I picked up a used balancer today that is supposed to be for a steel crank big block. I couldn't find any casting numbers so I had to cross my fingers & hope it is right. I am not real familiar with the differences among balancers other than the ones for cast cranks are thicker & often cone shaped. Anyway, I took it to my buddy's house later to compare it to the steel crank balancers he had. Upon inspection, both balancers were the same as far as diameter, thickness, crank hub size, & timing mark location. However, my friend's balancer has a recessed area near the outer edge & my does not. Mine is basically flat. We looked at 6 of his other balancers & all of them have the same recessed area. Now I am wondering if this balancer will even work on my engine. I was going to use it on a 67 383. I am not concerned with originality, just functionality.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic but this is all I have. The one on the left is my balancer, the one on the right belongs to my friend. The dirty area on his is the recessed area I am referring to.

So my question is, do I have a steel crank balancer ? I am hoping it is & is just an older style (if that's possible). I didn't pay alot for it so no biggie if its useless.

They both appear to be big-block steel-crank "neutral" balancers.
The hollow'd out area reduces weight & I've seen them front/back/both.

some have a non-symetrical bolt pattern for the crank pulley 440 source balancer ID

Thanks for the info !

yours looks just like mine so i'd say you're good!

I've seen both on B and RB motors I think your correct on the early versus later difference, maybe 1966 and earlier versus 1967 and later Verify the TDC timing mark on the dampener

The left one looks like whats on my 1963 413.