2001 Accord 2.3 Balancer Shaft Timing

[icantthnkof1]

I’ve recently completed replacing the timing and balancing belt using ECG tutorial . Excellent, btw. When I put everything together I think I may have overlooked timing the balancing pulley correctly.

In ECG’s video there are two timing marks, one on the balancer pulley and one on the balancer shaft. The one on the shaft should line up with a mark on the block (about 12 o’clock). See pic below

Eric mentions the balancer shaft may take two ginger revolutions to fall into place. Since the balancer is heavier on one end the heaviest part should fall to the bottom and the timing marks on the top should line up. I did not do this, but did ensure the timing marks on the shaft and block where aligned when putting on the belt (under tension)

So here’s my concern.,., When putting on the belts I made sure everything was timed, according to the timing marks. Everything seems to sound and feel normal in all rpm’s, if not better. However, under certain loads, like driving up a hill or when accellerating in a higher gear at low rmp’s, I get this weird low sounding vibration and noise. It’s done it before made this sound/noise prior to changing the belts, but it seems like it’s more prominent. Also, I noticed the typical Honda valve tick is a bit louder (only when car is warm and at idle). These sounds/vibrations aren’t very loud, but noticeable.

Lastly, I saw on other instructional videos and documents, they mention putting a bolt through a maintenance hole (see below) to hold the balancer shaft into place then align timing mark on shaft with block. (This was not mentioned in ECG’s video and I didn’t do too)

So… is the second set of instructions the correct way to time the balancer? If so, is Eric’s instructions just another way to achieve this?
Do you think my balancer is off, slightly, maybe one tooth off, and the reason for the noise/vibration?

I should mention, ECG’s video is of an earlier model accord. 98′ I think, but almost identical components. Lastly, I had my head resurfaced and three valves replaced 20k miles ago (due to a bent valve),

If my balancer is off how do I time it correctly at this stage? If I use the second method, how can I place the shaft in the right position to except the bolt going through the maintenance hole, to allow me to align the timing mark on the shaft to the mark on the block?

My car has about 197K miles on it and plan on doing a valve adjustment also. I hope this will take care most of valve lash (ticking) noise, but could putting on new belts make it a bit louder? I’m hoping yes, because all the components are well in sync.

Again, the engine runs fine otherwise. No vibration at idle or when getting on it. Just happens when under certain load. Oh and, the slightler louder valve ticking noise.

Wheww. Sorry for the long post, but I hope to get another 197K miles out of her.

Topic

[Matt]

You should really post this in the service and repair questions section man. It will get alot more attention there.

[icantthnkof1]

Thanks Beefy. Will do.

[Author]

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