I hope he isn't serious. I thought that balance shafts serve NO harmonic purpose at all
oops:
they (kinda) equalize the 2nd order inbalance, that happens at 2x crank speed, you could call it a harmonic of the inbalance, or a dynamic inbalance on the vertical only. EDIT: or a 96oz togo cup, or whatever
if a piston at the top is traveling faster than the opposing piston (on the opposite crank throw) is at the bottom, the difference in the two accelerations is the inbalance. (hence the 90deg V8) this is why 4 cylinders are balanced without bob weights, you cant balance the second order, so there is no out of phase counter weight. i think this is why most 4 cylinders lean back in the engine bay. if you look at the 4g, the balance shaft in front is higher than the one in back, so the axis of the inbalance force is probably leaning to the back of the engine. leaning the engine back even more in the engine bay would make this force more inline with the inertia of the car, trying to shake the car front to back instead of up and down. if im not full of shit (a remote possibility) this could be were broken headers come from. because the exhaust runs front to back and the car manufactures try to make the engine shake front to back. literally, the only way to fix this is to put a big old turbo high on the back of the engine with a flex joint as close to the turbo as possible. :yes:
bisi probably invented balance shafts and sold the patent to mitsu and there pole smoking fagots who put it in everything. they just build whatever and use the shafts to get rid of the inbalance. car makers dont want to pay the licensing fee or use stupid ass shafts. honda uses lighter pistons and rods(+), toyoda has offset crankshafts, and volkswagon (ultimate fail) uses a rod so long that they have to use crazy baffles and a 10 gallon pan to keep oil from winding up the crank. other car makers just try to make there engine and tranny as heavy as possible, and mount it in such a away that as soon as it has any real power, it trys to rip itself out. (also VW)
another good idea is to just put a V8 in it, thus eliminating all balance issues, at that point any design/implementation problems are purely trivial. if you have ever fixed a wrist watch with a sledge hammer you know what im talking about.