michuy

greetings, i'm in the process of putting in a mildly built 318 in place of a tired hi-milage 360 into my 72' d200. but i'm still uncertain about the balancer/flexplate/torque converter issue. the 727 torque converter that was attached to the 360 has 4 small weights attached to it but they are place north-south and east-west of each other. the flexplate is not weighted at all. the balancer is ofcourse weigthed. i was told that i could drop the 318 in with it's unweighted balancer just the way things are with the present flexplate/torque coverter. someone else told me i should put the 360 weighted flexplate on the 318? i've read quite a few posts about a 318 to 360 conversion but i'm really turned around going the way. hope someone can help me cure my uncertainty. thanks, michuy

Silverick

Ok, my understanding is that the weights on the torque converter were to balance a cast crank, as in the 360 which externally balances the engine.

My thinking is, that these weights would be specific to the engine that was originally set up with this trans/torque converter, and the 'new' 318 may require weights, although different, specific to the 318.

My experience with weights on a torque converter is when I installed a '77 - 727 with a factory 11" stall converter, to a '69 383 Magnum. The 383 had a forged crank and was internally balanced, the 'new' torque converter had weights on it specific to the '77 - 440 with a cast crank which externally balanced the 440. Now, on the 383 I had a bad vibration, removed the weights and everything was good.

440roadrunner

People like B&M make special flexplates for this type of swap, but what EVER you do you need to remove the existing weights from the converter.

There are no flexplates for LA engines that are weighted from the factory. I don't know about the later Magnum engines.

So far as I know, LA 318s used neutral balance converters

michuy

thanks silverick,
I mistakenly mentioned that someone told me to use the weighted "flexplate" from the 360 on the 318..., but what they really told me was to use the 'weighted balancer' from the 360 on the 318 (the "flexplate" from the 360 isn't weighted at all). I'm guessing their reasoning was that by using the weighted torque converter and weighted balancer from the 360, this would somehow create a zero inbalance on the 318. The other opinion i got (which makes a little more sense to me), was that because the weights on the torque converter are evenly spaced, north-south and east-west, and equally sized, there would be no inherent inbalance created by the torque converter on the 318, so i should keep the unweighted balancer of the 318. Anotherwords if I did use the weighted balancer from the 360 then there would be an inbalance created on the 318 because the weighted balancer of the 360 is, as you mentioned, specific to the 360 crank.. What do you think?

Silverick

Personally, I would try the unweighted balancer from the 318, especially if it came off of the 318.
So, yes, I agree what you are saying as it makes sense.

I also agree with 440Roadrunner.
However, my thinking is that if you left the weights on, put it all back together and the weights had no adverse affect or vibration the weights could stay on.
If these weights do cause a problem or vibration, they can be removed...... after the fact with minimum drama.

michuy

Thanks Silverick and Roadrunner,
I'll probably knock-off the weights on the converter while they're easy to get to, and use the 318 balancer for sure. Looking forward to getting it all buttoned-up and firing it up. Thanks again

TVLynn

There can be weights on both side of the ring gear. The one's to remove are the one's on the engine side... A neutral balance converter will still have some small weights on the back side that's normal..