Ok So after givin up on working on my camaro a few years back because the mechanic lied to me and well i believed him. Well anyway I ran into a problem. the bolt for the harmonic balancer doesn't reach. Originally the car was a 305 carb its an 85 camaro z28. Well i blew the engine a few years back and bought an engine from a friend that had just bought it from a shop. From what my friend said its an 87 tbi 350 converted to carb. Well I had a friend come over and help me because we thought the bolt didn't reach because the harmonic balancer wasn't on all the way in so i removed it and he helped me put it back into place and it is installed right. all pulleys also line up so the pulley goes as far as it should. So why is it that the standard gm small block bolt is too short to bolt into place. From what my friend told me I need it atleast an inch longer then what it is? I don't know what was in there originally since I used teh pulleys from my 305 and the original bolt doesn't fit. Why is this and why don't they offer a longer bolt for a gm small block? Can i just go to any autoparts or hardware store and find a bolt thats the same thread but has the extra length i need? or what do u guys recommend?

 

Sounds like you just have the wrong bolt. Have you compared it to one that you can buy at an auto parts store?

 

^^ yeah thats what confused me. The one i bought from autozone is the exact same thing well same length and thread as the one i had and from what they told me and what the packaging the bolt came in that is the standard bolt for the harmonic balancer for a smallblock gm 350 but it doesn't work on my engine

 

First of all you don't want that lock washer on there. Next thing I would do if I were you is check your engine block number and make sure you have what you think you have. Then go out and buy a Grade 8 bolt that will fit in there but make sure you use that huge washer!

 

ok thanx a lot and stupid question but where's the block number. My friend told me its in the back kind of below the distributor but he said he was unable to see it because it was getting dark and he said my wiper motor was blocking his vision. Not sure if thats the right place but also can I get to it without taking the engine out? But i do remember seeing a 5.7 stamp on there and the block numer is that going to be like a serial number?

 

The aftermarket bolts for the ballancer i buy from the parts house are allways really great, seem to be longer and even a bit stronger.

 

well the one i bought from autozone is the exact same size as the one i originally had but just looks stronger. I guess i'll go out and look for a grade 8 bolt thats about an inch longer and see how that fits. But i was just wondering why the standard gm small block bolt wouldn't fit

 

Probably because your crank threads are stripped.

 

^^ that was what i thought initially but they're not when i insert the bolt with pulley on it barely reaches the thread but if i remove the pulley and bolt it down with just harmonic balancer installed it bolts up fine. Could it be that my harmonic balancer is bigger then stock? But what would be the purpose of a bigger harmonic balancer. I looked up the part number for my pulley and its the genuine gm 305 and 350 pulley for 85-87 so next step is to try and get a part number for the harmonic balancer and look that up

 

Well i just went out and bought alonger bolt and it bolted in fine . The original one i had was 2 1/4 and this one is 2 3/4 i went out and bought a 7/16-20 2 3/4L grade 8 so now i just need to change the oil, wire the electric fan, and install the starter. Its sat for two years so hopefully it doesn't give me much trouble to get it running oh and after i get it running i want to get silicone hoses for the radiator and i need to tow it to get my exhaust bolted on I have a complete exhaust system from the cat 3" piping and flowmaster that f1ls1 gave me from a car he parted out so hopefully soon i'll be in the z28

 

Got the car started today. I just can't belive it was so easy. I don't know weather to be mad or glad because the car sat for two damn years because The mechanic told me the thread for the crank was stripped and I just so happened to mention it to a buddy and he told me there's no way it can be stripped so i bought a longer bold mounted the starter and the damn car started right up. It hesitated a lil but i gave it a little gas and it started right up . Oh man i can't belive it. So now i need a Y pipe which i am going to order first thing monday morning and as soon as it gets here i'm towing the car to the muflfler shop to get the y mounted aswell as the 3 inch piping and flowmaster welded up. thanx for the help

 

most likely it is stripped, but there were enough threads left deeper in that u were able to get it bolted up. That probably why the stock length bolt didnt work. Glad to hear it worked for ya