Slight weirdness - balancer hitting timing pointer

[1987cp]

So I finally figured out what the scraping noise from the front of my 306 was. It was still present with both accessory belts off, and definitely from the front, and then I noticed the scuffing on one side of the balancer. I'm thinking I will temporarily remove the timing pointer just to make doubly sure that's all that's scraping, but this seems like a really strange thing to happen. Has anyone else experienced this symptom?

[1987cp]

Well, call it a permanoob moment, but it turned out the balancer was only hitting the transmission cooler lines, which had inadvertently gotten bent upwards slightly when I was putting the motor in.

But now I'm still curious, has anyone had issues with the balancer hitting things it really shouldn't like the timing pointer?

[86VickyLX]

Didn't you have the engine running after you put it in the '81? Or is this the first fire up mang?

[70torino429]

i had something scratch up the balancer the first time i fired the up the 302 in my truck, took some rust off it however lol. it was the little metal band that wraps the two trans cooler lines together, it had gotten all twisted up somewhere along the line when i was swapping engines. i just pushed it down the trans lines so it sits towards the back of the engine compartment now, if it gives me grief again ill cut it off and throw some steel tie wraps around the lines.

[Pesty351]

I had the same thing happen when I first started the 351. I don't know if I bent the pointer putting it on or something but it jacked up all my timing marks.

[gadget73]

Only when I bent something. The pointer is just stamped sheetmetal, not too hard to mangle.

[1987cp]

OK, so no reports of anything serious so far. I was initially worried the balancer was deflecting excessively, thus leading to the scraping being erratic and intermittent. Though logically, I suppose balancers shouldn't ever deflect very much.

Didn't you have the engine running after you put it in the '81? Or is this the first fire up mang?

Different engine, this is the '96 motor that'd been in the wagon for about 3 years. The original one from the wagon that's now in the '81 still hasn't been fired in over two years.

[gadget73]

If you can get the balancer to deflect enough to hit an un-molested timing pointer, you have much bigger problems than the noises from the pointer scraping.

[1987cp]

That's precisely what I had in mind .... presumably the most obvious being something like having the wrong balancer or flywheel/flexplate installed, or some major bottom-end component broken?

[gadget73]

Either, but more likely a bad/wrong balancer. If the crankshaft was moving that much, it would probably be broken, or there would be no front bearing at all. I highly doubt you could even make a cast crank bend that much without snapping.