Balancer/timing cover issues

[RangRayy]

while doing the carb swap I decided to pull the heads and spruce the motor up appearance wise. I have painted the block and heads white and replacing the covers with new fresh black covers. Instead of wire wheeling that old rusty stock timing cover I figured why not buy a new one. $15 at Oreillys with my brothers account, I also went with a new balancer because it was cheap too.

Well tonight I got the new cover put on and it really looks nice next to the white but I ran into a bit of a problem.... We went to put the new balancer on and as I was about to start cranking it on I noticed the timing tab on the cover was going to smack right into the back of the balancer. Researched the cover and it is in fact meant for an 8in balancer, which is what I bought and already had installed previously. When we put the old cover up to the new one for comparison the tab is tack welded about an inch or so too far down than what was on the original cover.

Anyone have this issue? Can I cut off the tab on the new cover and just use a timing tab that bolts to the cover? I am unsure of using that method since it will move the timing mark from where it was set from factory.

Here's the one I got
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...timing+cover_5002897_221&keyword=timing+cover

Any help or advice would be awesome. It's for a 1987 Silverado 5.7

 

[chengny]

As you know, they sold you the wrong cover. You have an 8" balancer (normal diameter for 350's installed in trucks). The cover you got is for a 6 3/4" balancer.


Pull it, take it back to the store and tell them you want the correct part.