tranny question

fishy68 said
No 318 LA was externally balanced. That's mis-information that's been floating around for some time. I don't know who started it but they were WRONG. Even if a 318 was externally balanced it probably wouldn't require the same amount of balance weight a 360 does to balance it. Some 440's were externally balanced yet you just can't swap 440 and 360 externally balanced converters. There's only 20 grams of difference in the balance but it's enough to cause damage to the engine bearings.

That's intersting feedback and thanks for posting, but I've never encountered an internally balance Mopar engine after 1974 - in big or small block.

I've also never had any problems swapping between any of the small and big block assy's as long as I matched external and internal components. Even when I reference Allpar, there's nothing after '78 that was internally balanced - they all used cast cranks (cheaper to put weights on HB and TC than to internally balance them).

From Allpar:

Chrysler's most compact V-8 (318) designed to be rugged and dependable - is equipped with the second-generation for 1978. Features include:

Hydraulic valve lifter (tappets)-no periodic adjustments required
Induction-hardened exhaust-valve seats
Cast ductile crankshaft
Aluminized steel exhaust and tail pipe

Again, I don't doubt what you're saying here, but my experience has been the opposite - for street applications with occassional trips to the strip.

Southernman