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My 53 F100 with a 215 has a two pulley harmonic balancer. When I noticed that the casting had a crack, I was fortunate to find and buy a used replacement. I've cleaned it all up, and I see that there is some pitting on the surface that comes in contact with the front seal. My questions: While there are no "rough edges" to the pitting, do I risk rapid wear of the front seal? Should I expect oil leaks? Can the balancer be machined or would the reduced diameter cause excessive oil leaking? I do not believe that the oil at this seal has any pressure behind it. Anyone have thoughts/comments on this?
You have a few options. If not too bad, run it and see how it does. You can maybe polish it up a little if you think it would help.
If it is bad, it will leak eventually. On grooves, you can sometimes place the seal further in or not as far in to avoid the groove. Depends on the setup.
There is always a speedy sleeve. A super thin sleeve to "resurface" your seal area. I don't care for them but a lot of people use them. It seems to me that it makes your new seal wear faster because it is now tighter.
If it was me, I would buff it up a little and try it. Pictures would get you a better answer though.
If you have it machined you might end up searching for a seal that will fit it right. Might try some JB Weld to fill the pits. Don't know how well that would work. I had an old riding lawn mower that ran short on oil when my son was using it. Wallered out the case where the crank comes through the case so I filled it up with JB. Put it back together and used it for another 3 or 4 years. I guess I would use it as is and see what happens.