Ring gear is bad

I took my flywheel in to be resurfaced today and they told me the ring gear was bad which I never even noticed. After counting the teeth on the ring we found it had 168 teeth but there are really non available aftermarket. I've heard you can put a 164 tooth ring gear on them but I really don't know. Has anyone ever heard of this? I have a 66 epup that had a 240 6cyl but i'm going with a 302 now.

Thanks

sometimes you can heat that ring gear up and flip it over if the teeth are still good on the backside,,,,,,

I'm wondering if I can even use this flywheel at all. While looking up part numbers for ring gears I found a few post on forums that I will need a 28oz imbalance flywheel if i'm switching to a v8. Does anyone have any idea about this?

Yeah you will need an imbalanced flywheel. I think the weight depends on the year of the motor. Some need 50oz.

I'm pretty sure the motor is from the mid eighties. I just read where they have 28 and 50 ounce imbalances.....but how do I know exactly which one to use...by the year?

Be sure to run the numbers on your engine. Ford went to 50oz imbalance in the early 80's(81/82). You cannot mix and match. Not positive,but I think the c4 and AOD might take different size ring gear. I ran into this when I put a C4 in an early bronco with 50oz roller 302. Tom's bronco can help you get this straightened out if you run into this.
Mike

Thx Mike.....I'm running the old 3spd that came with the truck. I stumbled onto toms bronco last night and found the same thing. Doesn't the flywheel match the imbalance of the harmonic balancer and i'm pretty sure it's a mid to late 80's block but i'll check.

flywheel imbalance needs to match both crank and balancer. mid 80s is a good sign that it might be a 50oz engine.
when selecting a flywheel, you need to keep in mind which bell you will be using. flywheel size needs to match bellhousing size, which in turn determines which starter to use. essentially, there are only two sizes for a 302: 164 or 157.

Its a 50oz balancer so I just ordered a 50oz flywheel with 164 toothh ring from summit. My ring gear on the old fw was 168 tooth but 164 will work. Thanks!
Bob