Balance Shaft Delete + 1000 Mile Drive - Will The Engine Survive? 

I just binge watched the entire 4V V10 series. I am very impressed. Can't wait to see how this thing turns out for you guys. Dynamite work fellas.👌🏻

Love that the ford v10 is getting more recognition on RU-vid and more of a following!

You'll want to keep an eye on the oil filter. Higher than normal engine harmonics tend to vibrate oil filters loose. Ford learned this the hard way with the first gen voodoo engine and GM found the same issue in development of the engine on the new Z06.

As the responsible base engine development engineer for the 6.8 when it was being developed no it will not blow up. The reason for the shaft being there is because we designed it as an even fire engine with a split pin crank. Several of the early development engines ran successfully with non-functional balance shafts when the teeth on the drive gear failed due to torsional vibrations in the camshaft drive system.

Last summer, I swapped an 03 V10 into my 99 V10 F350. Had to keep the original drivers header with the EGR to not throw codes. The power increase was significant! I know there’s only 35hp difference in the years but I was impressed.

The real ones knew this wasn't going to kill the engine. The keyboard warriors took the L on this haha. Keep going guys, there's a lot of people out there, like me, that look ford v10 content. You're living my dream right now.

Friend of mine hit something in the road on his F250 and ripped a hole in his pan ended up seizing the cam in the passenger head at 80k miles, instead of replacing the head he bought a used engine with supposedly 90k miles that we swapped into it. Over the next few years we went thru the engine replacing both heads, fresh bearings, rings, gaskets and Ford timing chain kit. At 245k the oil filter gasket blew out and you guessed it, passenger side cam seized. When pulling the cam covers is when we noticed a blank shaft on the drivers head vs the balance shaft on the original one, when we pulled the caps they were galled to death so apparently in that engines 90k miles the balance shaft starved for oil and the balance shaft was replaced with a solid steel bar turned down to fit. Even after his loss of oil pressure and pulling a horse trailer with 4 horses 3/4 of a mile to get to a safe place to get off the road, all the rods and main bearings still looked good with still an all aluminum shells no cooper showing so i guess with 155k miles without a balance shaft and its whole life pulling trailers it doesnt seem that balance shaft prevented any excess wear so imo it was basically there for NVH purposes only

Just found this channel myself. Had a super- binge session over the whole series. Very entertaining lads. I couldn't work out how you could make your own heads in the first place. Second thing I thought of was the absence of the balance shaft would have the 4V V10 shaking itself to bits.👍🔧

I was eagerly awaiting a new upload. My favorite build on YT

Probably doesn’t matter but back in the day 95-97 the Celica and the Camry shared a 4-cylinder engine. The Camry had balance shafts from the factory and the Celica didn’t. The shafts were run directly off of a gear machined into the crankshaft. Idle smoothness was noticeably smoother in the Camry. The balance shaft was noisy in the Camrys and it caused a few complaints from the owners. I purchased a 97 Camry cheap because the owner didn’t know that Toyota’s really do require periodic oil changes . I built the engine and deleted the balance shafts. Basically just plugged the oil feed hole and threw the shafts in the garbage. The engine was quieter at idle and as far as I know it is still running 15 years later.

I wouldn't worry about that mild vibration "destroying" the engine, but I would recommend you take a look at the crank sensor & cam sensor signals with an oscilloscope both with and without the balance shaft to see if it has any effect on those. The crank signal is important for the misfire monitor software in the PCM.

After the intro I was most interested in watching you guys drive blindfolded. Yes, I was severely disappointed. Looking forward to the engine build. And seeing the mystery car on the trailer.

When you put it in drive. The 'slipping' of the torque converter acts as a fluid damper.

Why do people act like balance shafts are the most important part of an engine? It's ridiculous. Thank you for this video, it was sorely needed.

Literally answering the questions I have always asked my self about the ford V10

I just finished binge watching the 4V V10; excellent work. I’m impressed by your problem solving approach. You guys are great engineers. Speaking of that, I’d like to learn more about you guys. Where did you go to school and what did you study? What is your day job? I think you’ll be able to quit that day job soon. I can’t believe you only have 12k subscribers. You’ll hit 1 million soon enough.

