I'm interested in building a 302 out of a 1 piece rear seal 350, and some L99 Crank and Rods. Can anyone tell me, will a typical Gen 1 balancer work with the L99/LT1 crank?

 

I built a 302 using this crank. It is the same as a 86 to 93 305 or 350 crank. I used a 6 3/4 inch balancer. It took four slugs to balance the crank. The motor revs fast, but lacks torque even with a tpi intake. I am running a comp cam 302 computer cam. 210/220 .480/.480. It has 12 to 14 inches at 600 rpm. Has to bump to idle up to 750 for good brakes. You need lot of convertor if running a 700. I used world s/r heads and 105 kb pistons with the l99 5.94 rods. 9.4 cr.

 

Yeah I need a motor that makes around 300 hp, under 300 ft-lbs of torque, revs are a plus. I have a kit to put a SBC in a Porsche 914. The stock 914 transaxle is good for 300 ft-lbs pretty reliably. After that things break and when Porsche things break, bring $$$$$.

My kit has a flywheel for a 1 piece rear seal crank. The flywheel is custom so it will fit the Porsche transaxle. And I happen to know of a 1 piece rear seal core available. The 1 piece rear seal kind of limits my options for a destroked 350. The kit also includes a special balancer that drives a side-mounted water pump. This is the trick to fit the motor in a 914 engine compartment. This balancer fits Gen 1 cranks, so I need to know that it will fit the L99 crank if I want to build this motor. Worst case, I get the 2 piece rear seal flywheel for the Porsche and go 327.

The reason I am asking here, you guys have alot of knowledge about the late Gen1 stuff.

Heres a pic of an SBC dressed for the 914 conversion....

 

All you need is the l99 crank, l99 rods and a set of 350 pistons for a 5.7 rod. I used .5 cc dome piston and tbi head gaskets ( .026 to .028 Thick). My heads were 67 cc. Had them cut to 64cc. You could use the al vette heads and flat top pistons.

 

I know the LT1 crank has the keyway slot in the crank snout, even though GM in their infinite wisdom, used a balancer with no slot to keep it from slipping. Since the LT1 uses the same flexplate with the little batwing weight that the L98 motors do, I would imagine the L98 balancer should work just fine with your setup. Just make sure your L99 crank does have the key slot in the crank snout like the LT1 cranks. Actually any Gen. I balancer will work as long as it's for an internal balance. Just make sure to get the correct timing tab for where the mark is on whatever balancer you end up using. Most of them are at the 2 o'clock position, but there's a few late model ones, like the TBI motors, where the tab is at 12 o'clock instead.

 

The l99 crank takes the same two wooddrift keys as any crank. I used a neutral balace 6 3/4 HB with a bolt on timing tab. I checked it when building the shortblock. Hb was indexed at the 2'oclock postion and the pointer with at zero. l99 uses 305 pistons, 5.94 rods. The crank need balance weight to use 350 piston. Desktop dyno show my make 392 ft of torque. It more powerful than the 350 I had. (350 tpi, centerbolt head, headers and comp cam 8-300).

 

Did you ever get this engine built? I've been kicking around the same exact idea (late 302 into 914) for a couple of years. I did a 914 conversion some years back using a 930 trans, and while fun, it's really not worth the expense. Whose kit are you using?

 

No, After some deep soul searching, I decided I didn't really want a V8 car. Prior to this post, I had acquired a complete, unused Renegade kit (for 1 piece rear seal crank) from a local guy. I did acquire the L99 crank and rods as well. I still have the crank, rods, and the RH kit. But I don't think I will move forward with it. I really would prefer a Porsche 6.

 

Are you looking to sell your parts?BTW, I also owned a six before I did the V8. It was a 2.7L - fun car. If you do a 3L or better, I'm sure you'll be very happy with the result.