New flexplate help

[superhondaz50]

Ya, it's literally a ****s hair away from clearing. Your ATP plate is the same as mine, mines just the HD version AFAIK.

[dmjlambert]

Well then, by picture comparison the light duty one appears to have a bigger dish. When I received mine I noticed it was exactly as pictured, and exactly same as the original one with ruined teeth I was replacing.

[superhondaz50]

That's an interesting observation. I may try a standard one on for size.

[dmjlambert]

No guarantees when comparing pictures on the wild web, but $18 later you will know for sure. It could be that Autozone or O'Reilly would have one to compare...

[jocko]

I thought current GM crates with a one piece rear main seal were not externally balanced and required a flexplate specific to a one piece rear main seal engine.

[superhondaz50]

My GM crate is a 2 piece.

[jocko]

Flexplate crank flange for a 1 piece is approx 3” whereas for a 2 piece is approx 3.5” - perhaps you have a 1 piece rear seal type flexplate(?)

[cleszkie]

Originally Posted by nikwho

If this is a crate engine, I would assume that it was balanced? Taking a grinder to one side of the crank shafts will disrupt the balancing that took place. Or, are these crate engines being sold un-balanced? If I took a grinder to any part of my rotating assembly, I'd eat the cost of a set of gaskets and have the rotating assembly balanced after all clearancing. I know that is the last thing anyone wants to do that's trying to button up an engine install/swap, but man, you don't want that thing way out of balance, beating it's bearings up. You may end up doing the job again a lot sooner than you want!

These are my thoughts exactly. Whether its internally or externally balanced, the material that is being removed from the crank has to be accounted for somewhere.

[superhondaz50]

Originally Posted by jocko

Flexplate crank flange for a 1 piece is approx 3” whereas for a 2 piece is approx 3.5” - perhaps you have a 1 piece rear seal type flexplate(?)

It's a 2 piece flexplate.
From ATP's site:

Part Number Z-460
Name Heavy Duty Flexplate
Additional Details For internally balanced engine with 2 piece crank seal. Torque converter mounting hole spread is 11.25 inches
Outer Diameter (in inches) 14.13
Inner Diameter (in inches) 2.49
Teeth (in inches) 168
Trans. Code N/A
Balanced N/A

[jocko]

Well, I’m stumped all over again. Crap.
Ok, last ditch effort - did the part number on the one delivered match? And the measurements? Am sure you’ve done all this, all your ducks certainly seem in perfect alignment! Just trying to figure what strange oddbal reason could exist. Seems a little far fetched for as many of these crank flanges to be that shoddily machined... but then again, not that surprising either.

[RodnRudy]

I think the problem lies with GM and its quality control in their Mexico plant that machines these crate engines for them. There was no relief cut on the rear crank flange on my engine either. Had I known the hassle it would cause me the engine would be sitting back on their dock.

[superhondaz50]

Aren't most GM engines made in Mexico?

[CaptRMW]

Issues such as we have noted are a direct result of $5.00 - $8.00 per hour wages with very little supervision and NO QUALITY CONTROL. And guess what the machinist drove (rode) to work. Any questions?

[superhondaz50]

Got my shims, I installed two .036 shims and everything bolted together fantastically.