<VV> Re: Harmonic Balancer Y or N?

[Bryan Blackwell]

No, that's not the purpose of the balancer.  At a certain engine speed 
(I would have to look it up) a standing wave forms due to bending of 
the crank on the power cycles.  This effect is similar to the famous 
suspension bridge (Google Tacoma Narrows bridge) that oscillated itself 
to destruction and that will destroy the crank.  BTW, this is the 
purpose of *all* harmonic balancers.  It has nothing to do with the 
normal rotating balance of the engine.

I know there's a more in-depth explanation in one of the books - 
probably the Tech Guide - as well as a number of books on building 
engines.
--
Bryan Blackwell bryan at skiblack.com
http://autoxer.skiblack.com/
   Corvairs: '61 Lakewood, '64 Greenbrier, '65 Corsa, '66 Corsa
   '69 Road Runner, '97 Ford F-150, '99 Neon R/T
"Why do something if you're not going to obsess about it?"

On Jul 19, 2006, at 12:19 AM, Chris & Bill Strickland wrote:

> If the purpose of the unit is to provide external balancing to a 
> cheaply assembled mass production engine that inherently is balanced 
> by its opposed piston design, wouldn't this be compensated for by 
> custom assembling a carefully balanced engine like most of us have?