M1009 Harmonic balancer

[kallisti5]

I've read some horror stories of the stock Harmonic balancers coming apart on the 6.2L's and destroying engines. (Rubber coming apart, etc)

I've got no projects planned for my M1009 at the moment.. would a new fluidampr be a good investment? They're kinda pricey, so it would take a lot of justification in my mind to pull the trigger.

My M1009 is 65k miles, in good shape (read little to no rust), had a few modest upgrades (doghead starter relay, glow plug upgrade, replacement hoses, etc) and has had reasonable maintenance. I did one of those head gasket exhaust in coolant tests and it passed with flying colors.


Tldr; would a fluidampr be a good investment to keep the engine "uncracked" for another 40 years, or is it overkill? Still running the original Harmonic balancer.

 

[Sharecropper]

You don't specifically need a $500 Fluidampr. Any new harmonic balancer will extend the life of your engine. Summit has new Dorman balancers for under $100.
Replacing the old harmonic balancer should be the absolute first thing you should do to extend the life of your engine. Just my 2 cents.

 

[kallisti5]

> You don't specifically need a $500 Fluidampr. Any new harmonic balancer will extend the life of your engine. Summit has new Dorman balancers for under $100. Replacing the old harmonic balancer should be the absolute first thing you should do to extend the life of your engine. Just my 2 cents.

ok.. thats kinda inline with what I was thinking. I like the idea of < $100 of insurance over $500 of insurance lol.
I see a lot of people praising the Fluidampr, but i'm already deep enough on my M1009, and don't want to throw that kind of cash at it for something like that.

 

[Sharecropper]

> You don't specifically need a $500 Fluidampr. Any new harmonic balancer will extend the life of your engine. Summit has new Dorman balancers for under $100. Replacing the old harmonic balancer should be the absolute first thing you should do to extend the life of your engine. Just my 2 cents.

ok.. thats kinda inline with what I was thinking. I like the idea of < $100 of insurance over $500 of insurance lol.
I see a lot of people praising the Fluidampr, but i'm already deep enough on my M1009, and don't want to throw that kind of cash at it for something like that.

I installed a new Fluidampr on my P400 because 1)- I can afford it and 2)- I believe the design of the Fluidamper provides batter balancing than a piece of rubber vulcanized between two pieces of steel. The majority of race cars use Fluidampr, so Hail, it must be better.

 

[ezgn]

I've read some horror stories of the stock Harmonic balancers coming apart on the 6.2L's and destroying engines. (Rubber coming apart, etc)

I've got no projects planned for my M1009 at the moment.. would a new fluidampr be a good investment? They're kinda pricey, so it would take a lot of justification in my mind to pull the trigger.

My M1009 is 65k miles, in good shape (read little to no rust), had a few modest upgrades (doghead starter relay, glow plug upgrade, replacement hoses, etc) and has had reasonable maintenance. I did one of those head gasket exhaust in coolant tests and it passed with flying colors.


Tldr; would a fluidampr be a good investment to keep the engine "uncracked" for another 40 years, or is it overkill? Still running the original Harmonic balancer.

The one that is on there lasted 35 years. Buy a G.M. harmonic balancer, and put the one back on there that the truck was engineered for. I'm sure you can find 400.00 extra dollars to spend on something else for your vehicle. Don't buy into the hype of needing a racing balancer. Don't use Dorman, big mistake. G.M. balancer #14022671 -137.00 at Amazon

 

[nyoffroad]

I don't remember what I paid for my GM dampener but it wasn't much more then the cheaper Dorman one and I rarely even consider Dorman products. Use the GM!

 

[cucvrus]

I must be the luckiest CUCV owner alive. After owning many, many CUCV's I have never replaced a harmonic balancer on any of the CUCV's I owned. I never replaced one on any vehicle I owned. I had vehicles from the 60's that had the original balancers on them. I am a firm believer in "if it ain't broke don't fix it" I believe in strict PM but many parts you buy as replacement parts these days are not of equal quality of the part you are replacing. Genuine GM, A C Delco all made in China. I saved every harmonic balancer off of ever engine I replaced over the years. Last summer I loaded them all up and scrapped them. I worked at a GM dealer, and I replaced a lot of warranted engines. Most had to be returned as cores so I was limited to what I could save. I have a few used balancers that are Genuine GM. Take Care and I will still try my luck with my stock balancer. I look over my vehicles very closely regularly. I am feeling confident that I will be good. If the issue arises, I will use a stock used one of same LKQ.

 

[kallisti5]

> I must be the luckiest CUCV owner alive. After owning many, many CUCV's I have never replaced a harmonic balancer on any of the CUCV's I owned. I never replaced one on any vehicle I owned. I had vehicles from the 60's that had the original balancers on them. I am a firm believer in "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

I think you're just lucky Rubber does deteriorate no matter how much America juice we put into it (pretty much every original rubber hose *needing* replaced on my M1009 due to leaks when I got it is proof of that), harmonic balancers do come apart without warning which can be catastrophic for an engine (Especially 6.2L's from what I've read). These parts are tested by GM for years of use (Probably 80k+ miles in the 80's).. not decades though.

There are some companies out there which will rebuild harmonic balancers... but for that cost I might as well just do the Fluidampr.

I think the "ain't broke don't fix it" attitude is a good one, but doesn't apply to "cheap" things which can and will total a vehicle. You can add sugar to a gas tank, and tell the customer it still runs fine and not to worry... but a little proactive maintenance saves the engine.

 

[kraut83]

I'm definitely one of those unlucky ones that had a bombed motor due to a faulty harmonic balancer. Put a new motor in the beast with a fluid harmonic balancer for peace of mind 5 years ago and I'll never look back. Replaced every other bit of rubber while I was at it. I don't think about it anymore. I do wonder what the difference is though, apparently I never drove the truck with a good normal balancer on it...

 

[87cr250r]

I won't knock Fluidampr, I believe they build the dampers for our Cat 3500 series engines, they use a viscous damper. The high horsepower diesel engines all have hydraulic or viscous dampers.

However, there is a middle ground. Power Bond has a damper for the 6.2/6.5 engines for a middle price. I just installed one on a 6.5 I am going to shove into my CUCV. I feel that there are 3 options. Fluidampr, Power Bond, and everybody else. Regardless of what you pay for the everybody else option, they all come from the same factory.