loose balancer bolt
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loose balancer bolt I have a 2001 camaro ss with a vortec supercharger and the balancer bolt continue to become loose and there is and oil leak that I cannot identify. Can the oil be coming from the center of the balancer if the bolt is loose and is there any tips on how to get it tight.
Are you using a stock bolt? Might want to try an ARP instead. Make sure you are torquing correctly, you have to make that thing your bitch to get it tight enough. About the oil leak, if for some reason the balancer was not square into the timing cover it may have torn up the seal on the cover, potential leak there...but it also could be coming from a lot of other places. Where do you see oil coming from?
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Apr 2004
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harmonic balancer were could I get the ARP? the oil seems to be directly on the front stableazation bar and toward the left side of the motor directly under the supercharger, it seems the most oil is like right around the aleternator and extends upward. I had the supercharger rebuilt so I don't think it is coming from the main pulley seal I also changed the oil feed line and drain line so I don't think it is there and that area seems dry behind the supercharger, it is also dry on the side of the motor but I do see some oil down were oil pan is and small drips off the belt. If the balancer bolt was loose could the oil be coming from the center of the balancer or does oil not come from that area? when the bolt looseings it had some oil on the threads, also do they sell a tool the hold the balancer so I can thighting it to proper specs?
Here is where you can buy the ARP bolt:
http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=3&pcid=299
It is possible to have a leak on the timing cover where the balancer comes out - I think it would have to be pretty loose though (wobbling). You'll have to hold the engine in order to get the proper torque. Don't know if you have an auto or a manual - but the easiest way is to get either a pry bar or a special flywheel/flexplate holding tool and brace the engine from the backside. That will keep it from rotating while you get the appropriate torque on it. If you haven't been doing it that way - there's a good chance it just keeps coming loose because you didn't tighten it well enough.
Here are your instructions for the pulley, taken from www.ls1howto.com:
http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...vid=3&pcid=299
It is possible to have a leak on the timing cover where the balancer comes out - I think it would have to be pretty loose though (wobbling). You'll have to hold the engine in order to get the proper torque. Don't know if you have an auto or a manual - but the easiest way is to get either a pry bar or a special flywheel/flexplate holding tool and brace the engine from the backside. That will keep it from rotating while you get the appropriate torque on it. If you haven't been doing it that way - there's a good chance it just keeps coming loose because you didn't tighten it well enough.
Here are your instructions for the pulley, taken from www.ls1howto.com:
Seat your pulley back onto the snout of the crankshaft as best you can by hand. If you purchased a longer crank bolt, start threading this in now and pull the pulley on about a 1/4 or 1/2 an inch and remove the longer bolt. Use your old stock crank pulley bolt to pull the pulley onto the crankshaft until the bolt seems to get impossible to turn. Grab your biggest torque wrench and attempt to torque that bolt down to 240lbft. I have always stopped at 200lbft on my installs and I've never had a problem, so if you can't hit 240 (which I never have), don't worry about it. Now, break the bolt free and remove it.
Take your NEW crank pulley bolt and thread it in all the way by hand. Torque this bolt to 37lbft. Now, we need to stretch the bolt into place. Get your breaker bar and pipe extension, and try to turn the bolt 140degrees past where it is at now, keeping in mind the engine will be trying to turn some and those are degrees you can't count. Again, I always seem to get about 90-100 degrees worth (estimating, knowing what 90 degrees looks like) and leave it as is so don't worry about going crazy here.
Once the pulley is installed, the timing cover should be nice and centered around it, so we can now tighten all 10 of those timing cover bolts. Torque them to 18lbft on the bolts you can get a torque wrench on, and just make the others you can't get the wrench on about as tight as those. Reinstall the A/C belt at this time.
Take your NEW crank pulley bolt and thread it in all the way by hand. Torque this bolt to 37lbft. Now, we need to stretch the bolt into place. Get your breaker bar and pipe extension, and try to turn the bolt 140degrees past where it is at now, keeping in mind the engine will be trying to turn some and those are degrees you can't count. Again, I always seem to get about 90-100 degrees worth (estimating, knowing what 90 degrees looks like) and leave it as is so don't worry about going crazy here.
Once the pulley is installed, the timing cover should be nice and centered around it, so we can now tighten all 10 of those timing cover bolts. Torque them to 18lbft on the bolts you can get a torque wrench on, and just make the others you can't get the wrench on about as tight as those. Reinstall the A/C belt at this time.