Fun stuff! The other data I'd like to know is of course horsepower gain and if the engine revs faster. Hopefully this vid does really well and can pay for a dyno, hahaha.

Balance shafts are rarely necessary. When you get into really harsh situations like wheel-hop under braking, that shock load goes back into the engine and is really hard on the timing system.

That’s my question I been asking for Like 5yrs . Glad someone tried it . I got too much in my motor to try it . 😅

Love the approach you guys have! Keep it going! 6/5

Great Video and great testing 👍

You guys should buy a 2005 and newer V10 truck and test that and look at the things changed between the engines.

I wonder why the 99 through 03 V10 is recognized so much but not the 04 through 21 V10 in the econolines, chassis cabs and school buses

That balance shaft isn’t for engine balance, it is for NVH for the customer. As the video proves. Engine balance that can cause engine damage is done with the crankshaft/rotating assembly. This video series is pretty amazing.

use a good damper/ harmonic balancer on the thing like a guess a fluid damper and you will be a ok great work Men !

20:24 pure gold

You guys should compare cfm of the throttle body. Stock vs twin 62mm vs accufab SCTB96-98 oval blade to see which is most beneficial to a stock v10 to increase power.

well i'll be damned. good work and great video! i'm gonna yank mine out, although mine idles @ 700 and is limited at 5500..

Great video

You guys drove passed my house and didn't even honk

Your fuel mileage is consistent with what I've experienced with almost the same exact truck. If you keep your speed below 60 mph it'll beat 15 mpg highway. Same with the trailer, if you keep it under 60, you can get 11 highway (depending on how much aero drag your trailer setup adds). Go 80? You ain't getting 10 mpg empty, and more like 6-7 with a trailer. Still not bad IMO. About the same as the IDI diesels with way more power, and far exceeds the old BBF gasser. I remember my father had an F-350 dually with the 460 and the ZF 5-speed behind it. It was getting in the 4-5 mpg territory no matter how he drove it. That thing was such a pig.

You got water in that back sparkplug hole😂😂😂

North Georgia ford decal on the tailgate, I drive by that place twice a day.

shit always flows downhill ,🤣🤣🤣love the show!!!

Hey Shed, I live in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. I have a 1998 4runner 3RZ 5-speed. I’m raving through these videos because I’m really wanting a simple reliable low psi, stock ecu turbo build. Mine has 291k miles (466k km) what do you think about that?

I was hesitant to delete mine. I knew it would be fine but had a little bit of doubt. Now that is gone

Can you make turbo manifold for v10

Why remove it?

Ford should do a 4v v10 in a ford gt

My unbalanced 3-cyl geo metro did not idle smooth at all, but it did not effect longevity at all afaik, these cars would do 150k+ no problem.

No one here has stated the obvious question, what is the purpose of REMOVING the balance shaft? Does it rob significant power? Does it hurt fuel economy?

A truck we will unfortunately never see built again. Cool video! A V10 Ford truck are is my bucket list…Too bad our country sucks ass. FJB!

Did it feel any faster in the butt dyno due to less rotating mass?

Only one complaint! We wanna know what vehicle you were towing? Is it the vehicle that's gonna receive the 4v V10?

United Colors of Benetton. Rodding don't give a fuck, just be fast. Ultra Gold.

Measure the area beneath the curves. That's your true answer

Yooouuuu dont need a balance shaft

thunderbird V10 swap?!

So... Now you have another V-10 block. There are 2x Mark VIII's... 🤔

Cant shake any more than my 4.6 mustang 2v lmao

A 72 degree V10 is better balanced

You can expect unusual valvetrain wear. I have seen it on some V6s. Cam lobes worn down. Cam bearings worn out at 75k.

Water in spark plug holes reason for misfire.

Sn95!!!!!

Pretty useless video, not touching on why one should ever want to remove the balance shaft? I see no downsides for having it unless its a known failure point.

y tho

Even if you remove the balance shaft without a rebalanced and blue printed rotational assembly your experiment is completely falsified even with the devices you've used it is done with a master machinist only verification