Running diesel without balancer

My Lehman SP135 has an oil leak in the area of the timing gear housing. It drips about every 7 seconds while the engine is running. If I pull the harmonic balancer/pully to gain access to area, can I run the engine for 10-15 seconds to see if the leak is from the crank seal? Or is this too much stress on the crankshaft?

You will be fine for a short test. May vibrate a little more than normal, but your good.

I don't think you'll need to run the engine to tell. A leak that big should be easy to diagnose.

Probably right. Just thinking ahead in case it isn't obvious. Glad to see you're still checking in!

It's not really a "balancer", it is a torsional damper that absorbs twisting flexes in the crank when running at certain high loads and rpms. Really does nothing at idle. A straight six four stroke is balanced inherently, nothing needed there.

Some other engine types the crank pulley does have some weights added to it, maybe flywheel too. But not a straight six.

Make sure when you take things apart up there, that is does not loosen the grip on the timing gear. Would not want to start it with that loose. Can't remember how that stuff is held together.

Thank you!

So today I got the pully/damper off and started the motor. I soon realized the front seal is for the back of the damper and doesn't fit tight to the crankshaft because oil started to flow everywhere. So, new seal on the way, we'll see if that stops the drip. Pretty easy to get the pully off, I used a breaker bar/pipe combo against a board, 15/16 socket, and cranked the motor with the stop button engaged. 1/2 second later good to go. Biggest problem was finding a puller. Taylor rentals had one that fit.
New seal presses in from the front, so not removing the timing gear cover for now.