Mocking up an SBC using a foam block and fake 8" Balancer with a short water pump. The balancer hits the pump. Seems that a 6.75 balancer would solve that? I like the look of the short pump in a pre 68 car. I have the correct pulleys also. I want to be as informed as possible when I contact the engine builder (he may already know) who is typically building long pump combos as far as I can tell.
Hmm? Likely my fake balancer isn't correct. I believed it was since the fake engine is very good. And to clarify, the balancer hits the pulley not the pump, apologies.
Sometimes all it takes is the switch to real parts from mockup parts. I have used foam blocks for mockup and have discovered that not all foam blocks are created equally.
I'm doing a 350 now and am using 1968 Impala externals, short water pump, 2-groove pulleys and so on. The damper is 6.75". What is the casting # on the water pump? Long pumps are 7.25" long, short are 5.62 long. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Tech/cooling-water-pump-short-vs-long.html
Not sure of the casting number, but it is definitely the short style, hugs the timing cover. I bought it new at big name parts store, probably told them 68 Camaro.
The engine builder will choose the balancer. I have ***embled a couple engines but on this build I will go turnkey, broken in, dyno tuned, ready to run.
Doesn't it figure that if the builder dyno tunes and it is ready to run then the builder will supply the correct balancer and pulleys?
correct, his site only showed long pumps and billet pulleys. When I reached him by phone he confirmed we can go short with painted pulleys. I was concerned that the short pump cars had some older style balancer.
I have two SBC running 8 inch balancers and short water pumps with no balancer-pump clearance issues. On some low mount alternator brackets or power steering brackets , you'll have to do a little grinding to clear the big balancer.
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