I would be talking to the company that built the motor and see what they say about it.

 

I tried that. The work was done on this motor about a year ago by a reputable shop in PA. Apparently the original owner of the motor had "waffled" on payment and stuck the shop. Receipts for work totalled over $2000. The shop sold the motor for the balance owed them. When I talked to the manager of the shop all he could tell me is the motor comes with all the receipts (including the balance card). He did not know how the motor was balanced (must not be an FE guy?) but that it included the flexplate and balancer. Balancer is the Prosfessional Products Powerforce #80009. I looked at it (the balancer) again this morning and noticed that it has 4 small holes drilled on the face. Don't know if it came that way or would have been balanced with the assembly. Thanks for all the input, learning a lot about engine balance. I tried posting a couple photos but couldn't get them to load unto the website.

 

if the holes drilled are anodized or painted inside the hole then it came that way, if it shows bare metal then they were drilled by the shop.

 

Boy, sometimes the common sense factor just passes me by! Good point, looking at the balancer the holes are bare, unpainted, shiny at the bottom. Since the balancer is suppose to be neutral balance and they had to remove a little metal I would assume they must have balanced the entire assembly, balancer to flexplate?

 

Wow, that sucks.

The only other thing left is to check the crank for any machining or drilling.

If it looks untouched you could get a new neutral balancer and then the correct 410/428 flywheel and you should be set.

Josh

 

Not neccesarily. If the pistons weren't exactly factory specs you would need to change the rotating weight (different piston weight will change the reciprocating or bob weight and that requires changing the rotating weight)

If it was me and I was having to have it all rebalanced anyway I would buy a new dampner and a flywheel and take it to a shop and have them do it properly.

the internal/external balance terms confuse people as to what it means. the internal is obvious, the dampner and the flywheel are nuetral balance and all the counter weighting is done in the crank.

External balance there is a set factory amount of counter weight built into the dampener and the flywheel (or flexplate) and then the crankshaft is balanced from that point. Where people and lazy shops get confused is you do NOT do the balancing externally you use the proper dampener and flywheel and then do all the additional balancing on the crankshaft. you do NOT balance it external.

You are running into exactly the reason for NOT doing it that way. If you ever have to change anything like a flywheel and the lazy shop balanced it by drilling then you have ot rebalance the entire assembly again. Where as if the shop had done it right in the first place you could have just put on a flywheel with the proper factory in-balance and you would have been set to go. But a lazy shop just cost you a rebalance. THAT is why I say if they do that they are NOT a good shop and won't get my business.

BTW the reason they do it is because in order to do it right they almost always have to remove the entire crankshaft from the balance machine drill it and add mallory etc then reset up on the machine and check again.

Also it's not all lazy, they do it because it's cheaper, kinda like using chinese parts and telling you it's the same as good american parts. NOT.

 

I just hope they didn't screw up my crank. The block was bored .030 so it does have new pistons, etc. It appears that the crank has been drilled on the front and rear journals. I ordered a flywheel yesterday, will look into getting a new damper. Just sucks to have to tear this down and have it all rebalanced, but I want things done right. The shop I will be using won't screw it up, but it will cost me, they are state of the art. Thanks for all the help you guys!!

 

OK, now I'm starting to pull my hair out (what little I have left). Looking for balancers on the web I came across e-bay item 170519495795. Same balancer I have and it also has the 4 balance holes drilled on it's face. So I'm assuming that the balancer has not been altered from neutral. Getting back to square one.

 

Today I'm loading up my stuff to take it in to have it balanced. Looking at the damper I have, Professional Products #80009, I happen to measure and see that it's about 1/2" thicker than the one on my truck (about 1"). My concern is alignment of the pulley grooves for power steering and water pump. Anyone run this aftermarket damper, do things line up like the original?? I called their tech line and he told me they sold alot of these FE dampers and don't know of any problems but they were not sure. I sure don't want to pay for an extra balance and find that the pulleys won't line up even. Thanks for any input.

 

Professional Products damper 1 1/2" - stock 1" to clarify