Hi. New to the forum and have a challenging and complex issue to deal with. Need some expert advice. I have an older 1974 Chrysler 318 on a 270 outdrive in a 24' Fiberform. The 318 went belly up a few years ago (camshaft issue) and I'm finally trying to get it back in the water. I picked up a nice 360 Chrysler Marine engine from a 1977 boat for a good price. Just one problem. The bell housing on the 360 will not match up to the 270 outdrive. I cannot switch bell housings because the 318 has a smaller flywheel (122 tooth) and bell housing won't fit over the 360 flywheel (160 tooth). So I'm thinking about changing flywheels. In vehicles this is a bit complicated because those 360 engines were externally balanced and 318 was internally balanced. It requires modifying the 318 flywheel to meet the counterbalancing needs of 360 engine. I have the blueprint for machine shop to make that modification but I have some concerns before proceeding further. First, is a marine 360 externally balanced? Given the higher RPMs of marine engines, is it possible that they were designed internally balanced? Second, the flywheel on this marine 360 is quite large (160 tooth compared to 130 or 143 tooth for most vehicle flywheels) and heavy and though it has a large hole drilled right through middle of radius and a couple of smaller ones partially through the rim (which seems to indicate balancing in the flywheel), they seem to be in strange locations for typical 360 vehicle flywheel counterbalancing. Can I make the old 1974 318 flywheel and bell housing work with 1977 360 engine? Thanks.
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