I was out taking my father for a ride in my car today and he told me to get on it a little so he could feel how fast it was. Well I was on the highway and slowed to about 35 and punched it....got up to about 95 and let off. Then we pulled into a parking lot to talk to someone and I heard the most heinous clatter from under my hood and saw smoke coming from under there.
I shut the engine right off and went to have a look fearing that I threw a bearing or something. WELL it turns out that the elastomer ring on my balancer let loose with only 3,000 miles on it and the two pieces seperated. The outer part must have gone up and hit either a hose or the water pump itself cause there was antifreeze leaking. I limped the car home about a half mile but haven't had a chance to pull the pump yet to see what actually is leaking.
Anyway here is the "technical" part of this post. The damper on there was an aftermarket OE piece that I though would have held up....it was a ProForm if anyone cares. Well the place I got it from has some Street/Strip dampers for like $80 that are supposed to be good to 6,500 RPM's. Would this work?? I didn't think it would be a factor of RPM's because they said the one I have on there is good to 5,500 and I definately didn't rev it that high. Should I just bite the bullet and spend $300+ I don't have on something like a Fluidamper?? Also does anyone think I should even bother convincing the company to replace my water pump if it's got a hole in it??

 

If you bought the damper new I would try getting it and the pump replaced for free. Even an oem damper should have been okay under only that much stress.

 

How did you install the old balancer...with an installer tool or hammer it on?

 

Hammering it on wouldn't cause the balancer to slip. It's made to be tough, and if it broke after 3000 miles it was just faulty. I've never seen a power rating on a harmonic balancer.

 

They aren't rated on torque(power), they are rated on how well the reduce 'harmonics' and max rpm they can handle. You got a bad one. You can never have too much torque, just not enough car

 

Hahahah I'll agree with the fact that you can never really have too much torque.
I installed the balancer with the correct tool.
I pulled the water pump and balancer off today....luckily the broken out part only took out my lower radiator hose. It just barely missed the water pump...I mean we're talking less than a quarter inch I think.
The company I got the balancer from says they will give me a new one or credit towards a better one if I send them the broken one and my original receipt. Unfortunately I don't think I have the receipt!! I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what they say. I just want to get my car back on the road!

 

I really think that it's because it's Proform. Proform products fail! Period! End of story. I won't get into my Proform experiance.

 

My Proform roller tipped rockers broke after 200 miles. I called and talked nicely, but they agreed to replace all 16 with new aluminum rollers. I was hesitant, but did anyway due to me spending $100 on them already. They have held up fine ever since, but I will be cautious in the future with Proform parts.

 

My experience was with the full rollers. They SUCK!

 

try and get another one and a new pump for free, i never heard of such a faulty product/company..

 

Ok well here's the good news.....the balancer only hit the lower radiator hose....missed the water pump by less than a half inch though. The company refunded me the money for the balancer and I have a new heavy duty one on order from GMPP.

 

Paul, PLEASE check the keyway in the crank and replace the woodruff key that indexes the balancer to the crank. The woodruff key should fit SNUGLY in the keyway of the crank- it should not flop around even a little. If it does(I pray it does not), you're just going to trash another balancer. If the keyway is chewed up, you're screwed- new crank time.

 

The keyway looked fine to me. Just out of curiousity how would that affect the elastomer ring letting loose? I always love learning opportunities.
I also made a last minute decision today...the new balancer I ordered from GMPP came and I decided to send it back and order a Fluidamper instead. So hopefully by next wednesday I'll have the car back on the road.

 

The balancer is designed to absorb the vibrations that occur in the crank as individual cylinders fire at different times. The crank gets whipped around like a wet noodle in a blender. The forces are actually VERY strong. Stong enough to bend that hefty steel crank out of shape by several degrees in extreme situations- over and over several thousand times a minute. Without a balancer the engine would tear itself to pieces rather quickly.

That being said- you can imagine if the balancer were to be given any opportunity to slip on the crank snout. Instead of absorbing the vibrations gradually the balancer would slip and then get snapped back and forth. It's more complicated than that and I'm not sure I'm doing a good job explaining but trust me- if the keyway's chewed up- something's gone horribly wrong.

Another copmmon indication of a slipping balancer or a chewed up keyway (uncontrolled vibrations) is if your engine has a tendency to "eat" timing chains.