Bell housing question

[IOPort51]

one reference stated that none of the AMC 304 's used a weighted flywheel. and the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l does not use a weighted flywheel.

Its fun....your I6 bellhousing will bolt directly to your AMC 304 your clutch will bolt directly to your flywheel.....You need to find out for sure what year your motor is to find out if you need the internal/external balance flywheel and balancer.

 

[IOPort51]

I suppose there would be a difference in the balancer as well. This is another subject to look into, I know what the balancer looks like. This could confirm a lot.

Its fun....your I6 bellhousing will bolt directly to your AMC 304 your clutch will bolt directly to your flywheel.....You need to find out for sure what year your motor is to find out if you need the internal/external balance flywheel and balancer.

 

[IOPort51]

OK so I have the build cods of 303H21 on the valve cover, that is a great place to put it?
I translate this as an AMC 304 built on march 21st 1979.
I would like to know what year yours is and see a picture of your balancer. I would think there would be a difference between an internally and externally balanced harmonic balancer.

Yep - pretty much right on the money from what I have gathered. What year AMC 304 ? I can snap a pic of my harmonic balancer for ya and also get the # off of the fly wheel.

 

[IOPort51]

I think I will talk to a machine shop tomorrow.

 

[IOPort51]

I went to the machine shop today and had a chat with the machinist who, in turn, called his balancer who confirmed that the AMC 304 is an externally balanced crank assembly. But the fly wheel does not have extra weights on it. It just gets weight removed rather than added, as in holes drilled.
There does seem to be a difference in the harmonic balancer and it becomes pretty obvious that the AMC 304 has a weighted balancer. As it is for the AMC 304 , 360 and 401 it seems that the balancer is four bolts and weighted, in most cases. I did find a part available for the generation 2 V8’s that was a three bolt internally balanced balancer.
I have to say that the research on this subject has been fascinating, the differences between the internal and external balancing, bud weights and heavy metal and the way the components are weighed and calculated is incredible.
I think I can say that I can buy an aftermarket flywheel from Bulltear and be reasonably confident that I can take it to the balancer and have a good job done with out having to re finance the house of sell the dog. But I am kind of glad I am not trying to do this with a 401, I suspect that would be much more challenging.
Now for a cam shaft, I think we have discussed this before but who makes the best High torque “RV” cam for the AMC V8??
I am willing to bet lunch I will find an opinion or two on that.