I bought a 1984 z28 camaro for a parts car that i took the rearend out of. Well it came with a crossfire 350 in it and we knew when we bought it that the balancer spun, broke off and borke the timing chain. Well later to discover when i was taking apart the engine for fun. The Cam shaft broke into 3 pieces The rod is bent like an "S" the piston is shattered, and the crank broke into two. I was completly wowed at how all this could have happened. What i learned from this, is to go out and buy that $60 balancer instead of reusing that old one. Here are some pictures.

i agree. i remember blowing up a motor that turned out that way. not many good parts at all. funny now looking back at it.

Wow. I never would have thought a balancer could do that kind of damage. *Thinks back to the balancer he scavenged off an old motor for his new 350.*

Yea i had no idea, im very glad i just changed to a proform blancer for my new 350. This would not make me happy after $2000 engine build lol, good thing this was just a parts car.

As I understand it - this is the inherent plight of the 454 - I was always told that the balancers go bad in them, and cause such issues with them.

i've never had a loose outer ring on a harmonic balancer
cause any damage other than wearing on the timing
cover,causing a massive oil leak i'd say that engine
was salvaged from a vehicle that had been in a bad
frontal wreck and took a bad hit to the crank pulley,
cracking the crank and the balancer neck,crank then
broke in operation,causing the carnage(the cranks will
break right where the one pictured is broken if they are
cracked from bad impact to crank snout)

I had my outer ring slip loose from the center section, work its way back into the KC4 cooler lines & I started loosing coolant that way. I just took the KC4 cooler lines off & have never replaced them.




It actually ate THROUGH the tube & started leaking coolant.

I actually had the same symptom but. mine didn't eat thru the coolant tube. the the time cover itself. OUCHIES. tell ya losing oil with a pin hole in the timing cover bad.

i feel your pain.

Yea that could be i dont think so because he had it running in his camaro before it blew up and the camaro wasnt crashed just rusty lol

The proper name for this part is "harmonic damper".

What happens when harmonics are not damped? Fatigue.

What does a fatigue fracture look like? This: