DIY: Remove your balance shafts

[Chris Crash]

Alright, so you want a little more pep in your engine and you want to lessen the risk of blowing your engine? Well luckily Toyota made their shitty balance shafts BOLT on so you can bolt them off too

BIG RED DISCLAIMER: This is only a guide, and the opinions expressed are not to be held to Toyota Nation. If you screw something up and blow your engine, or hurt yourself, or kill yourself or your cat, that's your problem. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, DON'T DO IT.

Now. Onto the non-bullshit.

This is a pretty involved task, so don't expect to drive off anytime soon.

Parts needed:
-Oil
-Oil Filter
-Oil Pan Gasket
-RTV
-Exhaust Flage Gasket

Tools needed:
-10 mm, 12 mm, deep 14 mm sockets
-Socket wrench
-Lots of extensions
-Razor blade

Eat your wheaties before you pull this one off. Also, be sure to use jack stands and chock the rear wheels AND pull the hand brake/e-brake waaaay up high. If the car falls down...well, I warned you. You might want to try ramps, unless you drive stick...then good luck.

1) Loosen the exhaust that hangs under the oil pan. There's a hanger right behind the oil pan, and then the three 14 mm deep nuts on the bottom of the header. They're probably rusted, you can figure out how to get them off.

2) Now the exhaust is hanging in your face, pull the oil pan off. Drain it first, please.
Then you'll see something resembling this, hopefully not missing chunks like mine was...

(sorry about the crappy, not from the bottom picture)
And hopefully you don't see this in your pan, if you do, call your tailor immediately because you're about to shit your pants.


4) Now would be a good time for safety goggles. As I said before that's the only pic of the BS (hehe) I have so you'll have to figure the rest out on your own a bit... But it's fairly obvious. Remove the oil strainer. There's 6 12 mm bolts holding the balance shaft on, remove them. When you do, move your face. Shit comes crashing down. And it's 13 pounds and then there will be tons of oil too. Be careful.

5) Admire your pretty crankshaft. Find the oil passages and plug them up, either with RTV or whatever you feel.
I thought I had pictures of it, but I don't... Can't find pictures in the FSM either. Maybe someone else can chime in on this. You should be able to just line up the balance shafts and see where the oil should go to and from, then plug that hole but make sure you're positive it's that hole...

6) Reinstall the oil strainer. It'll be ok since it's missing one bolt. Put a new gasket on the oil pan. RTV that bitch. Install the pan at 17 lbs.

7) Put the exhaust back on the header, tighten, then put the exhaust flex stay back on.

8) Put on your new filter and fill it with fresh oil.

Start it up and see how it goes. Might want to wait a few hours for the RTV to dry, though.

If your oil pressure light comes on, you screwed up BAD. If not, then enjoy your happier engine.

[Mister_Perkins]

If your looking up from under-neath the car ^^^


The red arrows are where the bolts holding the balance shaft are located. The yellow arrow is where the oil passage is

Hope ya dont mind me adding this pic Chris

[LynchburgCSI]

I was gonna say.... can we have MOAR PIX? Thanks guys.

[N/A Camry Sleeper]

Excellent post guys...they make a great boat anchor when removed - just ask my dad!

[Yuko]

I run my engine very hard but do balance shafts blow apart like that? I remember reading about this and a bit worry now. Is there an increase of vibration after removal?

[LynchburgCSI]

It's not going to blow up like that unless you run her hard on low oil, IIRC. And yes, it should shake a little more w/o balance shafts, IIRC.

[Chris Crash]

Thanks for that pic, Perkins. I hope that helps people out.

They can definitely blow with no reason. After talking to machine shops, they said the most common way these shafts blow out is they get off balance of one another.

You'll feel a little more vibration, but nothing too terrible.

[JohnGD]

That's also why Marshall Engines do not put back the balancer assembly in rebuilt engines. Saying something about poor design.

[Mister_Perkins]

Well the balancer shafts are supposed to have a certain amount of thrust clearance (side to side motion). If its out of spec, the balancer will start moving side to side internally, and eventually fail

[jtex2717]

Can we get some clarity of which exact oil holes to plug? Also....is there something better than RTV that we can use to plug the holes....I mean how bad would it suck if the RTV slipped and fell out...Um IDK....I just killed my kitten *F#CK*

[Mister_Perkins]

Originally Posted by jtex2717

Can we get some clarity of which exact oil holes to plug? Also....is there something better than RTV that we can use to plug the holes....I mean how bad would it suck if the RTV slipped and fell out...Um IDK....I just killed my kitten *F#CK*

its best to tap the holes out and run a bolt in them.

Maybe then put a little RTV on the bolts

I know for sure the yellow arrow is one oil passage.

I haven't personally done this yet, so I'm not completely positive

[SexieWASD]

The yellow arrow is the only oil passage to the balance assembly, the oil exits the assembly and drips back into the base pan. I wouldn't use RTV to seal it, you should tap it and clean it out with brake cleaner, let it dry then put a bolt in with lock tight on it.

[Mister_Perkins]

Originally Posted by SexieWASD

The yellow arrow is the only oil passage to the balance assembly, the oil exits the assembly and drips back into the base pan. I wouldn't use RTV to seal it, you should tap it and clean it out with brake cleaner, let it dry then put a bolt in with lock tight on it.

hah .. I was Right! I remember someone saying there was more than one, but as far as I could see from my block there was only that one. That picture was pointing that out before. I just wasn't confident in my assumption.

yay.

Tapping is the best way

I said to use a little RTV to put on the threads. It would be the same as using Teflon Tape

[Fortified Souls]

+ 1 for this Chris I love the 5sfe without balance shafts it becomes more alive. Should add a caution that the engine will be happier to rev to the 6k redline . For everyone reading this I took my balance shaft out when I rebuilt the engine. It has 15k on it and stronger than ever.

[Mister_Perkins]

Originally Posted by Fortified Souls

+ 1 for this Chris I love the 5sfe without balance shafts it becomes more alive. Should add a caution that the engine will be happier to rev to the 6k redline . For everyone reading this I took my balance shaft out when I rebuilt the engine. It has 15k on it and stronger than ever.

Just remember these 5sfe have weak rod bolts. 6,000 RPM can cause some issues