Afternoon folks.

What are the advantages of having a harmonic balancer type crankshaft pulley, compared to a solid one?

The one on my 4a-ge engine appears to have a rubber bit on the back of it, and I presume it is to dampen any vibrations from the crankshaft (and further inside the engine as the power pulses are transferred from the pistons). Is this purely a way of refining the engine for comfort, or are there any performance gains to be had?

The reason I ask is that I am considering replacing the rusty (and probably damaged by the time I get it off!) pully, and replacing it with a solid one...

Cheers
Andy

The phrase "harmonic balancer" is misleading, it's got nothing to do with balancing the engine.

Harmonic dampers are to reduce torsional vibrations in crankshafts. These vibrations can become very large at certain RPM (i.e. resonance effect) and can significantly shorten the life of the crank.

A bit more info can be found
here

All good old Dr Fred Lanchester's invention circa 1890s his original version used springs and hydraulic damping.

On 6 cylinder engines they are pretty well essential

[Edited on 19/7/07 by britishtrident]