I agree w/ Chris and LBV, I think I'm leaving the ring gear on. I think that will reduce some of the "percieved" vibes from this mod.

I agree. I think the problem is crank walk, and has little to do with the BSD. This is reinforced by the fact Mazda added some washer/shims to later 08/08.5's to reduce crank walk.

What I am interested however, is the effect of removing the BSD on Used Oil Analysis's. With the addition of a quart of oil to the overall vehicle capacity, wear metals should DROP. If someone did a before BSD UOA, and an after BSD removal UOA, and wear metals ROSE, this could indicate that removing the BSD could have some secondary issues.

By all reports though, wear metals should noticeably drop...I just haven't seen anyone do a before/after UOA report yet, which would be really interesting...

i don't care about vibes...
i want to take the gear out...
any negatives to this?

I took my time on it, the most time consuming part was getting the old gasket off.

Plus I did the spin-on conversion and transmission flush too.

But I'd say that if I had to do it again it could be done in under 2 hours for sure.

Worst case, you get metal shavings in your engine and you screw up a main or rod bearing. You know what happens next.

I just wasn't going to risk getting fine pieces of metal in my block. And I don't see it causing any issues being there. It might sling some oil but hell if it does then it was doing it with the BS in there as well.

so clean it thoroughly

id say in and out in 2 hours. 5 is a little crazy.

No negatives from what I have heard.



And you are correct ChrisK, the 2.3L Ranger does not have a balance shaft gear

Does this actually remove the balance shaft, or just the gear that runs it? I saw on a different thread that you remove a gear and its housing. I didn't actually see a shaft. I thought the shaft ran the length of the block.

There are two balance shafts inside of the assembly, or balance shaft unit, whatever you want to call it.

You can't see them.

The shaft is bascially the crank, then there is a large gear that is mounted to it. The rotating gear mates to the balance shaft assembly, which then rubs you of power.

I hope to have an answer for you guys on this here very soon. Crank is on its way to me.

I would remove it to get the sprinkler out of the motor. All that gear will do when you pull the BS assembly is cause oil spray.

It is a lot of crank walk and there was a change to them (I think there are even new bearing part numbers as well).

Do not leave the BS assembly in the motor if you plan on turning up the boost. The all casted steel BS assembly cannot move around like the frail aluminum block. Its a material missmatch that will eventually fail if your running higher then stock boost levels.

I would like to see some UOA testing as well, but there are just to many variables with getting consistant results from something like this. If someone were to do this in one day and do back to back simiulation testing on a chasis dyno then I think those results would be fair. One street driven UOA to the next is always going to have some changes in it, be it climate or driver change in drive style you will never get a consistant test with a street driven car.

hi, i was wondering its been almost 5yrs since you posted the BSD review and i was wondering how is the car doing with it. i am a little concerned about the whole harmonic noise and if it will damage or shorten the engine life, i know that oil change and drive behaviors have to do with it but still will like to find recent info before i do the BSD on my MS6.

anyone else if you have new info please share thank you!!


thank you!

Arthur