Balance Shaft Delete and Baffle Kit GEN 2

[mrmonk7663]

My last mods for 2011...Here is my balance shaft delete and oil baffle kit install for the Gen2 I did today. This is on a 2011 Speed3. The install took about 2.5 hours going slow. It is relatively easy, but working on your back with oil dripping from the engine block is distracting. The install was a one man job. First up, the parts that are being installed and where I bought them. ***One interesting thing to note that in my oil pan, which you will see below, there was only one baffle installed from the factory, even though there is mounting locations for 2. I have seen 2 stock baffles in other cars that share this motore. I am not sure if this is by design or if the factory "forgot."

Balance Shaft Delete Kit-https://www.gp-werks.com/products/GP...elete-Kit.html

Baffle Kit-https://www.gp-werks.com/products/Du...peed-3%29.html

Tool List
3/8 Drive Socket Wrench with short and long extensions
8mm socket
10mm socket
12mm socket
14mm socket
17mm socket
short 8mm wrench
Flashlight
Funnel
Oil Collection Pan

Supplies List
3 12mm head bolts (thread and pitch unknown, I used a factory bolt and matched it at the store)
Blue Loctite
Red Loctite
Grey or Black Gasket Maker
Shop Towels for Oil
Rubbing Alcohol to assist in cleaning gasket surfaces
7 quarts of oil (6.8)
New Oil Filter
New Drain plug sealing washer
BSD Kit
Baffle Kit

1. Open hood and remove bolt (8mm) holding dipstick in place under intake manifold.
2. Jack up car and remove belly pan.
3. Remove oil drain plug (17mm)
4. Remove Oil Filter with man strength...no tools needed
5. Remove 13 bolts (10mm) from oil pan. 11 are short, 2 are LONG.
6. Remove 4 bolts (14mm) that are parallel to ground that connect oil pan to transmission case.
7. Remove 4 bolts (8mm) that are parallel to ground that hold pan to timing cover.
8. Use small pry bar and pry oil pan off via a pry area that is located right next to oil filter location. Work pan free. ***NOTE*** There is a lip in the oil pan where it sits in the timing cover, so drop the side by the transmission first. Dipstick will slide out.
9. Remove 2 bolts (8mm) that secure the oil feed tube, ie the black plastic thing you will find, then set aside oil feed tube assembly in a clean area.
10. Remove 4 OBVIOUS bolts (14mm) that secure the balance shaft assembly. Oil will come out, so be prepared. Also, on the last bolt you will need to support the balance shaft with your hands or a jack, it weighs close to 18lbs...again, man strength folks. When last bolt is removed it will fall down and slide right out.
11. Install Balance shaft delete kit. Put the plug with o-ring in first, then put the plate over it, loosely install the large metric allen head, and then install the small metric allen head. Tighten the large allen head and then snug up the small allen head. DO NOT use man strength on the small allen head. Refer to pictures for exact location. Use a little red loctite.
12. Reinstall oil feed tube.
13. Clean block mounting surface and oil pan mounting surface of all gasket material as best as you can.
14. Remove stock oil baffle from oil pan via 4 bolts (12mm)
15. Install new baffle. New baffle has 6 bolt holes. Go to hardware store and get 2 more bolts the same length. I used blue loctite on these bolts. Make sure to do this on a soft surface and not concrete so you do not crack the cast metal oil pan.
16. With a clean mounting surface on the oil pan, put a bead of grey or black gasketmaker on oil pan mounting surface. (available at autoparts store, walmart, etc) Smooth bead with finger. Use sparingly.
17. Assuring the block sealing surface is clean, install oil pan. This will be tricky due to you having to first angle the pan in for the lip to clean the timing cover. Once you get the lip on, you will have to get the oil feed tube in the cutout area of the baffle. I used a flashlight and my spare hand to assist the feedtube into the baffle cut out. Once past, it seats easily. Make sure your dipstick is seated. It seats with orings that are attached to it.
18. Install a couple 10mm bolts on opposing ends. Snug them to hold the pan in place, but DO NOT tighten them.
19. Loosely install all bolts. Tighten the 13 10mm bolts in the pattern provided in the picture herin.
20. Install and tighten the 4 14mm bolts
21. Install and tighten the 4 8mm bolts (no man strength necessary on these)
22. Install oil drain plug and new oil filter.
23. Remove jack/ramps so the car is sitting level again. Reinstall 8mm bolt for dipstick.
24. Pour around 3 quarts of oil into block. Check for leaks. If no leaks, pour 2 more quarts in.
25. Start car and let it idle for around 20 seconds, then shut it down.
26. Pour in about 1.8 quarts more for a total of 6.8 quarts, and start car again. Check for leaks.
27. Prepare a plan on how you can entice your wife, friends and family to ever ride in your car again due to the massive vibrations that are now transmitted to the interior. The JBR triple pack to the 2nd power is what I call the new vibrations.
28. Drive car. Shit in your pants as your engine is now louder than fuck. Tell your loved ones sorry, but you can not simply uninstall this mod. Learn to live with the new vibrations and new found roar. Then learn to love it.
29. Drive through Walmart parking lot at 3k rpms and watch children run from your demonic sounding engine.
30. Kick the shit out of some Hondas.
31. WIN!!!

