Can the internal trigger wheel from an ABF crankshaft be removed whilst in situ? I'm upgrading my car to throttle bodies and DTA ECU (higher revs) and i've been told its best to get rid of it. I've got to do the sump gasket anyway so the sump will be off and I don't mind cutting the wheel in half to get it out but can you get to the retaining screws when the crankshaft is in situ? Any pics? Thanks. Tim.
You'll need to be really really careful cutting it off in situ, don't get any swarf in there at all!!
I'd like to remove mine but I think its going to be more hassle than its worth. Plus I would imagine it could have a detrimental affect on engine balance if you're going to be revving higher? Mart? I don't know how well these things are balanced from factory?
The cranks aren't the best balanced item, although they are better than a flywheel (some are shocking) from the factory. They don't need to be 100% bang on, it's not cost effective plus they use quite a heavy duty harmonic balancer, and they still do 300k+ in 'normal' use. I'm not saying they're not balanced, but they're not balanced perfectly. As for the trigger wheel, I'm really not sure what affect it would have by removing it. Personally, if I was running the haramonic balancer I'd remove it and not think twice. Anyone thinking it may upset the end-to-end balance of the crank, then think about all the lightened flywheels that have had 6lbs of material removed, then bolted it back on and haven't found any problems.With this in mind I don't think the triiger wheel will make alot of difference. Getting it off will be the challenge though. (but I take no responsibilty if someone does this and the engine dies though, it's your engine lol)
I guess it is only a bit of pressed tin so shouldnt make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Still a pig to remove while the engine is in the car, could see it testing my patience some what so have left mine. While on the subject Mart, slight thread hijack but possibly still relevant as the OP speaks about higher revving. Would a completely hypothetical person (most definitely not me ) in your opinion,be asking for trouble by not using the harmonic damper on an engine likely to see higher revs? Ie: trackdays and possibly hillclimbs in the future. The bottom end has be blueprinted and lightened with OE toothed wheel still attached to crank, as far as I know (previous owner of the engine). Since then one of your lightened 02a flys and an ally crank pulley/external trigger setup has been added but not matched to the rest of the bottom end. I know it's impossible to say for sure.
Gurdip removed his own in situ, although in the current engine he runs a std trigger wheel to 7500rpm. Harmonic order forces are the greatest on the damper side not PTO (Power take off), so where the std trigger is fitted as very little influence on crank balance. The pressed tin pick up is fine during the life of the engine. On later engines such as the 06A 1.8T etc, this was superceded by a cast trigger with holes. DTA ECUs use a VR pick up sensor, so you can use the DTA on the stock 60-2 trigger if you use the cranksensor from a VR6 or 1.8T.
Thanks for the info guys Thanks for the link, i knew i had seen it somewhere before on this site but couldn't remember where.
Myself, if using an alloy pulley with no damper I'd have it all balanced as a single 'whole' unit. This is what I was planning with the new block. I've heard of bottom ends failing when not using the damper, so I'd like some piece of mind that its all in tune. At the moment, and the same with Paul H, we've been using dampers that I've machined down to remove some weight and have so far been fine. Paul has mentioned that it 'feels' livelier with no ill effect on engine vibration. At the end of the day it all depends on what you want. I don't plan on doing mega mileage plus I'm trying to squeeze out as much bhp I can for the buck, so if I gain 10bhp and the engine lasts 20k I can live with it. A set of bearings and a few days in bits costs bugger all really. A lehmann engine does 1k and needs a rebuild costing thousands lol
