That's why they call them Exploders. LOL. I started my Ford career working on those piles, got into transmissions & the rest was history. The balancer is brand new but that might not matter as it was backfiring pretty hard. I'm beginning to wonder if it bent a rod.

Way back I used to get Mustang 5.0's every once in a while that had engine work done, including cam. They'd come in because running like ****. Supposedly back to the shop and/or buddy that put them together.

Quickest $100 one can ever make. Would put the wires to where they should have been. They didn't realize/read/whatever that the cams had firing order swaps.

Easy money. Big smiles on there faces. I didn't get any that had issues from running a long time with crossed wires.

And yes, they all got driven in. So ..... ????

Edit in: That is my experience only. I guess anything is possible.

i have never heard of backfiring causing balance problems but anything is possible i guess.

With humans, I have. LOL. In fact, has happened to me a few times. He, he.

I like that post above mine. :-D

This may be a silly thing to say, but was the flywheel and coupler bolted on good and square. No "crud" on the mating surfaces when they were bolted on and such. I could see that creating a "wobble" in the flywheel and make a vibration. Nick

No crud or anything between coupler & flywheel, I watched the coupler with engine running and no movement at all. That is the only piece added to the rotating assembly. I had to watch Street Outlaws to get my sitcom fix. Gonna take it apart & go from there. Stupid boats. Ugh

Really don't know if this may apply here, but this happened to me once. My wife had a 1993 Mustang. She came home one day after work and shut it off. The next day she goes out to leave for work and the car has a bad vibration. I've been around motors all my life and for the life of me could not figure it out, so I take it to a local shop. Being a stick shift they decide it has to be a clutch that went bad. I don't think so because it was fine when she parked it. How would a clutch go bad just sitting there for 12 hours? Anyway I say go ahead and pull the trans and check it out. Nothing. They check more and finally say bent rod. Again, I say how could that happen just sitting there? They want to put a new motor in it for $3500. I say drag it to my house. I get under it and start looking around again. I had already looked at the balancer and it looked just fine. But this time when I touched the outer ring it moved. The rubber had gone bad and the outer ring would just spin around. $80 for a new balancer and she was fine. Never even thought to check the timing because the motor fired right up and ran fine other then the vibration. If the shop or I checked the timing that would of shown the problem too. So, check the balancer to be sure it's good.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]526947[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]526948[/ATTACH] port side starboard side

Damn Randy you dont waist any time, any bent push rods ??

damn,looks like a bent rod