<VV> fuel to the fire

[tony.underwood at cox.net]

---- N2VZD at aol.com wrote: 
> all 64 up 95hp   (164cu in) i have taken apart (several ,  including a 66 
> recently) had the solid pulley on them.     

For what it's worth:  

It was my understanding that the 95hp Powerglide variants always got the cast pulley.   That is, until later on, when the 95 hp engines attached to manual gearboxes got balancers starting in late '66 according to what I was told.  

I have a '68 95hp engine that came out of a gearbox car and it has a balancer.  The blue '67 500 3-speed coupe in the driveway has a 95hp engine and *it* has a balancer.   The '65 95hp engine that came out of the rusted to Hell coupe I parted out had a cast pulley.   The PG 95hp engine that came out of a '69 Monza that got horse-traded several different times before leaving town, although it got another engine (tweaked 140hp) installed has a balancer; original engine remains here and the balancer is still on it, originally a gearbox car.  

There seems to be the trend that anything after '66 with a gearbox got a balancer whether it was a 95hp or not, and '64 and '65 95hp engines all got a cast pulley whether they were gearbox cars or Powerglides.   

At least this is how it seems to have worked out with the 'Vairs here... starting out with the '64 500 95/PG that had a pulley.   Others followed, including a '66 95hp engine that came out of a wrecked '68 coupe some years ago (sitting on a stand in the shed) which had a balancer on it which needs replacement... must have been original; after all, who removes a pulley to put a balancer in its place, back when Corvairs were being sold off for cheap oir simply thrown away like the '68 coupe this engine came out of...  which was fixable if anyone had the least bit of interest but it got junked.   I salvaged the engine which was on its way to being scrapped as well, couldn't just let it get hauled to the crusher seeing as how it evidently had been running reasonably well enough before the nose of the car got banged.    (I've not started this engine, but I hung a starter on it and cranked it while sitting on a couple of boards and it sounds like it has normal compression)   


Does ANYBODY know the real story on which of the produced 95 engines may have gotten balancers from the factory, PG or otherwise?   

> BUT i would put a balancer on ANY 164 engine i build!  (so i have a  nice 
> clean pulley available  lol)

...so would I.   

> this is only one mans opinion (mine!)_not shootin at anyone , even nit  
> pickers.

I've seen a couple of 164 engines with broken cranks, and both were gearbox cars and both had balancer issues... one was a 110hp (don't know what it came out of, got the engine in trade) running a cast pulley that replaced a failed balancer.   The other was a 140hp Danny Otey pulled out of a late convertible that had a balancer but it had failed so someone had drilled/threaded holes between the center and the outer ring and run bolts/nuts through it to hold it together which kinda defeated the purpose.     This engine was still running with a broken crank, knocking but it ran and drove the car, crank had cracked through a throw diagonally and "hung" enough to turn the flywheel...  when the engine was removed and dismantled, the crank came out in two chunks.   I ended up with most of the engine afterwards (sans heads) to salvage the jugs and pistons...  

...shoulda kept the crank chunks as conversation pieces... ;)    


tony..