Balance shaft delete

[Peacob]

So I have a b8 avant that needs a timing chain done. This is my daily winter beater that I want to be reliable. I am in the position to do some things while this car is in the hoist. Anyone of you done a balance shaft delete? I'm curious to know what you went with and how it turned out.

Cheers!

[Slow_Q5]

Is this even a thing?

[Theiceman]

yeah its a thing... it is to prevent the balance shafts seizing or becoming loose in the bore and creating low oil pressure issues.

Has more vibration at idle but some think its worth it.

means pulling lower subframe and getting to those two pesky bolts through the bell housing . I didn't think it was worth the hassle, but it is a good opportunity to clean out the oil pickup or maybe even upgrade it to the newer version.

[Militant-Grunt]

yeah its a thing... it is to prevent the balance shafts seizing or becoming loose in the bore and creating low oil pressure issues.

Has more vibration at idle but some think its worth it.

means pulling lower subframe and getting to those two pesky bolts through the bell housing . I didn't think it was worth the hassle, but it is a good opportunity to clean out the oil pickup or maybe even upgrade it to the newer version.

You're thinking of a B7 FSI belt drive motor.

On a EA888 one of the counter balance shaft drives the water pump gear.

[Theiceman]

You're thinking of a B7 FSI belt drive motor.

On a EA888 one of the counter balance shaft drives the water pump gear.

oh gees you are right .. i have both .. didn't realize i was on the B8 forum... thought i was still on the B7 .. one big X for iceman .. skates sheepishly to penalty box

[beatsageo]

I think the most practical approach is replacing the belt driven pump with an external electric pump. But I really only see the value in motorsports for this. For a properly maintained DD which rarely sees sustained 6k+ RPM the use case benefit is pretty much zero or negative. You will gain pump noise and vibrations, which long term wear main bearings faster.

[Peacob]

I know this is a niche topic, so I appreciate some of you chiming in.

The reason I asked this was because my timing is on one of its last few notches, so that needs to be done. I did a oil pressure test (hooked up a gauge and ran the car for a couple hours). Pressure is a hair above 1bar (Spec is 1.3).

After further reading, i'm just going to replace the balance shafts at the same time of doing the timing. Hopefully that will raise my oil pressure up to 1.3+.

[Theiceman]

I know this is a niche topic, so I appreciate some of you chiming in.

The reason I asked this was because my timing is on one of its last few notches, so that needs to be done. I did a oil pressure test (hooked up a gauge and ran the car for a couple hours). Pressure is a hair above 1bar (Spec is 1.3).

After further reading, i'm just going to replace the balance shafts at the same time of doing the balance shafts. Hopefully that will raise my oil pressure up to 1.3+.

definitely keep us posted on this .. good for you checking oil pressure before doing timing, i bet not many do that .. i think there are a couple special tools you need for this. I would be very curious of your before and after oil pressures and what the screens look like.

We definitely know two things about this car

1. bad balance shafts can ( not the only reason of course ) cause low oil pressure on these cars
2. we are having more and more engines have the balance shafts completely seize on these engines...

it would be good to know if these are separate failure modes , or if one is a precursor to the other..

also i am not 100% sure if the clogged filter screens on these shafts are causing the low oil pressure ... or if the pressure is measured before and they seize without warning due to the fact oil pressure reads fine , but shafts themselves are getting oil starved..

all information is good information

[Peacob]

definitely keep us posted on this .. good for you checking oil pressure before doing timing, i bet not many do that .. i think there are a couple special tools you need for this. I would be very curious of your before and after oil pressures and what the screens look like.

We definitely know two things about this car

1. bad balance shafts can ( not the only reason of course ) cause low oil pressure on these cars
2. we are having more and more engines have the balance shafts completely seize on these engines...

it would be good to know if these are separate failure modes , or if one is a precursor to the other..

also i am not 100% sure if the clogged filter screens on these shafts are causing the low oil pressure ... or if the pressure is measured before and they seize without warning due to the fact oil pressure reads fine , but shafts themselves are getting oil starved..

all information is good information

Thanks. Yeah thats a good point about the filter screens. We will be checking those as well. One of my close friends is a Master Tech for Porsche, so he will be helping me through the process. I will definitely update the thread after the work is done (hopefully doing this sometime next week) and let you know my oil pressure readings after the balance shafts are done.

Cheers!