Remember Shiv's car in the 25 hours of Thunder Hill? It kept burning up power steering pumps. I wonder if this type of problem could have played a part in that car's mishaps.

 

could have been, if he had the timing belt and or the other balance shaft belt, that could be the issue.. This is a public service announcement now, Be careful and watch out for this. He had the belt disconnected, and turned the pulley, about like turning a lock on a school-locker, and he gently "flipped" it from 10 oclock towards NOON, and if it "rolled" Away from the 12 (counter clockwise) it was OFF 180 degrees, if it kept going toward 12 oclock, it was dead on! I will double check with him for sure tomorrow and repost the correct way.

Again, the marks will be dead on weather it is 180 degrees off OR correct. must do the "flip" to make sure. when putting the belt on, the weight could cause it to "fall" out 180 degrees.

 

I had a similiar problem with my 2003 Evo back in April-May of 2003 when it was almost new. I had a shop install adjustable cam gears. After the install the car ran 2 miles and quit. They found out that something had gotten into the timing belt area and wiped out the crank trigger.

The shop installed the new trigger and replaced the cut timing belt. I got the car back and thought it had a vibration but was not sure what was normal as it was still quite new.

Next we ran the car at Laguna Seca and the starter wire broke from the vibration. Then the A/C compressor hot wire broke. We fixed both of those and then the clutch hydraulic line broke from vibration where it connects to the slave cylinder - this occured while the car was out on the track.

We fixed the clutch line and took the car to another reputable shop and paid them to check the balance shaft timing. The shop said the shafts were correctly installed.

Subsequently the service manager at our local dealership happened to drive the car and he immediately said that from his experience he would bet that the shafts were out of time. We paid the dealership to check them and sure enough they were. Once fixed the car was perfect again.

I went through lots of sweat and pain during the process; and it cost quite a bit too. I now do all my cam install work myself. Hope this thread will prevent others from suffering the same grief. Bottem line is that even good mechanics can get these shafts out of time - so beware any time anyone phases those balance shafts!

 

If it wants to rotate down it's out of phase 180.
I love mechanics that don't read the damn service manual, it's written out very clearly in there.

 

WOW, now that you mention it, I also vibrated loose my hydraulic line (under the airbox), and I vibrated loose my wire off my starter (it quit during an autoX), and also had the AC wire vibrate off. My oil sending unit had to be replaced, and I have o dash lights now on the right 1/2 of the dash, and my water-temp guage is not working correctly, gradually up and down. At cruising speed, it can read pegged Cold! I forgot about these issues, and expenes I also had!

Very good advice, so even if you do cams and cam-gears, this can be the same issue as replacing the timing belt.

If you vibrate, have issues with things quitting, falling apart, take the car to get the shafts checked. My hardest part was finding a mechanic who was not so egotistical and a know it all, to check it. First sign of a rattle, after you had someone in near your timing belt,cams,gears, look for this being the problem, before it costs you lots of dough!

 

I just want to pat myself on the back for being the first person in the thread to say the balancer shaft is out of sync. LOL

 

Man... that sucks. When I had fidanza cam gears installed on my car it went to all hell.. I was only making 186whp.. the car was virbrating and driving like crap.. it made no hp what so ever.. I took them off.. had cams installed with belt and everything was perfect. My tuner was pointing out the fact to me that the gears were designed very poorly with weak bolts.. they are as soft as butter when the car is on the dyno and we had a bolt break and fly off while tuning!

 

Hey Dylan, it has been noted, but the FIRST one to mention it was ZEUS, months ago! you guys will have to "share" the grand prize! Thanks again!

 

yeah i figured someone had probably mentioned it to you earlier, but this was the first i had heard of your problem. So i am giving myself kudos. LOL

 

That blows! I have had mine on there for 35+K miles with no problem. ALL my problems started with the balance shaft out of sinc! now hopefully I have a decent car again.
My first dyno at Dyno4mance was I believe 314 on pump gas, but the balance shaft was out of sinc on there also. We actually shredded a belt While on the dyno also! So it didn't cost me any HP, just mucho dinero on parts that hold all the required parts on!