Hi Guys,
While my engine is out I'm cleaning up lots of oily grunge that's accumulated in the fan housing / plenum due to the PO not realizing that the oil tower gasket was leaking.
The fan blades had a coating of nastiness, which I'm sure reduced airflow. After an hour of degreasing and toothbrushing, the grime is now gone, along with a few chips of paint.
I assume that the fan was balanced when it was clean and freshly painted. Now that it's clean again, do you think that some missing paint chips can throw the balance off? I suppose I could always give it a quick spray to even things up. My guess is that the grime probably affected balance more than the missing paint did.
FYI, I never disassembled the fan.
Whaddyathink?