late to early 318

[flatheadgary]

i have a early style 318 in my '63 belvedere and am going to replace it with a '71 318 from a dodge truck. the problem is, the water pump inlet comes out opposite of my radiator. i am not going to rework my radiator so i changed the front timing cover to the early one so i can see the timing mark and the hose will come out right. this in turn made me have to use the early damper. also the oil pan on the '71 won't work either in the car. the drain plug is on top of the cross member. this also caused me to use the oil pump from the early one to match the early oil pan. (different shape). i am sure most are aware that the late 318 front cover has the timing tag on the drivers side and the early is on the passenger side.
my question is this: will the early damper have any negative effect on balance? or should i just use the '71 damper and cut a new mark for the early timing tag?

 

[Mark B]

As long as both dampers are neutral balanced it should be fine.

 

[Cranky]

It's not just the poly engines with the different timing covers....it carried over into the early LA engines too before the change. Even though the 66 model year had some big changes like the engine compartment was different along with the K fram, the poly engine was still being installed....and probably had a different oil pan setup. The damper should still be ok for balance as they were balance internally on the newer LA318 engines.

 

[flatheadgary]

thanks for the replies guys. both my motors are la series motors. i suppose i could just use the '71 cover as you can't see the timing tab anyway as the radiator hose covers it up. as you know, the early timing tab bolts to the water pump and comes out the other side.

 

[KarNut46]

i have a early style 318 in my '63 belvedere and am going to replace it with a '71 318 from a dodge truck. the problem is, the water pump inlet comes out opposite of my radiator. i am not going to rework my radiator so i changed the front timing cover to the early one so i can see the timing mark and the hose will come out right. this in turn made me have to use the early damper. also the oil pan on the '71 won't work either in the car. the drain plug is on top of the cross member. this also caused me to use the oil pump from the early one to match the early oil pan. (different shape). i am sure most are aware that the late 318 front cover has the timing tag on the drivers side and the early is on the passenger side.
my question is this: will the early damper have any negative effect on balance? or should i just use the '71 damper and cut a new mark for the early timing tag?

Both the 318 poly & 318 LA (the 71 eng.) are internal balance so the harmonic balancers will interchange balance wise but you may have trouble w/ crank pulleys. Truck & van 318 & 360 engines have the deep part of the pan at the rear (similar to small block chebbies). No need to go to a different oil pump, all you need is a different oil pump pickup tube for the center sump pan. I have never tried it but your poly pan should fit the 71 engine. Contrary to a lot of assumptions the poly & LA blocks are nearly identical being different only in machining. Locate a new TDC mark on the balancer & use the old timing tab.

 

[flatheadgary]

both my motors are LA 318's. i have a high volume pump in the early motor and it was easier to just remove the whole pump. I REPEAT i don't have a poly. there are early and late style la318's. i have all the pully's to swap over, so there isn't a problem there. thanks for the reply though.