Boy, what a couple of weeks! Found out the 440 needs built, broke my windshield, got told I need surgery, and now the machinist says that it's a h***le to balance a 440 with an externally balanced torque converter. He says to grind the weight off the converter, then he can balance the engine to "zero at the back" Does this make sense? He says it'll be another $100 or so, on top of the normal charge for balancing, due to the need to install "heavy metal" in the crank. Again, is this for real? I'm no Einstein when it comes to the engine stuff. Is this the way to do things? If not, what is the best plan? I can't really afford this right now, but I sure don't want to do it and have a problem down the road. Thanks in advance for any help!
What year is it? All '71 and earlier 440s are forged and internally balanced. You should be able to get a forged steel crank cheaper than balancing a cast POS.
What are you trying to do? if the crank is cast you can get a balanced flex plate from BandM which you can use a steel crank torque convertor with as the flex plate is the other end of the balancing. If you have a steel crank you dont need a convertor with a weight on it. What year is the motta? http://www.bmracing.com/index.php?id=products&sid=3&cat=7&subcat=20
Ive seen cast crank engine hold up fine with moderate builds. External balancing should actually be easier because you can add your weight to the torque converter. Just use the correct balancer and flexplate and you should have no problems. Its when you have to use a zero balance setup and add mallory metal that gets expensive. My advice would be to use what you have, no matter if its external balanced. If you need external balancing parts, let me know (PM me) I may have some stock stuff hanging around. Good luck.
It's a '78 440, cast stuff all around. I planned to have the crank turned enough to smooth things out, replace all the bearings, recondition the rods,bore it & install new pistons, etc. No serious hop-up, just want it to be dependable and lst awhile.
Well just use the stock balancer and if you want a convertor with no weight on it buy that b and m flex plate and you will be just fine.
Friend of mine runs 10.9 in the quarter with a pretty much fullbodied 4speed manualy shifted '70 Roadrunner and rollercammed 440 with Cast crank... A cast crank is nothing to be worried about when it comes to Mopar engines as long as the engine-balance is right on the money.
I guess I would've chosen lighter pistons so there would be no need to put Mallory (heavy Metal) in the crank. But I think everything is ordered already so there's not much choice I think.
Yeah, we've already got the kit. It looks like I'll go with the zero balance & Mallory. Do I remove the weight from the externally balanced converter?
what are you using for pistons. ive used the very heavy trw slugs in an rb and stock "ly" rods and they balace out neutrally fine. no metal is needed, just some light drilling in the counterweight area. do you have any idea what your parts weigh, or what the bobweight is? if you absolutley want to go neutral balance its possible, but maybe let us know what your are trying to build, and what parts youre using, it could be distinguised what you may want to do.
Well, we got the motor internally balanced, and the guy at the machine shop said to take the weight off the stock converter and use the stock balancer. We did, and something is seriously screwed up. We just got the engine in and ready to fire Friday. We fired it up, and it shakes so badly, it looks like an old Harley motor. As soon as I give it any throttle at all, the vibration goes away. But at an idle, it shakes badly. Do I need an aftermarket converter? A different balancer? Please help if you can. I'm lost.
If you used the stock balancer from your cast crank 440, that balancer is off set balanced. It was used with the off set balanced converter in the original setup. Since you have removed the weights from the converter, do you still have the off set balanced balancer on the front of the motor, and was the rest of the motor balanced with or with out that balancer? My guess is that you will either need to change the balancer on the front of the motor to a standard forged crank 440 balancer or you will have to add the weights back on (or buy a new cast crank weighted) converter. I'd imangine that the motor was balanced without the front balancer considered and now your offset balancer is causing your problem. Were it mine, I'd start with the standard 440 forged crank balancer. Gene
Thanks for the info! It sounds like I'll try a different balancer & see what happens. Is there any advantage to using a Fluid-type damper, or is a stock balancer fine?
When I was playing with the big block Mopars, they was still making them or had just quit making them......There was no aftermarket balancers, and the factory ones weren't 30 years old. Suppose in this day and age, aftermarket parts might be considerably better then the 30+ year old original, long as they aren't the cheap Chiniese stuff. Gene
The engines I have seen with balance problems (wrong flywheel, etc) vibrated throughout the speed range - just with varying amounts of vibration. Does it vibrate only at idle? If so, you may have a tune-up (carb/ignition)problem instead.
I think you called it......... Last night we were messing with it, and used one of those laser-looking thermometer jobs to read the header pipe temps. After about two or three hours of wondering what the hell was going on (first one pipe was cold, then another) we decided to put in new plugs (to replace the new plugs in the engine). Either three of the Autolite 85's were bad, or the new wires are screwy, or something. After getting all eight firing correctly, the vibration is gone, and the weird coughing noise is, as well. If it starts again, I'll invest in some super heavy-duty Irridium-coated wires and Zircon-encrusted spark plugs. The wires and plugs in the engine (Along with the electronic ignition kit)came from Mancini, so I don't figure they're junk, but this is definitely a weird deal.
The cast crank B/RBs were externally balanced. yes you'll have to loose the weight on the torque converter, or replace it with an internal balance torque converter. The cast rotateing ***embly is a lot lighter, he may or may not have to add weight. it isn't carved in stone that wieght needs to be added. Some balance just fine and others don't. It depends a lot on piston weight etc. You should also be going to an internal balance harmonic balancer at the same time, if you're not there is really no reason to fuss with it.
when I READ how it was running that was my first thought "tune up" Was it by chance a Mopar brand elec dist, ignition etc ? I bought one of those --It was junk -- We took it apart, made it work but half*** only --
I never have had any trouble with any Autolite plugs in any of my engines, but have run AC44S in my 440's since they are easier to get locally. On my 67 Coronet (12.40's on street tires through the mufflers and 3700#), the plug wires are Moroso Blue Max (spiral core, <800 ohms/foot). The distributor is a MP electronic ignition with a chrome box. The chrome box works the same as the orange box did for me, since I don't wind it past 6500 usually. The MP distributor was a piece of **** originally as the pick-up coil collided with the reluctor one night - so a creative slot in the "breaker plate" along with a loc***ed washer head screw won't allow that to ever happen again. Sometimes we have to re-engineer the parts to make them work right... What do the "defective" Autolite plugs look like? Or is there a carb problem that is fouling the plugs after some time?
The plugs never worked from the get-go. I don't know what's up, except that installing new plugs fixed the problem. If it starts acting up again, I'll look closer at the distributor and wires. Thanks for the info, guys.
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