Need advice on what harmonic balancer to buy

[AZJD]

Any advice. Motor is 5.8 with 170k and runs flawless. Im sure at one point I will rebuild it with a mild street motor. Thanks Jason

[philofab]

I'd just run a stock one.

[SteveG]

I'd just run a stock one.

Yup.

[Agui-E7TE]

I got mine from summit racing and it works perfect and was less than $80, I think. I did have to use spacers with my underdrive pulleys.

[AZJD]

when you say stock you mean factory ford or whatever they have at auto parts store??

[philofab]

when you say stock you mean factory ford or whatever they have at auto parts store??

I just got one from the auto parts store when the original came apart at 170K or so.

[96UAV]

Im digging up an old thread here....Im in the same boat but need to know how any of you have run aftermarket balancers with your modified engine builds. I purchased a balanced rotating assembly from Scat via Summit and it came with a Professional Products harmonic balancer and the kit said it would work for my '96 351 application. However, the balancer does not have the notch in it for the crankshaft position sensor and I can't seem to find one that does. So if my rotating assembly came balanced using the 28oz external impedance balancer, which aftermarket one will work for both the balance and provide the slot for the cps to function? It seems like any of the oem replacements are different weights and won't balance the rotating assembly correctly.

[panabax]

On a '96, the crankshaft sensor is only used for misfire detection. The motor will run normally without it, although it will throw a CEL. If you are running a custom tune, you can disable the misfire detection and it will no longer throw the code. If you must keep your misfire monitoring, you either have to use the OEM balancer from a '96 the only source of or which is the junkyard or machine an aftermarket balancer to accept the 4 point reluctor ring. The ring is simply press fit onto then balancer. It is easy to remove for the OEM balancer.

I run EDIS on my '96 5.8 with a 36-1 reluctor ring. The problem I had with the OEM balancers is I would have had to machine a portion of the balancer that had balancing holes drilled into it to install the OEM ring. That would require rebalancing so I just put the 36-1 ring (from an Explorer) on the 5.8 balancer in place of the 4 point ring. They are a direct swap. I then had to turn off misfire monitoring to keep the CEL off.

Good luck,

Baxter

[96UAV]

On a '96, the crankshaft sensor is only used for misfire detection. The motor will run normally without it, although it will throw a CEL. If you are running a custom tune, you can disable the misfire detection and it will no longer throw the code. If you must keep your misfire monitoring, you either have to use the OEM balancer from a '96 the only source of or which is the junkyard or machine an aftermarket balancer to accept the 4 point reluctor ring. The ring is simply press fit onto then balancer. It is easy to remove for the OEM balancer.

I run EDIS on my '96 5.8 with a 36-1 reluctor ring. The problem I had with the OEM balancers is I would have had to machine a portion of the balancer that had balancing holes drilled into it to install the OEM ring. That would require rebalancing so I just put the 36-1 ring (from an Explorer) on the 5.8 balancer in place of the 4 point ring. They are a direct swap. I then had to turn off misfire monitoring to keep the CEL off.

Good luck,

Baxter

Thank you!! Makes my life much easier! I appreciate it!

[De$ertBronco]

I had Damper Doctor out of Redding, CA rebuild bray's (dmbronco) harmonic balancer for his 96 when it was in my shop. There is also Damper Dudes which is in Anderson, CA just down the road from DD. The 96 with the 4 point ring is non existent in the aftermarket world and in fact they will tell you there is no difference between the 95 balancer which we know is false.