Post by Fire67 on Mar 10, 2006 10:27:57 GMT -5
I know alot of people got rid of their factory style single chain timing sets in favor of a dual roller and electric water pump. So I started going the same route with mine. I have the timing set installed and the cam degreed in. Went to swap on my crankshaft reluctor wheel to find it wont sit down all the way due to interference with the chain
On top of that, I did an ATI balancer with a custom hub. The hub has a larger outside diameter (same as BBC) with the stock size inside diameter.
This larger diameter does not sit down all the way on the reluctor wheel due to a machined lip on it at the stock hub diameter.
The way I see it, I only have a few options. Which I'll lay out here with the pros and cons of each. Im looking for people who have done the same or similar with their setup, or even some general experience with this topic to chime in with ANYTHING they may feel important. Maybe some guidance to getting it figured out so I can get this thing put together and into the car.
1) The ATI balancer came with a spacer (about 5/64" thick) to replace the reluctor wheel on '95 and earlier models... If I put it behind the reluctor wheel it clears the chain by more than enough to be safe, but pushes the wheel out enough to make contact with the cover. If I go this route, I could clearance the cover for the reluctor wheel, or even take some thickness off the reluctor wheel so keep it clear of the cover. The spacer would then put the balancer about 5/64" farther away from the front of the motor so I would have to space out all the accessories the same amount. Also the front side of the reluctor wheel would have to be slightly machined on the lathe to increase the diameter of the face that mates with the balancer hub. The lathe would be taking about a 32nd of an inch off the face thickness at the new larger diameter.
2) Another option would be to mount the reluctor wheel in the lathe and modify it to clear the chain... It would mean making a 90* notch in the back side of the wheel to clear the path of the chain. The only problem with this is thicknesses... There's alot of steps on the front side of the reluctor wheel making the chance of one step being too close to the backside cut pretty good. On top of that, the front will still have to be machined for the balancer hub. In my opinion, this would be my last resort as the chances of making it too thin in an area are incredibly high.
3) I could change out the timing set for the LT4 extreme duty set... But its around double the price of the cloyes I have, and IMHO inferior. That would probably be the easiest way out, but Im completely against it.
4) The last option I see, would be to install everything without the reluctor wheel. Then I would have to do an OBD1 pcm swap, and sell my LT1edit for 96-97cars. If carputing would let me trade out, I would do it... But they wont, so I would have to sell everything and buy the other version + the 95 pcm and everything else that would be neccessary for the swap.
What do you guys think? Has anyone tried modifying the reluctor wheel to clear the chain? Or would spacing everything out be my best bet?
Just this last issue to deal with before buttoning my motor up and customizing the Procharger crank pulley spacer to line up with the blower pulley again since the ATI balancer is roughly a 1/4" thicker than factory. Then I will finally be able to install this beast!
On top of that, I did an ATI balancer with a custom hub. The hub has a larger outside diameter (same as BBC) with the stock size inside diameter.
This larger diameter does not sit down all the way on the reluctor wheel due to a machined lip on it at the stock hub diameter.
The way I see it, I only have a few options. Which I'll lay out here with the pros and cons of each. Im looking for people who have done the same or similar with their setup, or even some general experience with this topic to chime in with ANYTHING they may feel important. Maybe some guidance to getting it figured out so I can get this thing put together and into the car.
1) The ATI balancer came with a spacer (about 5/64" thick) to replace the reluctor wheel on '95 and earlier models... If I put it behind the reluctor wheel it clears the chain by more than enough to be safe, but pushes the wheel out enough to make contact with the cover. If I go this route, I could clearance the cover for the reluctor wheel, or even take some thickness off the reluctor wheel so keep it clear of the cover. The spacer would then put the balancer about 5/64" farther away from the front of the motor so I would have to space out all the accessories the same amount. Also the front side of the reluctor wheel would have to be slightly machined on the lathe to increase the diameter of the face that mates with the balancer hub. The lathe would be taking about a 32nd of an inch off the face thickness at the new larger diameter.
2) Another option would be to mount the reluctor wheel in the lathe and modify it to clear the chain... It would mean making a 90* notch in the back side of the wheel to clear the path of the chain. The only problem with this is thicknesses... There's alot of steps on the front side of the reluctor wheel making the chance of one step being too close to the backside cut pretty good. On top of that, the front will still have to be machined for the balancer hub. In my opinion, this would be my last resort as the chances of making it too thin in an area are incredibly high.
3) I could change out the timing set for the LT4 extreme duty set... But its around double the price of the cloyes I have, and IMHO inferior. That would probably be the easiest way out, but Im completely against it.
4) The last option I see, would be to install everything without the reluctor wheel. Then I would have to do an OBD1 pcm swap, and sell my LT1edit for 96-97cars. If carputing would let me trade out, I would do it... But they wont, so I would have to sell everything and buy the other version + the 95 pcm and everything else that would be neccessary for the swap.
What do you guys think? Has anyone tried modifying the reluctor wheel to clear the chain? Or would spacing everything out be my best bet?
Just this last issue to deal with before buttoning my motor up and customizing the Procharger crank pulley spacer to line up with the blower pulley again since the ATI balancer is roughly a 1/4" thicker than factory. Then I will finally be able to install this beast!
