I thought I’d report on this direct comparison in case it would help someone else down the road.

I needed a new harmonic balancer for my engine rebuild, but couldn’t afford the ~$500 for the fluidampr, nor will i be racing/pushing 4000rpm, so i really don't need it. I had mentioned in my build thread a while back that I ordered a dayco unit from Rock Auto for ~$130, but then was informed that the part was out of stock. As they were the only vendor carrying this dayco part I assumed the part had just been discontinued, so against my better judgement I went with the Dorman version for ~$80.

Well, when the dorman showed up I was definitely not happy with the quality. It was unpainted, covered in some smelly chinese oil, and the rubber between the inner and outer ring looked like someone had sloppily trimmed an excess amount with a blunt kitchen knife… i was not comfortable with the thought of attaching this lump of crap to the crankshaft of my expensive and time consuming engine build!

So, when I was on rockauto the other day again, I noticed they had the dayco unit still listed. I called them up and they now had more in stock so I ordered it again. it showed up earlier this week and it was WORLDS better quality than the dorman unit.

Here are some side-by-side pictures of the packaging (the circles show country or origin – China vs. Australia - you guess which is which).




The open box pictures show how nasty the dorman one looks, relative to the nice clean flat black paint job on the dayco. what you don't see is the slimy machine oil all over the dorman. they couldnt even wipe it down before boxing it...



I’ve had good luck with previous dayco products and this just makes me like them even more.

Now, I’ll include this link to the OEM ford part. Its only $50 more than the dayco, but assuming its made in Mexico, I’d still pick the Australia version

1996 Ford F-250 Engine Harmonic Balancer | FordParts.com

 

Looks good JP. I've made two orders with rockauto lately and had nothing but trouble. I never had trouble with them in the past, I don't know what's going on with them. A guy even argued with me on the phone about it!!

 

Yeah, they're def low budget on the customer service side -website included. I've never had a problem with an order though and their shipping is reasonably fast.

Now talk about problems with an order and I'll tell you about my recent order of truck parts from Amazon.

 

Is it just the pic or is the dorman bigger ?

 

A.t.I. for the win!!

 

You got that right. I've had an ATI sitting on my shelf waiting to do something for probably 3-4 years now. Lol

 

Not cheap but their products are second to none.
On this subject.yea doorman never ceasses to underwhelm with their lack of quality.

 

must be the picture - i didnt hold a ruler to them, but the sizes were darn near the same if not identical.

i hadn't come across ATI, but it does look like i nice unit. same problem as the fluidampr for me, though. if i was building a race/puller truck though, i'd be going that way for sure, though.

in fairness, though - the dorman oil pan that i bought was pretty good quality and fit right up. seemed to be thicker steel than stock, too. from my experience, they're just completely hit or miss. and the misses are pretty frustrating.

 

I guess I shouldn't have said that's what I'd do for that price difference! I'm glad you got one that will work ok JP. Good info to know on the dorman.

For the price and if they were the only options I saw, I'd have done the same thing, then probably ordered a fluidampner after I saw it....

 

No worries, Darin. I was leaning that way anyway. Live and learn. Hopefully this info helps someone else though!