I think you deserve more than one tall glass of eggnog, 50eggs,for being brave enuff to post back on the result of your noise.
DAMN !! or stronger words than that.
good to see all is sweet again anyway.

regards,Rod

I am happy that I was wrong.

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Lasse

Signet -66 225
Holley 600 Offy-5270 Dutra Dual,regrind. cam 272 0,420 110, head shaved 0.100 slight.ported
MSD6A
A904
7 1/4 3.23

Loctite is your friend. Also, are the dowel pins between the block and tranny still there?

Dont know if the dowels are there or not.

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

There is one hole by the starter bolt, and one by the tranny dipstick area in the block. No threads in them - theres a short metal dowel in each maybe 1/2-3/4" long. They are slipfit in the tranny, tap into the block - made to align the tranny to the block before the screws are tightend down. If tranny/block were ever pulled apart but these dowels weren't included upon reassembly, it will cause the flexplate bolts to chronically work themself loose no matter what you do (don't ask how I know...) because the tranny won't be spinning on center with crankshaft.

I have a few thousand miles on this car, this is the first problem. I have not looked yet but will I be able to see the dowel from the engine bay? Can the dowel be installed from the engine bay?

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

You may not be able to see it for the angle of things but you can feel for it. Get a skinny screwdriver and once you found the hole see how far it goes in....

You can probably tap it in from the engine side but you will have to loosen the flexplate bolts and the motor > tranny bolts so it floats. Otherwise if the alignment is off center and you force them in that will cause other headaches.

After mine came loose twice, 1st when the engine was newly installed (was sure it was the engine also), then after 2,000 miles. I hope the loctite holds them this time.

Yes, dowel pins are present. Took it for a spin. All is well. Do I need to break in the one new rod bearing? Take it easy for a couple hundred miles?

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

The other part of it - is pulling the converter forward to meet the flexplate instead of letting the screws bend the flexplate back to meet the converter. Who woulda thought such a simple arrangment can be so picky on assembly eh?

I thought the "take it easy on a new engine" thing was to seat the rings.