Balancer, Billet Flywheel and Clutch

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70sublime340

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i know this is more of a trans topic, but I'm asking it more along the lines of keeping up with my engine build. Engine is a stock steel crank, eagle H beam and srp forged slug 340. Have not decided on cam yet, but it's going to be a big solid with Harland sharp rollers. I'm looking for a good billet aluminum flywheel and a good clutch to handle approx 450-500hp. Rotating assembly is going to the balancer next week so I need to get my fly,clutch and balancer ordered asap. I'm thinking a McLeod clutch and I'm seeing a lot of RAM flywheels in my
Price range. I'm looking to spend about $400 on the flywheel and about the same on the clutch. As far as the balancer goes, how well do OE style replacements work? Do I need a fancy balancer? I also see 440 source ha reasonable priced parts but something tells me they are China junk. Any input and experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!!
 
JIMHO.... If you are going to be hammering on the setup on the drag strip regularly, then a better damper is a good idea, just for durability. My son's 340 is for the street and it will rarely be revved much so we went with a plain ole Pioneer damper.

If your crank is the forged 340 crank, then it is internally balanced and you don't need to have the damper or flywheel with it for balancing... unless you just want it checked. But those parts are normally just neutral balanced separately from the crank.
 
It's not gonna see the drag strip hardly at all. Just a fun cruiser. And yes it is an internally balanced motor, but the machinist wants to balance everything together, and he will also index the clutch and flywheel so they go back together exactly how they were balanced. I've seen two different reputable machinists use this method. Thanks for the input on the balancer, it looks like even with a hopped up motor It won't be a problem using a regular balancer on the street.
 
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Roger on the extra care in balancing. Well that's MY opinion on dampers.....FWIW. Back in the day, I ran a stock Ford 351C damper forever and it saw 6500 RPM a LOT. But with today's manufacturing, it is less certain. So taking that all into account, we still went with a standard damper.
 
You're not the first person to say a good quality new OE style balancer is sufficient. Even with the engine seeing 7000+ from time to time, It won't be revved out all the time and not gonna be a track car.
 
I guess the one other thought is with all the nice AL flywheel and such, will the rotating weight on the rear of the crank change the torsional vibration frequency range that the crank will experience? The OEM damper is made to damp torsional twisting around a certain frequency range. Something like a FluiDamper supposedly has a wider range of 'absorption frequencies' to handle that. Just something to chew on...
 
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