Mazda Motor Corporation

Ichirou Hirose

Masaaki Sato

Shinji Fujihira

Sakumi Haseto

Kazuo Isayama

A balancer shaft apparatus efficiently prevent oil from being stirred in the oil pan and from being splashed into the cylinder block during the balancer-shaft rotation. Oil in a housing of the balancer shaft is discharged from a drainage hole formed at such a location above an oil level as to contact a base serving as a bearing beam of a crankshaft supporting member. The discharged oil hits inner surfaces of a recess formed on the lower portion of the crankshaft supporting member to form oil drops, returning to an oil pan. The housing is provided with guide passages connecting the drainage holes to a space in which the balancer shaft is disposed for draining the oil. These guide passages are formed with tapered guide surfaces for orienting the oil towards the lower portions of the crankshaft supporting member while splashed oil caused by the balancer-shaft rotation is drained through the drainage holes.

Balancer shaft apparatus for an engine

A balancer case ( ) is coupled to the lower portion of a cylinder block ( ) through turrets ( ) made of a material having almost the same coefficient of linear expansion as that of a crankshaft ( ) and balancer shaft ( ).

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Aki-gun, Japan

Ichirou Hirose