and my experience is the opposite.

having done a couple that were neutrally balanced in the past, a couple of months ago we discovered that the fw on my 280e euro is not neutrally balanced!

i would have bet a lot of money that it was neutral....i would have lost.

the witness marks on my engine were so subtle that they were almost completely invisible. they looked literally like holograms!

when the in experienced tech at my indie took the motor out of the car he just went crazy and took a whole lot of stuff off the engine that he shouldnt have....including the fw. trouble was before sending it to my favorite machinist he bolted it back on....at random.... and didnt tell anyone.

so when my machinist took the engine apart, he marked the fw as it came off the engine (which was the wrong place) and when reassembling it somehow suspected something. i cant remember why he got suspicious but for some reason decided to put the fw on his crank machine and discovered immediately that it was NOT neutrally balanced.

after puzzling over it for about four days his sharp eyed son found the marks and we were in business (i hope). the engine is still waiting to be installed at my (backlogged) indy shop.

so my attitude about the fws has suddenly changed totally.

i now recommend marking all fws and cranks upon disassembly and then checking the fw for balance before making any subsititutions. if the fw checks out as neutral you will be fine as long as you install a neutral fw. all fws need to be checked for neutral too if you are making any type of conversion in which you use a fw that is not original to the engine.

it appears that a non neutral fw is in the minority, but if you get one that is not neutral the vibration will be vicious and will not be usable, imho.

so checking is mandatory. it is just not worth the risk of having to tear it all out to fix. unless your time is literally worth nothing.

very glad it worked out for you. your car looks sweet!

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.