Balancer Color

[ab777]

I had the engine rebuilt on my ‘65 Imperial and my balancer was in pretty bad shape. I got myself a new balancer, but was wondering if it was painted the engine color (turquoise) or black?

The reason I am asking this is, the balancer that I took off my car is black and it definitely looked like it was the one that the car left the factory with. Plus, when I was having the engine rebuilt there were no obvious signs that it had been rebuilt previously.

Could have my car left the factory with its balancer painted in black? As I want to have everything look like when it left the factory.

 

[Camshaft]

not sure about 65 but on my 67 everything was turquoise blue. I didn't like it, so I changed some stuff to black, which is what I wanted. I like some contrasting colors in my engine compartment! Not a restoration for me, but I know what I like.

 

[ab777]

not sure about 65 but on my 67 everything was turquoise blue. I didn't like it, so I changed some stuff to black, which is what I wanted. I like some contrasting colors in my engine compartment! Not a restoration for me, but I know what I like.

View attachment 724530

Totally agree with you on the contrast thing, I am not a fan for the majority of engine components to be a single color. I’ve seen it many times where people paint every single component on the engine the same color as the engine.

 

[CBODY67]

The balancers were painted with the engines, before the engine is "dressed" with accessories, pullies, and such. Our '66 Newport still has its original turquois valance on it.

Just my observations,
CBODY67

 

[ab777]

The balancers were painted with the engines, before the engine is "dressed" with accessories, pullies, and such. Our '66 Newport still has its original turquois valance on it.

Just my observations,
CBODY67

Interesting…. wonder why mine is black then. Probably somebody ended up painting it at one point.

 

[CBODY67]

IF your balancer came from the engine plant "black", it would have had to have been installed after the engine paint happened and before the engines were spun-up for final checks of oil pressure and compression before being dressed. Possibly "an Imperial designation" that was not normally noticed by consumers or mechanics, back then?

With the 1964-1966 Imperials, Chrysler was trying to make serious in-roads into Cadillac sales. Better interior fabrics and leathers, plus better "fine car" features and such. An old copy of "The WPC News chronicled this in an article and also mentioned a special truck load batch of engines they built with "super fine balance" for smoother operation so they could put them in Imperials and watch the reaction of customers to this. Only thing was, that truckload of engines went to a normal Chrysler assembly plant instead, by mistake. So much for that grand experiment!

So, perhaps for Imperial-destined engines, a shield was put on the nose of the crank, the engine assy painted, and then the "black balancer" installed before the engine's final check procedures? Then position that possibility against a Plymouth engine ad in 1966 bragging about their computerized engine balancing where they could find where "a paper clip" was on the flywheel. In "reality", engine smoothness of operation might start with static balance, but usually ends with how equal of a charge of the total air/fuel charge each cylinder gets. The continues with how well that mixture combusts. LOTS of things make for "a smooth engine", rather than just one.

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67