[YZF-R6]

Informative and entertaining, i like it. Oh and nice touch with the FYHN in that pic

[mrmonk7663]

LOL, I was wondering if anyone would catch the FYHN. Glad you liked it, and hopefully it can help some of yall out.

[shifter48]

SWEET!!!!!

[dr_banano]

sorry for the noobs but what are thos upgrade good for??

[forcedinduktion]

Good write up!

[mrmonk7663]

Originally Posted by dr_banano sorry for the noobs but what are thos upgrade good for??

There is a 17lb contraption called the Balance Shaft Assembly that rides on your crank. It is operated by a gear that sits on your crank. The purpose is to remove vibrations that the motor puts out normally, basically so your car sounds and feels "classy" on the inside. Removing it frees up oil capacity within the oil pan, which helps the oiling problems for cylinder number 3 that these cars experience. It also takes a couple pounds of rotating mass from your crank, and removes static mass from the front of your vehicle. The baffle keeps oil from sloshing too much above the oil feed tube area.

This mod is not for everyone, it is not without added vibrations and noise.

[bertrand_CX_7]

Every one should give OP a like because if other users was doing their write up, this Forum will be an wonderfull e-library.

thumbs up for the documentation OP

[ASHMS3]

Thread full of win. Good job OP.

[mrmonk7663]

Thank you. After driving on this mod for almost a week I will say it is not feasible to have IF IF IF you have the JBR PMM. I had the triple pack and after the BSD the car was not fun to drive. The vibes were so bad that all you could think about was pushing various parts of the dash/rear view mirror/steering wheel/gauge cluster, etc to make it quiet...while driving. I talked to Jamie at JBR and he told me to keep the 88 duro rmm and 88 duro TMM and put my stock PMM in...I did this and the vibrations have gone down considerably, to a level that is more than acceptable. So my advice...either don't do this mod if you enjoy a nice quiet car....or do this mod if you can accept modest vibrations and keep the PMM...I advise no one in their right mind to do this with the upgraded PMM. My PMM is for sale now if anyone is not interested in doing the BSD but desires and upgraded mount

[mrmonk7663]

Update, just went on a drive with the stock PMM, and JBR 88 tranny mount and 88 rmm, and BSD. The car feels great. Sounds great, and is fun to drive again. If any of you go down the BSD path please take what i've found into consideration. I know vibes are subjective but I promise you all they were horrendous.

On a side note I installed a 88 duro TMM on a nator car this weekend that already had the dogbone 88. AFter the install the owner commented that the vibes felt the same as before. He noticed no difference really idling and reving. Directly after this, we installed the 80 PMM. When he started the car again he immediately noted that there was a large difference in vibes.

