aren't that great but from what you guys can see, does it look like I would need to replace it and if I do does anyone have one they could sell?

Thanks, Ian

 

Its not a "balancer".... its a "harmonic damper". The damper absorbs potentially harmful torsional vibrations in the crankshaft, through the differential movement of the inner and outer halves of the pulley. The inner and outer parts of the pulley are held together by a fairly rigid elastomer ring.... the piece that is now hanging out of your damper.

I would say it is damaged to the point where it could harm your engine by continuing to use it. If the damper doesn't dampen the crankshaft vibrations, the crank will fatique and eventually break. The pulley is now going to wobble, wearing the serpentine belt or even throwing it off.

I can't see any way that thing could be salvaged.

 

Thanks for the help. I ran the engine for maybe a minute or two with that damper on, do you think I could have done any damage to the crankshaft or anything else within that amount of time? I'm currently looking at picking up this damper to replace it, does this look like it would be a good choice? Its the same size as the damaged one but not sure if that matters. BTW this is on my 383 lt1.

 

They can be rebuilt, but cheaper to get a used one.

 

The one in the link will work.

 

You didn't hurt anything by running it for a few minutes. There are people here who installed "sandwich" style U/D pullies, and didn't realize that they were supposed to put the stock damper back on.... ran without it for extended period of time.

 

Thanks for the help guys. One more question though. The damper that was on the car that is damaged is 7.5" outer diameter, I was told it's possible to put on a different size. Is this true and what would be the dis/advantages of doing this? Thanks.

 

OH DAMN!!! I intalled an AUTO SPECIALTIES underdrive pulley set on my lt1 and left the damper off!!! I wondered why the bolts were dangerously close to my engine. I dont understand how the underdrive pulley's work then, was it supposed to go on the OUTSIDE of the damper?! If so....what is the point....I thought they were a weight reduction thing mainly?! The belt fit perfect though. I have over 10K miles on it since I took that off too, DAMMIT!!! ---

This is the one I bought, is it "sandwich" or "integrated", I couldnt see a difference from ANY of the ASP ones sold on Summit ---

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

The primary benefit of the U/D pulley is that it slows the accessories down, reducing the HP they absorb when you accelerate the engine. On most engines, this can be a decent amount of HP, since the belt drives the water pump, but on the LT1, the pump is not belt driven. Reduced weight is an additional benefit.

The "sandwich" style U/D pulley moves the stock damper/pulley forward, and puts a smaller diameter pulley behind it.

An "integrated" U/D damper/pulley is just a smaller diameter version of the stock damper/pulley. As far as I know, only ASP (Auto Specialty Products??) makes the integrated damper/pulley that completey replaces the stock damper. It's not clear what you have, since the picture and $70 price indicates its only a pulley. The ASP integrated damper/pulley is more like $150 if I recall correctly.

Its always a good idea to check the bolt length after you install a damper or pulley.... if the bolts stick out too far they can destroy the Opti cap.