F150 Balancer delete question.

For those of you who have deleted the balancer shafts on the f150: did you plug the oil holes? I just wondered about a possible oil pressure problem if they were left open. Also have you experienced any additional vibration with the shafts removed? I understand these are not even installed on the commercial version of these engines.TIA

We just cleaned the remainder of the plastic teeth off the gear so that it didn't engage rather than stripping the whole balancer out. That stops any oil pressure issues hopefully. As for the balance, I think you could probably detect the difference in twins if you really tried hard, but anyone who didn't know would never notice. The whole job including stripping the midsection to clean the sump and pickup etc took around 6 to 8 hours for 2 of us doing it for the first time.

I ran my engine after removing the balance shafts. The "whine" was gone but I had a noticeable vibration I could feel not only on the engine but the boat itself. This occurred from idle speed up to about 1200 RPM. Seemed to get smoother beyond that. I guess the amount of vibration without the balancer may vary from one engine to another. I think the vibration on mine is more than I would be willing to tolerate, so my plan is to replace the balancer assy. Apparently the latest version (63P-11500-04-00) have an additional oil nozzle to better lubricate the gears. Thanks for your response!