To those with a RAM setup in your car, on a factory balanced engine: Did your RAM flywheel need to be balanced?

 

Call Norcia directly, tell him what you have. He can take care of you regardless of how your engine is balanced.
I can tell you my 383 is one piece rear seal, requires a 86-00 weighted flywheel. I am using the ram kit with zero issues.

 

Look at the holes around the circumference of your original flywheel, (they are just in board of the starter ring gear) if any of them have slugs pressed in them it needed additional balancing at the factory, and the flywheel you replace it with should be match balanced. If none of the holes are filled it is standard 86-00 factory weighted flywheel. Any shop capable of balancing a crankshaft can match balance your new flywheel to original specs. Or send the original to ram with your order and they can do it for you.

Picture below for clarity. You're looking for steel slugs in the holes, take a screwdriver and verify it's not mud, dirt, or other road debris.

 

is it more likely that the flywheel itself was oob so it was adjusted, rather the engine oob?

 

Correct, if they needed additional balancing it was done to the flywheel, zf doc, as well as Carolina clutch have this fact documented on their sites. As said above, if all the holes around the perimeter near the starter ring gear are open.. it is standard 86-00 imbalance.

When your kit is shipped, if it has the disc, pressure plate bolted together, make sure you assemble it in exactly the same spot, sometimes they balance the entire assembly.

I can tell you the factory only balanced the 89-96 cars to +/- 2 grams. They are relatively forgiving.
If you are having an engine built, and want it to be internally balanced call Mike Norcia and tell him, when he makes your flywheel he will simply zero balance it for you.

If your car is stock, the kit will work just fine, you will not have any issues. The dread and anticipation is worse than the install. Fwiw, my 91 has a blueprint 383 short block, and I used the ram kit with aluminum flywheel, zero issues. You'll be fine, Mike Norcia has been designing and building clutches for decades, it's a quality kit, and he knows how to balance his parts for the 86-00 sbc one piece rear seal engines.

 

My car is with Bill B, zf doc. Supposedly, my ram billet flywheel was off by 24 grams.