I think thats the only way. To block of the oil passage, you'd need a press fit. Unless somehow you figure out a way to cut off the shafts and leave them in. Without balance shafts, my HHR vibrated so bad especially around 3k rpms. I am told the fluid mounts on the kappa provide very good dampening and the vibrations are not felt in the car compared to delta.

 

I guess I should show some more of what's going on.

 

Pistons and rings installed on rods.

 

I don't know how I forgot a picture of crank installed. That was a start of a huge headache. Long story short, is I checked bore diameters of main bearings and the diameter minus crank mains gave me.001 clearance. That is to tight for me. I was looking for .0015 clearances. So I decided to have the crank ground. After I assembled the crank with plastic gauge. I always use plastic gauge because sometimes something can be missed. Dang if I didn't show .001 again. Confused at what was going on I found that the machine shop honed the main bores .002 to tight. So they fixed that. I reassembled the bearings in girdle and block and check them with a bore gauge. It showed .0015. Good to go. So I put it back together with plastic gauge and did another check. .001 again. I decided somehow the plastic gauge must be wrong. So I assembled the engine. Well I know plastic gauge is not perfect but honestly it has never failed me until now. OR HAS IT. So I am laying in bed not sleeping because of this dang engine. Lol
I decided to pull the pan and girdle and change the main bearings just as an after thought. Mind you the engine has been pretty much completely assembled minus intake and exhaust. I put the plastic gauge in and assemble the girdle. Pull it apart and what did I find. Bearing clearance at .0015. So what I figured is the bearing being over crushed caused it to go out of round even after the bores were fixed. Sorry long story. Hopefully someone can learn from this besides me. Lol

 

Pistons being installed. Yes the tops are ceramic coated.

 

Head studs installed.

 

Head installed. I changed the ZZP single springs out and put on the supertech dual springs.

 

Nice work & great pictures!

Good luck with the rest of your build!

 

Thanks. I will try to keep them coming. It's nice when there are replies and questions. It helps keep me motivated.

 

I am going a completely different route than I thought a couple months ago. I am pulling my engine within the next couple weeks for rods and pistons, but I am keeping my balance shafts. I purchased a LNF head a while back and just finally got around to porting it. I am getting a Spec 3+ with aluminum flywheel as well because my puck disc with stock pressure plate and flywheel did not pan out.

Thanks for posting the ring compressor pic...I'll pick one of those up instead of using my old adjustable compressor.