From all the different posts ive read it leads me to believe its a 28oz. Dont want to put a 50oz and shake the engine to crap and damage stuff on the inside. Could I just put the flexplate on a scale and see what it weights? or does it not work like that.
But that assumes that previous owner thought it was a 302, and not a 5.0. I guess the quickest way to verify it is to look at the firing order. Is it running on a 302 or 5.0 firing order? Just because the balancer is 28 oz doesn't necessarily mean the engine crankshaft is 28 oz imbalanced. If it has the 5.0 firing order, then it will need the 50 oz imbalance on both the balancer and the flexplate. And it 302 firing order, 28 oz balancer and flexplate. I got my $200 NEW rebuilt engine because previous owner thought it was a 302, and it turned out to be a 5.0. He wired it up for the 302 firing order and couldn't get it to run right, so he basically gave it away. It can be WAY off if you don't know for sure which engine you have and set it up correctly.
Firing order is 15426478 pre 82 302 and the 5.0 are the same firing order. So mine would be the same order since it's a 79
The 5.0 has firing order 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 so yours sounds like a 302. You need the 28 oz imbalance on both the balancer and the flexwheel, and it needs to still have 157 teeth to fit the C4 "small" bell housing.
I'm pretty sure mine is still a 302 5.0 just an earlier model. Here is all the firing orders for ford 289 to 351. 289 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 302 (Pre-82) 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 5.0 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 5.0 HO 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 5.0 Truck 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 351 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 QUOTE=scooper77515;789347]The 5.0 has firing order 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 so yours sounds like a 302. You need the 28 oz imbalance on both the balancer and the flexwheel, and it needs to still have 157 teeth to fit the C4 "small" bell housing.[/QUOTE]
Well then, you got me. Yours is a transitional model, pre HO 5.0 which I know is 50 oz imbalance, but post 302 which is 28 oz. Regardless, you need to verify what the crank imbalance is before you slap stuff on, or you will quickly kill that engine. If you are sure it is 28oz, then you are set and ready to roll, but still need a 157 tooth flexplate and small bell-housing tranny. What throws me off is that it has a 164 tooth flexplate. That is odd for a 302 or an early 5.0 with 302 firing order. Maybe came from a truck or Mustang II? The 5.0HO motors came with 164, and we had to swap them out for 157 to mate them up to our C4s.
I like go'ing to carters, salvage 972-517-6573 In north plano, and myself was just looking for a junk yard trany,and i mentioned the balance thing that's when a older guy said are you sure it's a 74 motor (yes). look here this is cool take this 85?? granada trany and use your torque convertor and bell housing 74 mav. Well two or three years later i cant brake the thing.
The only 5.0's that used that firing order were the HO motors, the 94-97 Pickup/van 5.0, the Explorer/Mountaineer 5.0 and the 89-93 T-Bird/Cougar and Lincoln LSC 5.0's. Firing order is by no means an indicator of the year model of any 302/5.0. Nor is it an indicator of the imbalance factor. The 5.0 moniker was first used in the late 70's in the Mustangs. The change in crankshaft imbalance occured sometime in 81 or 82, not even Ford can tell you exactly when that was. :Handshake Nothing unusual about a 302 with a 164 tooth flexplate or flywheel, these were std equipment in pickups, vans and big cars with both the big bell C-4's and the FMX's
I'm sure there's a few. Im starting to get a little frustrated. Got a 28oz and 157 tooth flex plate and everything lined up except one bolt on the rear main. It fit the torque converter perfect didn't scrap the housing just one stupid bolt wouldn't line up. I have the casting number for my engine and the machine shop couldn't tell me anything about it besides it's a 79 302 5.0 I had the guys at oreillys check every 79 flex plate and none of them worked. Don't know what else to do besides install the FMX and have a driveshaft made for it and have them rig the floor shifter.
I'm assuming you're having trouble lining up all the flexplate bolts to the crankshaft holes ? If so, you need to turn the flexplate on the crank flange til all the holes line up. The bolt holes are not drilled at equal distances, they only line up one way, this is how the flexplate or flywheels are indexed correctly to the crankshaft counterweights.
The cars that continued using the older firing order are the Crown Vic, Lincoln Towncar and Merc Marquis, those plus the pickups and vans up to and including the 93 model year. In 94, Ford made a switch to the F4TE roller cam for the pickups and vans, this same cam was later used in the Explorer/Mountaineer 5.0.
Yeah that is the issue I'm having. I've turned it every way and still have issues with one bolt. I sat there for about 30 minutes trying to get it to work. Droping a flex plate on your face doesn't feel very good. :-( I guess I will try it again in the morning maybe I turned it passed the one I needed.