new to this site, but a old time mechanic . i'm building a 65 K code for a buddy but lack some brains as far as k code motors go,
the biggest issue i see is somewhere in time someone heaved the hatchet weight timing set, replaced with a non HP set.
can that type be safely used? what has to be done to use it?
Welcome aboard the site!!
The engine can be used without the counterweight but Ford spent a lot of money and engineering to add that counterweight. The Hipo balancer has a different lighter offset weight from a standard balancer. They were trying to get weight off of the nose of the crank to lessen the chance of breaking the crank in front of the number one main bearing. Ford did this as they were trying to get by with a cast crank where Chevrolet used a forged crank in High performance applications beginning in 1957. When the Hipo 289 came out in 1963, Ford spent a lot of resources to add the counterweight behind the crank sprocket. The normal timing chain and sprockets at that time were the wide version. In order to place the counterweight behind the crank sprocket, they had to make the crank sprocket narrower making a narrower chain necessary. With the narrower chain, now you need a narrower camshaft sprocket, thicker camshaft retainer plate and thicker spacer for the camshaft sprocket. Until mid 1965, no other Ford engine used this setup and the Hipo 289 was a low producttion volume engine. At that time and probably the same today, as an engineer coming up with anything costing an extra 5 cents for production, you could be "on the carpet" to explain this cost. If it was 10 cents, you may be looking for a job elsewhere. 
However Ford chose to spend the extra time and money that the engineers came up with.
It is true that the engine can be balanced without the counterweght but after Ford spent all of these resources to add this counterweight, who am I to think that eliminating it is a good plan. I have had and still have multiple Hipo 289 Kars and I have always used these counterweights in my engines. I actually have a fair number of both NOS and used crank sprockets and counterweights in my stock.
-Fred-
What does the large R on the oil pan mating surface mean.
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