BIG PROBLEM AND I NEED HELP FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok this is the 2nd time this has happened in 2 weeks. This car has been supercharged for over a few months now. Yesterday I am drive home from work and the damn Harmonic balancer broke off the crankshaft AGAIN. It is breaking it off around the HB bolt. The snout is breaking off the HB fluch with the end of the crankshaft. I have never had this problem before the SC so the only thing I am quessing is the belt tension from the acc. and SC drive is too much and breaking them. What is the cause and how do I fix this? If I take tension off the SC the sc belts slips and it doesnt run right.this sucks cause the HB fell off with the sc pulley atttached and DESTROYED the pulley. It fell underneath the car as I was coasting to get if off teh road and it sounded like glass been busted. I am PRAYING that Vortech will warranty the pulley considering it is still under warranty. If they want I guess I will go buy an 8 inch pulley. Please give advice on how to fix this? Thanks guys
 
What brand balancers have you been running, too much tension could cause that but it sounds a little funny to me, I would just find the best balancer I could and try it again:shrug:, are you running cast ones or steel ones, if cast that could be the problem, but I don't see a steel one snapping off like that, get a steel one that is sfi 18.1 approved and give that a shot. Good Luck
 
umm ok also I have to get a new SC and crank pulley set. I want to go with an 8 inch SC pulley to get even more boost but not so sure I should.Would I have to get my car retuned if I did? Also even if I want to go back with stock size for the vortech I know that the Vortech SC pulley is 6.87 and it is an 8 rib setup. But I dont know what size my acc. drive is. Does anyone know?
 
Heres a different opinion, your lucky you have the stock balancer on there, its giving way because of too much stress on it. If you put a high quality balancer on there <which you should> if you dont do something about the tension its gonna snap your crank right off.

You dont need more boost you need more intercooling. You can go up in boost all you want but money is you will lose more power then you gain especially after the cars been running for while or a hard pull. Cooling the air down > more boost.

If you go more boost yes you need retune, also you should think about upgrading to better blower at higher boost levels. You can spin an eaton to 17lbs on 03 cobra, or you can put a whipple on at 13lbs and make more power. Simply because its more efficient.
 
I agree...you need to do something about your air temps before going for anymore boost. You are already running 15 psi of non intercooled boost. Thats just silly. I bet the car runs like crap when its real hot.

Also anymore boost or power is really going to push the limits of the block. You are already way past safe limits of around 475rwhp. Adding more, non-intercooled, boost is not the right answer.

Get a nice SFI balancer and keep an eye on the belt tension. Reduce it as much as possible to get full boost.
 
Heres a different opinion, your lucky you have the stock balancer on there, its giving way because of too much stress on it. If you put a high quality balancer on there <which you should> if you dont do something about the tension its gonna snap your crank right off.

You dont need more boost you need more intercooling. You can go up in boost all you want but money is you will lose more power then you gain especially after the cars been running for while or a hard pull. Cooling the air down > more boost.

If you go more boost yes you need retune, also you should think about upgrading to better blower at higher boost levels. You can spin an eaton to 17lbs on 03 cobra, or you can put a whipple on at 13lbs and make more power. Simply because its more efficient.


good advice. Its been a while good to see you are back. The only reason I wanted to get the bigger pulley was because its only 15 bucks more. I might buy both and run the stocker until I can get an intercooler and bump up the boost and get retuned. What balancer should I go with? Also what can I do to help with belt tension? If I dont tighten it as much as I can it slips REALLLY bad and makes hardly no boost. I do realize that I tighten the idler REALLLLY tight. I put everything I have in tightening it BUT all I heard when I first bought this thing is to get it as tight as possible. SO now I dont know what to do. was thinking of going turbo maybe :shrug:
 
Also on another note. I think this motor is getting worn out QUICK. The blow by when the motor is cold the engine smokes HORRIBLY if you even slightly get on it when you first start driving. After a few minutes it quits. But now almost every damn gasket on the motor leaks oil now so I think it is boostin the crankcase under boost so I think I need to rebuild the engine soon. If so I am not putting the stock block or stock displacement back in
 
id be 110% surprised if your not getting detonation on that car at that boost on 93 octane with this heat. So it couldve melted the the top ring <shrug>

also sfi makes some really good balancers

may also want to put crankcase breathers on to relieve some crankcase pressure

try gatorback belts they are what several of us 03 guys run but they are 8 rib, although im thinking your vortech is 8rib

belt slip is better thing to have than broken crank

and as for turbo, well I'll leave it upto you to figure out how turbo's build boost and you'll know what im going to tell you next
 
id be 110% surprised if your not getting detonation on that car at that boost on 93 octane with this heat. So it couldve melted the the top ring <shrug>

also sfi makes some really good balancers

may also want to put crankcase breathers on to relieve some crankcase pressure

try gatorback belts they are what several of us 03 guys run but they are 8 rib, although im thinking your vortech is 8rib

belt slip is better thing to have than broken crank

and as for turbo, well I'll leave it upto you to figure out how turbo's build boost and you'll know what im going to tell you next


yeah my vortech is a 8 rib. I have a breather on the passenger side valve cover where the filler neck is. Yeah I would rather stay with my SC but some people said that I should have gone turbo :shrug: either way about how much does an SFI balancer cost?
 
As for i do believe there is better balancers out there, your car still shouldn't be braking balancers off, stock or not.
I do not know what your real problem is, but if you buy a real nice expensive balancer, you may just be braking something that costs $250 instead of $85.\

You definetely do not need more boost, in fact you sound like you need less.
 
As for i do believe there is better balancers out there, your car still shouldn't be braking balancers off, stock or not.
I do not know what your real problem is, but if you buy a real nice expensive balancer, you may just be braking something that costs $250 instead of $85.\

You definetely do not need more boost, in fact you sound like you need less.

well there is this stress crank right on the keyway on the balancer. I have broken 2 now and both had that stress crack and both are broke in the exact same place. It is breaking evenly around the bolt that bolts the harmonic balancer to the crank. I was told that I have too much bel tension but my acc. drive is REALL tight to but it has always been like that
 
well there is this stress crank right on the keyway on the balancer. I have broken 2 now and both had that stress crack and both are broke in the exact same place. It is breaking evenly around the bolt that bolts the harmonic balancer to the crank. I was told that I have too much bel tension but my acc. drive is REALL tight to but it has always been like that

yeah but now you have added stress from a blower and with a larger crank pulley to up the boost your also adding additional stresses on the crank hence why your breaking balancers