Thanks for all the replies guys. This is all what I kinda figured, but maybe wasn't ready to accept. It has been over a decade since I have torn down and did a basic rebuild. I may take it to a machine shop just to get everything checked out.

I did have a question about the external balance. I don't have the original torque converter, so I don't know about what weight to apply to a new converter.
All of the external balanced big blocks I have used in the past had the converter with it. If we swapped converters after that, we knew what weight to add to the new converter.

Anyway, Thanks again for the bench racing/building session!