Harmonic Balancer choices
 

Which balancer have you guys had good luck with in a higher HP combo?

I'm leaning towards the bigger ATI, but cant decide on steel or aluminum...What say you guys?

I’ve used both ATI and Innovators West. Both work well for me.

I have used several ATI supercharger balancers over the years and even had them make me a custom 10 rib serpentine belt one,
(no pulley on the front, it was built into the balancer design). Very high quality stuff for a Race Application or a Boosted Engine
application. I had two other "race brands" and was not happy with either one of them.

For stock stuff the Pioneer Balancers worked well for that application.

Tom V.

This.

Were running part # ATI917160. Needs a 3 hole pulley. Also had to clearance timing cover a bit.

For me I would go with steel in terms of a damper that uses a Elastermer binding.

The fast expansion and contraction of a Aluminum one as it heats up & cools down will fail the binding sooner, and just over all Aluminum will fatigue faster.

We faced this same decision in 1995 when getting the Grocery Getter engines ready for almost weekly drag racing duty. I purchased 1 steel and 1 aluminum outer shell ATI damper and we went racing. After 15 years of running that car and interchangeable use of both dampers, we found no difference between the two and they were flawless. Sent them back to ATI once for rebuilds and they said they were perfect. I have seen fluid dampers leak on several occasions and Innovators West dampers certainly look cool, but seem very overcomplicated with the dozens of fasteners all over it. I have always preferred the " most simple design that works". The ATI damper fits that perfectly. A solid steel balancer is not a damper. I prefer a damper. On the funny car engines we ran a steel hub. The blower belt became the damper.

As Mike has mentioned, I have also run both the steel pieces and the aluminum pieces in both NA and Boosted
(Vortech/Paxton) applications and have never had one issue with the difference in the material.

I prefer the steel only because the Material Fatigue aspect may be a bit stronger when driving a 1600 HP
supercharger with the "built-in" 10 rib drive cover design.

JME.

Tom V.

ATI, mines steel

ATI.
On both cars.

ATI here

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4d&oe=617015BD
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ed&oe=616FE5E0

ATI

You can never go wrong with ATI.

Recipe for success. ATI: A simple, high precision product, made in USA from high quality materials, backed with excellent customer service. IMO end of story.

I will say the "gold" ATI I got late 80s early 90s that bolts to a hub I had to machine the hub down .120 to get the pulleys to line up and the front are larger to fit the washer for the crank bolt. It is on my 500 IA and still works fine.

ATI is the best choice for a race engine.

Seems like 90% of the big builds use a ATI. Never hear of any issues.
The pricing on them is interesting though. For ATI the Pontiac balancers are actually cheaper than the Chevy version. 370$ for ours vs 404$ for the Chevy.
Now BHJ which I am using the pricing is nuts. 663$ from BHJ. Nightmare Performance sells them for 515$. I bought mine from them last year for 440$.
The BHJ units from Nightmare are notched to clear power steering stuff for street guys. Direct fit, 4 bolt so stock pulley's can be used. He keeps a bunch in stock with precise measurements and sells them matched to your snout for proper press fit.
My engine is not really a race engine, do not expect to go over 7K.

What part number Butler shows 3 ?

I went with the 7" steel version...It'll be here Monday.

The crank pickup, pulleys, and drive mandrel will be here this week...One piece at a time.