Crankshaft Dampner Separated -- Arghh!

[blykins]

I do. Blue.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by blykins

If you have your heart set on an ATI, I can't help, but Keith or Barry can get those for you. I can do Romac or P/P.

Brent -- I've gotten half a dozen emails from people telling me Romac balancers are absolutely wonderful. What are my choices and what do you have in stock for me?

EDIT -- Am I reading that right that the all aluminum "Pro Series" Romac weighs but 3 lbs.? And the Performance Steel/Aluminum job is only 5 lbs? And if I want it to look exactly like my OEM, but in steel and aluminum, it's 9 lbs.?

SECOND EDIT -- in comparison, the ATI looks to be 7.4 lbs. and Innovators West is 7.8 lbs.

[dcdoug]

I was wondering what happened to you yesterday. Sorry to hear about the damper. I thought you might be re-wrapping and taping your rollbars all the way down to the paint.

The pig was great, the day was hot, the company was great and it was nice to get my car up on the scales. My cross weights are pretty good by the way. I do weigh in at a portly 2600 lbs though with an estimated 15 gal of gas in the tank. Trying to be period correct does have it's price.

Hope the new assembly goes together easily.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by dcdoug

I was wondering what happened to you yesterday. Sorry to hear about the damper. I thought you might be re-wrapping and taping your rollbars all the way down to the paint.

The pig was great, the day was hot, the company was great and it was nice to get my car up on the scales. My cross weights are pretty good by the way. I do weigh in at a portly 2600 lbs though with an estimated 15 gal of gas in the tank. Trying to be period correct does have it's price.

Hope the new assembly goes together easily.

I was disappointed, but glad I didn't break down "in route." Although If I made it to Scott's house that's about the best place in the world to break down in a Cobra.

[dcdoug]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I was disappointed, but glad I didn't break down "in route." Although If I made it to Scott's house that's about the best place in the world to break down in a Cobra.

Happened to one other person. They broke a radiator bracket on the way there and fixed it at his house. Hard to beat his set up.

[ERA Chas]

Did the motor rotate backwards when you used your rube bar?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Did the motor rotate backwards when you used your rube bar?

No, the car was in gear. It actually came out surprisingly easily.

[ERA Chas]

Use the ARP spec that comes with the bolt. Don't remember but I think mine was 105-115 lbft. Yours should not break so easily-you were lucky.

I also hate turning the crank bolt when adjusting valves. Years ago Powerhouse (now owned by Comp) made a neat tool when Roy owned the company. It was for Chevs but I tried to adapt it. Had three holes which were attached by the pulley bolts and a 1/2 square hole in center for a ratchet or extension. Was not deep enough for the FE application. They don't show them on their site now.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Use the ARP spec that comes with the bolt. Don't remember but I think mine was 105-115 lbft. Yours should not break so easily-you were lucky.

That curl bar is 34" long -- I can put a heck of a lot of torque down on the end of a three foot long pole. But if I had to swear to you, I don't think I put down more than enough to break loose maybe a 50 ft/lb bolt, if that. But it's really hard to tell when you have that much leverage, so it could well have been in the 70-90 range.

[blykins]

I could see how you could make the crank bolt fail in a Chevy.....but not a Ford engine. All Ford crank bolts are 5/8" diameter. That's one thing I could never understand about the Chevy junk.....fasteners were all the size of pencils.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by patrickt

But if I had to swear to you, I don't think I put down more than enough to break loose maybe a 50 ft/lb bolt, if that. But it's really hard to tell when you have that much leverage, so it could well have been in the 70-90 range.

With the plugs in the motor, it takes almost 90 on a 1/2" drive torque wrench to turn mine.

[blykins]

But the ARP's have a nice little indention in the front for a balancer puller end to sit down into. ;-)

Sure as the world, I'm going to say buy a new one, and some other guy will come in behind me and tell you not to waste his money. OR....I'll say reuse it and some guy will say, it's cheap insurance to spend the $20 on a new bolt.

I'll keep my mouth shut.....you're on your own kid.

[patrickt]

Naah, I'm doing it by the book. New bolt and all. BTW, does that pulley look like the holes are wide enough for the Chevy pattern?

[blykins]

I've never used an ATI on an FE, so I've never had to enlarge the holes. I use the P/P stuff on budget/mild street motors and Romacs for the heavy duty stuff.

[Barry_R]

An all aluminum damper is probably not the "ticket" - the aluminum hub is likely to just gall up in a street application. The steel repro Romac is very nice, but only has a TDC line - no degree markings - you will need a dial back timing light to use that one. The coolest ARP center bolt has a square drive indent that will accept a 1/2" breaker bar for turning the engine over.

[Snakebit]

I second the Romac balancer.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Snakebit

I second the Romac balancer.

Well, I went with the aluminum/steel Romac Ford 427 SFI Production style damper p# 0250AS. I tried to buy it from Brent, but he was out of them and pointed me to Keith, who shipped it out today. One fact that I failed to mention is that I have a SCAT crank in there. I found one obscure reference on SCAT & Eagle cranks being .001 under spec, according to Romac. Are there any fitment issues that I should know about when I squeeze the Romac on to my SCAT crank?

EDIT -- here is that obscure reference: http://www.romac.com.au/Balancers_Fitting_Inst.pdf

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Are there any fitment issues that I should know about when I squeeze the Romac on to my SCAT crank?

That sounds personal.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Are there any fitment issues that I should know about when I squeeze the Romac on to my SCAT crank?

You won't know for sure unless you measure ID and OD as I said earlier. Don't need your Euclidean training either -just subtraction.

Barry may certainly be correct about aluminum but I haven't had the problem.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

You won't know for sure unless you measure ID and OD as I said earlier. Don't need your Euclidean training either -just subtraction.

Barry may certainly be correct about aluminum but I haven't had the problem.

FWIW, I read every single post on the www.fordfe.com forum on Romac balancers and there wasn't a single negative word to be found. That held true as well for some other forums. The only reference I found on the SCAT and Eagle cranks being .001 is in that document I posted. Nowhere else. Not on the ATI site, Fluid site, nowhere. Why would SCAT and Eagle make their snouts .001 under?