harmonic balancer scale question
 

I am trying to find out on which side of the scale lies the degrees for before and after top dead center. In the middle of the scale, there are the letters OT, which I understand to be TDC. To the right as seen from standing in front of the car are hash marks in five degree increments, numbered by tens up to the number 80. To the left are hash marks numbered by tens up to the number 20. Is the right hand side of the scale before or after top dead center?

Engine's normal rotation is clockwise... so numbers (standing in front of engine and OT pointing to 12 o'clock) to the left of OT are ATDC and to the right are BTDC.

X2

By SAE convention, the "normal" rotation is counterclockwise. Standing in front of the engine and looking backwards is not the "normal" SAE perspective.

Do them Germans use SAE convention?

I guess those Germans would be using SGE...
but they built the engine to turn conventionally..

I only know of two engines which rotate the other way...
One of the first Honda engine to be imported into the USA and the Corvair engine.....

Interestingly enough, if it were not for the Germans, it is entirely possible that there would be no SAE as it exists today.

The 2 cycle Detroits can be set up to run clockwise or counter clockwise.


Charlie

There were cam kits I believe to convert the Corvair to run the ' correct ' direction so it could be fitted to other transmissions... perhaps dunebuggies ?

hmmmm. the 6.5 with it's gear driven IP might run either direction also... I do not know, but at least there is no chain tensioner to get in the way...

I seem to remember the GM5.7 having a run on issue where it would run in reverse when in poor condition, at shut down...

Yep. There was a guy in the Porsche 914 forum who mated a corvair engine to his 914 running a reverse cam. He ended up scrapping the idea after popping the belt several times and almost overheating the engine.

I am surprised he was not Hurt by some other Porsche owners taking umbrage to his using a Corvair engine... LOL

There were the purists, who had their shielded homepage, and the rest of the people who did what they could with their cars, and then the guys who put V8 engines and Suby engines in their cars. I must say a 2000# car with a 350 Corvette engine was about the quickest thing I've ever ridden in

Oh, there were two sectors of one group. That drama wasn't as big as the guy who found/stole/bought the #4 Prototype. After that the entire community fractured. I was the high school kid who tried to keep my Porsche together and running, going from Bowling Green,KY to Louisville twice a week. That car is up in Quebec right now, probably in pieces.

And then I made a mistake that ticked alot of people off....but thats another very interesting story for another day.