I was replacing the oil pan and the harmonic balancer chain was laying in the oil pan, the van has been running fine so do I need to replace chain or leave chain off?
Thanks
Just how old is this Voyager? I haven’t seen one that used a balance shaft chain in 20 years.
Is that the 3.0L Mitsubishi engine?
No the 3.0 was a timing belt engine. I was thinking of the early (80’s) Chrysler minivans that used the Mitsubishi 2.6 engine. They had a timing chain and a balance shaft chain setup that was kind of problematic.
As best as I recall no other Voyagers had chain driven balance shafts, but I could be wrong.
The 2.4 L engine has a balance shaft assembly below the crankshaft in the oil pan.
I think the 2.5 four Cylinder Chrysler built engine similar to the 2.2 had a balance shaft while the 2.2 did not.
The 2.2/2.5 engine used a balance shaft but it was belt driven, not chain.
@Nevada_545 reminded me that the 2.4 uses a chain driven balance shaft, but I’ve seen so few of those in minivans I forgot they were an option.
It is a 98. It is in the oil pan
Would it be ok to just not replace it and drive it without it
The very next thing you need to do . . . tell us what engine you have
allpar.com info suggests it’s the 2.4L DOHC SMPI.
There are two balance shafts under the block, driven by a chain - apparently the chain that was found in the oil pan. I would think it worthwhile to get it hooked up again correctly, but how much addition work it calls for, I don’t know. The shafts are connected to each other by gears, so they probably remain in synch, but there must be a correct position for them vis-à-vis the crankshaft. Like a camshaft gear has a mark for its correct setting to match up with crankshaft TDC.