The point of the above is to simply illustrate that out of the 3 mounts, the PMM seems to absorb the largest amount of vibrations, and this is backed up by Jamie stating to me that lowering the durometer on the TMM or the RMM really wouldn't help my car for the BSD vibe issue, but that the PMM back to stock should help considerably, which it did.

This about wraps up my BSD info. Any questions for those of you who are going to go down this road feel free to ask.

[specvspeedfreak]

have you felt any power improvement? < I doubt it... You mentioned sound; I know on my spec-v I noticed the exhaust sounded more aggressive< you notice this?

[mrmonk7663]

With the JBR mount yes it sounded way more aggressive. Now that I am back on the stock mount it sounds slightly more aggressive, but not much. A lot of the percieved sound from the engine and exhaust was due to resonant frequencies I believe. Power wise, can't really feel much, but knowing I removed 17lbs, a couple of which are rotating mass, and the increased oil capacity and increased oil to cylinder number 3 make this a worthwhile mod in my book. With the stock PMM I can not see any negative to this mod. You could put all stock mounts back in, trade the car in, and no one would ever know the balance shaft was gone.

[Block8head]

GJ brotha...

[rghispanic88]

Never knew about this mod, but its good to know.

Good job

[xb2ms3]

thanks
been hoping someone would do this write up

[Jake5713]

Thanks man was looking for info on this mod



-Jake

[shifter48]

OP.. can you give us your view, know you're modded pertty well, after having all 3 motor mounts and driving with them and now going to stock PMM, how is the torque steer, wheel hop, head shake now that you've changed???? For everyone reading this I was the one that we installed the 88TMM and 80PMM...I am going to track this car later once I get it the way I want...but till then it's going to be a DD.. the PMM is an ezy change..also plan on a trip to Potland, Or. in may....mrmonk7663 your imput is well recieved.

Gregg

[mrmonk7663]

With all 3 mounts in place headshake and torque steer were very limited. Rapid part throttle acceleration from a slow roll would yield torque steer some, but it was controllable. The addition of the tranny mount to complement the other JBR mounts was the part that really transformed torque steer. Wheel hop has not been an issue.

Going back to the PMM and accelerating rapidly has yielded a small amount of torque steer, but really no more than I felt before. Again, the transmission mount in my opinion is what reigned in the torque steer on this car for me.

To sum it up.

RMM-helped launching, engine slapping, wheel hop, stiffen things up
PMM-helped stiffen everything up by a large amount, transferring more power to ground instaed of wasting energy abosorbed by mount
TMM-helped control/eliminate torquesteer, stiffen things up

BSD Potential
Upgraded RMM (your choice of duro), stock TMM, stock PMM=Good to go with BSD
Upgraded RMM (your choice of duro), Upgraded TMM, stock PMM=Good to go with BSD
Upgraded RMM (your choice of duro), Upgraded TMM, Upgraded PMM=FAIL with BSD

[dereeek]

Good write up and interesting.

[Scoobs]

Good write up and interesting, but I see a lot of work for 18lbs. But the oil pan Baffle kit is a must for Lapping or Auto-X.

[mrmonk7663]

Really, its only a 3 hour job, and that is going slow and doing it on ramps. The 18lbs is only one benefit. The largest benefit is the increased oil capacity and increased oil flow to cylinder number 3.

[Santi25]

may have to do this mod at some point sounds interesting.
is it a common problem with a cyl 3 in these motors all i heard was it won best motor for a few years i know the trannies fuck up in 2nd and 3rd but i havent heard anything bad about the motors.

[mrmonk7663]

There have been various reports that the balance shaft caused cylinder number 3 to recieve less oiling than the other cylinders on multiple platforms that share the 2.3 motor, not just our turbo motor. It might not be a huge problem, but it is a documented problem I have seen nevertheless.

[Scoobs]

I'll do the shaft if I do the Baffle, while being there. I'll look into it, but it will be in 2013-14. But I saved up in my favorite this Thread, I save all the good stuff in my How to MS3 folder.

