ok guys i have been havin trouble thinkin about how to get my timing mark on my 350 to show when i put the power steering pump on. well my dad talked to a guy at a speedshop thats in a dealership and he said they do 305 to 350 swaps all the time and knew of the problem and said to juat use the timing cover and 6in balencer on the 350 cause its internaly balenced and doesn;t matter. he also said theres no need for the 8 in unless u are goin to be hittion 8-10 grand. well wut do u gusy think??

 

I'm a little confused. How would a 6" damper help you see the timing mark? It'll still be at about 2 o'clock. Is this the damper/tab that came on the 350?

 

five7 you're doing better than me, i'm a lot confused.

 

He's right, the smaller balancer will work OK on the 350. There were also some 350s that came with the little one, I had some late 70s Z28s that were like taht for example. Seems like they had the little tube timing mark too but I can't recall for sure.

 

I've had two that came that way from the factory: a '71 GMC 3/4 ton w/350; and one I put on a 350 I had in the '57 for awhile (found that one in a junk yard).

Still not sure why it would help in this application.

 

ok the reason why i am asking is because i am swaping out my 305 tbi for a carbed 350 and if i were to use the 8 inch balencer on the 350 i would have to use a bolt on timming tab witch would be off to the side aroudn 2o'clock as u said and it would be hidden by the powersteering pump. now on the 305 i am takin out it has a 6 inch balencer and the timming tab is on the center of the cover so u can look behind the water pump and seee it. so i needed to know if i could use the 6inch balencer off the 305 on the 350 so i can use the timming cover with the center mounted tab. well it looks liek i can cause my dad double checked with another speed shop and he said of coarse and that u should never use a diff balencer if u are using the same flywheel. well thanks guys

 

You don't need to match damper and flexplate/flywheel. You do need to match damper to balance type, and damper to timing tab location.

At one time, there were different dampers for 305s and 350s. However, GMPP lists the same damper for either one. So, the key really is to use a damper that matches the timing tab location. That's what you're doing, so go for it.

BTW, my 305 damper is larger than the "small" 350 dampers I talked about above...