'86 Ford 302/5.0L HO 50 oz balance

Apr 19, 2005 3 Replies

Does an '86 50 oz externally balanced Ford 302/5.0L engine need a 50 oz imbalanced flywheel AND a 50 oz imbalanced harmonic balancer?



The reason I'm asking is the following. When I bought the vehicle containing the subject engine, there was a lot of engine vibration. I looked and the outer ring on the harmonic balancer was cocked so I started to do research and found that the balancer for an '86 5.0L should be a 50 oz model. So I got one and put it on, finding the old one was a 28 oz model. Doing so smoothed the engine out quite a bit. Later for other reasons, I replaced the flywheel (which I found was also a 28 oz model) with a 50 oz model. After this, the engine vibration came back.



So what's the deal? should both the balancer AND flywheel have a 50 oz imbalance on an '86 5.0L or only one?



Thanks! Dave



Not that I'm by any means an expert, but I would think only one.

"japhar81" wrote

I'm no expert either, but on my 351W engine balance, of the two, only the flywheel had weight added to it to balance out the system, not the harmonic balancer.

From what I understand, the harmonic balancer and flywheel/flexplate are a set. A 50 oz harmonic is for a 50 oz flywheel, etc. You can't mix a 28 oz balancer with a 50 oz flywheel/flexplate.

Gary in EC, NC

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