[mrmonk7663]

To do the baffle that I used, it is required to remove the balance shaft.

[wankular]

So the vibes with the BSD are constant, unlike motor mount vibes which fluctuate depending on RPMs?

[mrmonk7663]

Honestly, since removing the JBR PMM and putting the stocker back in, leaving the JBR dogbone and JBR 88 duro tranny mount on the car, I can not feel the vibes...vibes are LESS with these 2 mounts and BSD than they were with no bsd and all 3 mounts.

[crtguns]

Balance shaft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Balance_shaft

Not very concise, but there is no such thing.

When speaking of a rotating mass, it is true that as the diameter increases, so does its inertia and momentum. A 17 pound rod has very low inertia compared to a 17 pound disk. Reason that flywheels are very large, and can have very high inertia and momentum.

The idea that removing the BS would increase rev response seems, to me, to be more hope than science.

I've never heard anyone say, after BSD that the car revs faster or feels faster.

btw... are you removing the whole housing, or just the shaft? I can't beleive that this wthing is 17lb--> Major balance shaft probs

Any indication that bsd can be damaging to your engine? LOng term?






Good thread.





.

[mrmonk7663]

As you can see in my photos, one picture shows the complete assembly, the next picture it is gone. You remove the entire thing. Only thing that is left is a gear on the crank. Trust me, it weighs almost 18lbs, no exaggeration. The balance shaft was designed for the masses to allow comfort in engines that naturally have harmonics which translate to buzzing, rattling, and high frequency noises. There have been numerous folks on this platform and many other platforms that remove these with no issues short or long term. This is popular with the Ford Ranger crowd that uses the 2.3 duratech motor. Scion owners do it, engine builders, etc etc.

[NinjaT1985]

The same website actually has a BSD with baffle kit as a set that saves a little money... For $90 shipped, saves 18lbs of weight and costs a lot less that a ricey carbon hood...

Good write up OP and thanks, this will prolly be next for me

[trf5000]

Once this is out it can't be re-installed right?

[mrmonk7663]

Some say yes, some say no. Others say yes as long as you "time" it. Honestly, I see NO reason what so ever to ever put it back in. Car drives great. Just KEEP PMM and all will be fine.

[wolly6973]

Did you have the 70 or 80 duro pmm?

Did you discuss trying the 70 duro with Jamie?

[mrmonk7663]

I had the 80. I had no problem paying for a custom duro mount but Jamie told me that even using a custom lower durometer bushing would offer no advantage, and that the stock pmm was the best idea.

[dantes5823]

I was thinking about this on my next oil change, im running 88rmm and 70 TMM and PMM. But after reading your experience im not so sure. If someone with this setup does it please chime in. Oh and if anyone is interested SURE just released their BSD. And they do state that the engine revs easier and what not.

[wolly6973]

You still need the baffle though. I wonder if that's what the "Oil Rig" will be...

[mrmonk7663]

Sure does not disclose any mount information when advertising for their BSD. On all stock mounts i'm sure you feel almost nothing. On TMM and RMM like I stated, all is well. PMM was horrible. Jamie told me out of all his mounts the PMM is the only one that would likely remedy the vibrations by removing it, and he was right. Car is great now.

[Elusivellama]

I had the BSD on my old 07 Mazda 3. Vibes increased by a bit, but was not very noticeable with all stock mounts. Engine may seem to rev more freely, but the power gains are all bullshit. The main reason I did it was to increase oil capacity and to head off potential problems with the oiling to a cylinder or two. I still have the old balance shaft somewhere around, that sucker is 15 - 17lbs, no joke.

Also, I read up for over a week (a year ago) on the purpose of the balance shaft, and consequences of removing it. Short summary: the balance shaft's acronym is highly accurate. It's just some fucking bullshit part that is installed purely to make the car seem more premium at the cost of weight and potential oiling issues, a classic example of marketing/touchy-feely winning out over good engineering.

[mrmonk7663]

Agreed...no noticeable performance gains, but the oil capacity is what makes this mod gold.