by Vantasia Mon Feb 09, 2015 7:45 amI removed my radiator to get it boiled out or worst case re-cored, depending on what local shop I found says. With the radiator out, I figure its a good time to clean the crud off the front of the engine and harmonic balancer. The balancer was so caked with grease and grime that the spokes were filled solid and all the holes were invisible. So I scrape and vacuum it out an get it all nice and clean and the rubber damper looks to be it great shape. During the cleaning, a long thin piece of rubber strip pulls out from behind the spokes of the balancer. My first thought was oh shit, I just pulled the timing cover seal out for the crankshaft! But then I looked in the 1963 Truck manual diagram for the front of the L6 engine and only see the main seal and timing cover gaskets, nothing like what I pulled out. Close inspection of it makes me think it was a piece of an old fan belt that got twisted around the pulley, the more I look at it, the more it looks like an old belt backing. Here are the pictures, it was wrapped around the hub of the pulley behind the spokes. I need an expert, (Doni, Kooky?) to tell me if there was some sort of seal for the timing cover behind the pulley or is just what I thought it was, an old belt scrap? There is no leaking from this area of the engine. Thanks. BTW, my radiator is stamped Harrison on the tanks and I found out by Google that this was a division of GM like Delco that made their radiators so I know its an original GM. When I drained the radiator, I could see inside that more than half the tubes still held coolant to the top, so they are clogged!
Balancer all cleaned up
twisted and torn gasket/belt thing that was jammed behind spokes of balancer??
Balancer all cleaned up
twisted and torn gasket/belt thing that was jammed behind spokes of balancer??
