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Cad 500 Harmonics

fatboy0054

Well-known member
I was told that running a balancer with a soft drive gear box ! Was just a added deal if you had it balanced ! How many of yall running balancer on your Cads ! :D
 
i run the stock vibration damper on mine,spent lots on the bottom end ballance and lightening.but with my precision gearbox that is not soft drive if a have a harmonics problem it will probably be the culprit.
 
So with the harmonics problem do you guys think the 2 blade powershift type or 3 blade would be better than the warpdrive.. I had a 14ft hament hull with a GPU with a 4 blade bowtie and it ran hard ground just fine.i really liked the way the warpdrive prformed on that boat. isn't the 500 cadillac motor internaly ballanced. i have ballancer looking pully on my crankshaft. I took it of to change the main seal and it seemed to weight 6-8 lbs is this not a harmonic ballancer
 
The Cads are internally balanced and the heavy pulley is not a dampener or balancer as it is neutral. I have been told that a three blade composite doesn't produce the harmonics like the two blade does. I don't know about warp drive. I ran a two blade terminator when I was direct drive and I had a problem with timing gears breaking, flex plates breaking, and a crank hub breaking. I had replaced the pistons and did not have the rotating assembly balanced and was not running a dampener at the time. Everyone I talked to back then recommended a dampener and rotated balanced assembly. What was then Powershift had an explanation about Cadillac harmonics when using their props direct drive and I believe Terminator did too.
 
my honest opinion is that the cadillac when balanced is as about as smooth a running engine as you can get. I run aluminium pulleys with the oem rubber dampner and an 8 warp drive blades behind a 2:1 belt drive and other than at Idle the engine runs pretty smooth.My problems with harmonics or vibrations have been mostly associated with hollow propeller blades as I feel the belt drive I run dosen't reflect the engine harmonics to the prop to the degree that a gear drive does.A good friend of mine recenly built a small block chevy to the hilt with a soft gear drive and a superwide prop ,the perfomance of his setup is awsome however he has some extreme vibration or harmonics problems to address.
 
In stock form, Cadillac had two types of set up, a big ass cast balancer w/o a balancer (it acted as one) and a stamped steel pulley set with a dinky little balancer. That set works fine for low rpm (like dd) set ups. With a gear box, I'd run a balancer. We sell the BHJ and also make a hub with an offset flange for proper pulley alignment. Word has it that there will be a cheap replica of the BHJ before too long. SFI certified. When I say cheap, I mean less expensive.
 
I'd guess the stock balancer and stamped steel pulley will be fine for any DD. I wouldn't turn it over 4000 for sure IMO. I've heard of them coming apart BUT never in a stock auto situation, only HP applications.
 
thank you for your reply and maybe when the ruhmored bhj look alike comes out you might can point us where to get them. :wink:
 
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