Pinto Car Club of America
Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: junkyard dog on June 08, 2006, 11:53:14 PM
does a 302 H.O. use a diffrent balancer than a stock 302??
I just had a H.O block rebuilt and replaced the old 302 in my "78 runabout but
I can;t get rid of a bad vibration at higher rpm. :wow:.
the whole car shakes :look:.
it never did with the old 302 in it.
i;ve tried about 4 diffrent balancers but they all seems the same.
new tranny mount and motor mounts are tight.
Doesn;t matter if it;s in park neutral or drive it shakes bad.
any suggestions?? :welcome:
should I search for a fluid damper?
Some 302 motors use a different flywheel. They are a different balance from each other. A good automative machine shop, or a knowledgeable wrecking yard,or parts store counterman should know what years are what. I do know that a 302 and a 5.0L use different parts. I believe that the 5.0L defines the later years of this engine.
If you don't have the ORIGINAL harmonic balancer, crankshaft, rods, pistons, and flywheel or flexplate for that engine, the odds of you finding another balancer that will now balance your engine decently throughout the rpm range, by simply bolting it on, are extraordinarily high-against it. Basically zero.
That's why it's so important to retain the original parts whenever possible, as it makes a machine shop rebalance job easier if something HAS TO BE changed. The only sure way to balance an engine with non original, new, swapped position, or mis-matched parts, is to have the engine balanced (AS IT IS CURRENTLY ASSEMBLED), at a good machine shop.
Each harmonic balancer, crankshaft and flywheel (or flexplate) are selectively ground and/or drilled at the factory to precisely remove weight to balance with the rest of the original factory installed components. It's similar in concept to how wheels and tires are dynamically balanced, but with these hard parts weight is removed, not added. No 2 are identical, and there can be an EXTREME difference in where weight is distributed from one balancer, crankshaft or flywheel to another, even if they were identical in overall weight.