360 stroker 409 engine balancing

[Jasoncoronet]

Ok guys i got a 360 stroker that i am having balanced. The balancer said tha i need to use a internal balancer and a weighted converter. I dont understand this because i thought a motor was internally or externally balanced. The place that is doing the balancing is highly recommended. Did they do it this way to save money and will it work. Please give me some feedback or suggestions.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[70rr-brian]

If the engine is internally balanced then I would think you would want a "neutral" balanced converter.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Not sure I follow. Does "internal balancer" mean a balancer with no offset weight? I can shed some light on balancing though. Adding weight on the converter and having an offset weight on the harmonic absorber (damper) usually means the crank counterweights are not heavy enough. Long stroke engines with heavy rods (428 CJ Ford) need extra mass. The 440 cast crank motors also need extra mass because the cranks are not as dense. One way to get out of having the external weights is to weld in mallory metal plugs into the crank counterweights but that's expensive and labor intensive. The easy way out is to add external weight. It should also be noted that hanging a lot of weight off the crank snout or on a flywheel/converter is not a really good idea for very high RPM use because the force is increased as the square of the speed and the parts that support that weight may not be up to the task. I'm sure for what you will do it will be a non issue and the shop has it under control but just wanted to point it out for reference.