No offense taken Devon. Have you noticed how little tolerance there is when you slip a flywheel or flex plate on that neck on the back of a crankshaft? Tight fit right? And if you put the little neck that sticks out of the converter in the hole iin the back of the crank you will notice it is fairly loose. That allows the converter to be where it needs to be when its bolted to the flex plate. The reason for the tight fit onto the crank is so the flex plate will be centered no room for error. So the converter bolt holes need to be centered also. That is why when a tranny shop is going to reinstall a converter they mark the location on the flywheel and converter so it will go back the same way it came out. I'm not saying drilling can't be done its just not a good idea. More so if you are a novice and don't have the proper tools. JMHO Bob H.
NO WAY.......the neck of the converter is what keeps it centered with the crankshaft. The 3 flywheel bolts that bolt the converter to the flywheel are a looser fit intentionally, so if the holes are a little bit off it won't make one bit of difference one way or another. Look how heavy a converter full of fluid is.......and then imagine all that weight spinning off center! Talk about a seat of the pants back massager........:shock: ou:
Your Close.. The converter is centered by the pilot hub on the backside of the converter, into the back of the crankshaft. The hub to pump bushing fit is not real precise, even with all new parts. Your right to say it's not the bolt holes.. they just have to be in the right spot to get the bolts in. This boils down to a couple simple things.. that others looking in can learn from. 1. Yes, drilling the flexplate will slightly change the balance job, due to the fact that we have an external balanced engine. But not a ton, I very much doubt you would see a vibration problem. On a low buck stock type deal, no worries, because Devon is right in saying the motor is not perfectly balanced to being with , from the factory. 2. These are details that you need to be paying attention to, when your bringing your parts to the machine shop, for your hi-perf balance job.. make sure you have a dual pattern flexplate.. if it's not, then get one, or drill it, before you have it balanced. JW
When I had my 350 engine in I switched to the turbo 400 BB trans and found out the bolt holes were different, I did drill them myself by using the converter to mark the holes. It worked fine and had no vibration that I noticed. Steve
