lock tite on pressure plate bolts or nothing?

[Spoolx]

The dowels are absolutely necessary, thats how the bellhousing gets indexed to the engine correctly, there is tons of slop in the bolt holes.

Oh and btw the guy above that said one loctite is for aluminum and one is for steel is way wrong too, red is designed to be permanent and only broken by heat, and blue is designed to be broken by torque.

 

[brian97cobra]

The dowels are absolutely necessary, thats how the bellhousing gets indexed to the engine correctly, there is tons of slop in the bolt holes.

Oh and btw the guy above that said one loctite is for aluminum and one is for steel is way wrong too, red is designed to be permanent and only broken by heat, and blue is designed to be broken by torque.

Yea I knew about the loctite I did some research on it. I also plan to get the dowels this week.

Thanks

 

[TRBO VNM]

The dowels are absolutely necessary, thats how the bellhousing gets indexed to the engine correctly, there is tons of slop in the bolt holes.

Oh and btw the guy above that said one loctite is for aluminum and one is for steel is way wrong too, red is designed to be permanent and only broken by heat, and blue is designed to be broken by torque.

Curious, can you expand on the dowels being necessary? I know they are used to help align the bell housing to the block. Aside from that, I haven't found anything saying they do anything else. I have always used them since they are there,but have had cars come in missing one sometimes. I don't see how there could be any negative affects on anything if they aren't used or someone can't locate replacements.

 

[Spoolx]

Curious, can you expand on the dowels being necessary? I know they are used to help align the bell housing to the block. Aside from that, I haven't found anything saying they do anything else. I have always used them since they are there,but have had cars come in missing one sometimes. I don't see how there could be any negative affects on anything if they aren't used or someone can't locate replacements.

The centerline of the transmission has to be in line with the centerline of the engine, if not you will have binding on the input shaft and cause possible clutch disengagement issues..

The bolts have tons of clearance so you could in theory have the two centerlines out of alignment by a considerable amount.

Here is a webpage explaining bellhousing alignment, this is why the dowels are there.. not to make it convenient to hold the block plate like some people claim.


Lakewood Bellhousing

 

[03 TOPLESSSVT]

I swear that I have seen that they are ness. I have even seen offset kits to get it just right. They used them on shadetree mechanic on a Fox.

 

[SVT_Troy]

The centerline of the transmission has to be in line with the centerline of the engine, if not you will have binding on the input shaft and cause possible clutch disengagement issues..

The bolts have tons of clearance so you could in theory have the two centerlines out of alignment by a considerable amount.

Here is a webpage explaining bellhousing alignment, this is why the dowels are there.. not to make it convenient to hold the block plate like some people claim.


Lakewood Bellhousing

You are correct........ But that's more for custom projects, we're all installing oem trannys or magnums which are pretty much the same.... It won't be off enough to worry about it. IMHO the tranny is lined up if all he bolts go in smooth and support mounts line right up. The dowell pins just make installing it easy. If it was misaligned you would know.

 

[TRBO VNM]

The centerline of the transmission has to be in line with the centerline of the engine, if not you will have binding on the input shaft and cause possible clutch disengagement issues..

The bolts have tons of clearance so you could in theory have the two centerlines out of alignment by a considerable amount.

Here is a webpage explaining bellhousing alignment, this is why the dowels are there.. not to make it convenient to hold the block plate like some people claim.


Lakewood Bellhousing

Thanks, I will read up on that later. I understand the reasoning and agree they aren't there to just line up the block plate. I know there is play in the bolt holes, but not that much and if it ends up just being a rotation offset, that should have no bearing(no pun intended) on anything else. Granted, I understand you can't be 100% certain it is off by rotation only, I am just saying that for arguments sake. A up/down or left/right offset I can definitely see causing issues because then the input shaft isn't aligned properly with the pilot bearing. Either way, never ran into both missing.

And why I responded the way I did with being lined up properly.

I swear that I have seen that they are ness. I have even seen offset kits to get it just right. They used them on shadetree mechanic on a Fox.

ness?

 

[SVT_Troy]

I swear that I have seen that they are ness. I have even seen offset kits to get it just right. They used them on shadetree mechanic on a Fox.

And I ask were these kits to use with a 302 block and t5 tranny?

 

[SVT_Troy]

Thanks, I will read up on that later. I understand the reasoning and agree they aren't there to just line up the block plate. I know there is play in the bolt holes, but not that much and if it ends up just being a rotation offset, that should have no bearing(no pun intended) on anything else. Granted, I understand you can't be 100% certain it is off by rotation only, I am just saying that for arguments sake. A up/down or left/right offset I can definitely see causing issues because then the input shaft isn't aligned properly with the pilot bearing. Either way, never ran into both missing.

And why I responded the way I did with being lined up properly.



ness?

Neccesary

 

[TRBO VNM]

Neccesary

LOL, Mike needs to remember this is a message board, not a cell phone texting people. That isn't on the list of acronyms/abbreviations here.

 

[SVT_Troy]

Haha yea that's a cell abbreviation right there all day.

 

[Spoolx]

You are correct........ But that's more for custom projects, we're all installing oem trannys or magnums which are pretty much the same.... It won't be off enough to worry about it. IMHO the tranny is lined up if all he bolts go in smooth and support mounts line right up. The dowell pins just make installing it easy. If it was misaligned you would know.

Doesnt matter, youre installing OEM trannys and not using the dowel pins which is what the engineers who designed them intended to align the two pieces. Just because it might line up and work isnt a good reason to leave them out.