[cjperformance]

Quick update:

LS3 seal installed, but waiting on a couple addl things before I can get it back together completely.

A chunk of belt was caught behind the balancer somewhere. Obviously from one of the previous belt shredding incidents. When I took off the balancer, the chunk in the pic fell out. Not sure if that had anything to do with the seal issue or not. There's some potential that it had wedged itself behind the balancer hard enough that it touched and damaged the seal.

There was also some rust in strange places on the balancer hub/shaft. I can understand why there was some closer to the front since it's basically not protected, but I was surprised to see some towards the rear tapered section. That should be inside the engine and exposed to oil.

I considered getting a new ATI balancer and crank pulley, but didn't want to delay any longer, so I just took some 2000 grit sandpaper and polished it all up as well as possible. Looks like none of the sealing surfaces themselves had rust.

Emptied the catch can for the first time. Wasn't sure it was even working given the seal issues, but there was about a teaspoon or two of oil in there. It probably only has a couple thousand miles on it (if that). But the presence of oil seems to indicate it is doing what it is supposed to do.

Given the good compression test and leakdown results, it seems more likely to me that the belt got jammed around the balancer and worked its way deep enough to ruin the seal rather than strictly due to crankcase pressure.