Shaving Balance Shaft

[Supa Dexta]

My engine has this done, was like that when I bought it. I've only ever heard it mentioned here and there, as it's not very common. But I'll continue to run it this way for now after the latest upgrades. 2.3 here as well.

 

[Mr Peepers]

This is really intriguing to me. I never really thought about it before but it makes complete sense.

I think the fact that the rear BSB isn't *perfectly* lined up with the oil pump is a moot point. The farther away 2 bearings are, the less axial change if one is slightly up/down/left/right. It's hard for me to explain without busting out MS paint but a simple concept. I'm sure the sleeve bearing/oil pump gears allow much more axial movement than the alignment is off in the first place, and that's what worries me. The real question is if it's actually worth worrying about; how many people go thousands of miles with no problems?

I know that after I did a BSE on one of my 6 bolts, it whined a good bit. This could be from the oil pump gears(straight cut on 6bolts) not meshing properly, who knows. Anyone else notice a slightly increased whining noise with revs after a BSE?

I'll have to play around with my oil pump assembly a little bit to see if I want to look into this more.

EDIT: Looked at my old oil pump. Only one side of the oil pump "idler" gear(the one that connects to the BS) is supported by a sleeve bearing. It's a fairly long bearing surface but I'm still not sure how much it will stop axial movement- I'm sure it will, but may be more likely to wear. The gear itself has more axial movement on the shaft, making it almost irrelevant to worry about the axial movement of the stubby shaft itself. I was hoping there were bearings supporting both sides just like the other gear. It's still a toss up, but I'm almost leaning towards not worrying about it. I'd have to see a high mileage BSE oil pump to be sure though.

 

[turboglenn]

I run the stub shaft and it's noisy under high revs but i've never thought about something like that as far as wear on the pump housing. I admit i run my T-belt on the tight side, but not completely too tight.