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Engine blow by blowing out all my gaskets

I know for a fact they used the pressure plate to balance the engine. There are some very large weld areas where weight was added. In addition there are a few spots where grinding has been done. I just hope I never have to replace it.
 
i don't see evidence that your machine shop used the pressure plate to balance your engine.

more than likely they simply balanced the pressure plate itself to zero. it just so happens to get your pressure plate to zero they had to add weight.

my pressure plate was balanced as well and it wasn't used to compensate for imbalances in the crank, flywheel or damper.
 
I saw him last night at my club meeting and he confirmed it. Here is a picture of the weight added
43a09787-4052-841d.jpg



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what did he confirm? that if your clutch blows up, you'll need to tear your motor down and have it all rebalanced or that the pressure plate was balanced itself?

are you 28 oz?
 
Custom balanced and yes if I loose my pressure plate I will need to have the entire assembly rebalanced. He said it made the crank stronger since there would be less drilling and plugs in it. I vaguely remember talking about it as he did the work and told him do what you think that would make the best engine.

I am sure there was more details to the reasoning but right now I can't seem to come up with one. I can tell you that I will never balance an engine in the same way again. Perhaps if it was a racing engine where it won't last as long but not for a street car.


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that's very strange and still hard to believe they would do that. it wouldn't have taken a very big piece of mallory in the crank (or the flywheel) to substitute for that small mass of weld.

assuming the pressure plate is really required to balance the rest of the components, couldn't you take to a machine shop your current flywheel and pressure plate, have them measure the imbalance of that combined assembly, then remove the pressure plate, balance the flywheel by itself to whatever the flywheel/pressure assembly was, then add your new pressure plate and rebalance the pressure plate itself by adding/removing weight (from the pressure plate at that point)?

or better yet have you considered getting the flywheel, crank and damper properly balanced (by a different shop) while you have the engine out?

mine's internal balanced and the flywheel was balanced to zero, then the pressure plate was mounted to the flywheel so the pressure plate itself could be balanced to zero (had to remove just a couple grams from one side). he stamped an x in both the pressure plate and flywheel so they could be realigned later.
 
Those are all good suggestions but unfortunantly I have the engine back together and ready to drop in. I don't want to spend another $200 on gaskets and more importantly a few weeks of the summer I can't drive the car. I am going to put it back in and if I ever have a problem in the future I know it will be a larger and more expensive job than it should have been. Thanks for the help and ideas though.
 
$200 in gaskets? wouldn't it just be the oil pan and timing cover?

you might kick yourself if in two years you have to replace a pressure plate due to some sort of issue.

good luck though.
 
Head gasktets that are specific to a Boss block add to the cost. The othe item that adds to the cost is having the cam degrees. I lost a lifter last summer and I had to have the cam reground. It now has to be degreed to make sure it is in the right spot.

The
Problem last summer stopped me from driving the car for the entire summer. I am not going to do that again. You just can't drive convertible past September around here. I already regret how the engine is balanced. If I loose this one at least I know about this issue now. I am willing to take my chances in order to drive the car now. It is a no win situation.


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