Will GM 200r4 work with factory floor shift location?

I went outside to double check the areas (adapter and tranny) that need to be trimmed for my exhaust and got to thinking about those darn tapered headed bolts that hold the adapter on the block. It just didn't make sense that I couldn't get the tranny to pull flush with the block/adapter. You'll have to read my previous posts to know what I'm talking about. Anyway I thought that maybe I got too much paint in some of the tapered holes so I got the bolts out (ones supplied with kit) and started checking. I'll be damned if I didn't find another big problem. On a Mopar small block you have numerous bolt holes in the back of the block for attaching the tranny. Most are 3/8" coarse thread but the bottom two on either side are through holes for 7/16" bolts with nuts at least that's what TCI supplied (see pics), you can even read about them in their installation instructions. After it dawned on me that there were two sizes of bolts I started doing some checking. I examined the tapered holes cut in the adapter and as close as I could tell they were cut exactly the same in diameter and depth. I got my calipers and check the max diameter of the taper and the through hole. all were the same. I guess they made them all the same for ease of production. They probably used a CNC from the looks of it. But by doing it the fast and easy way they caused a problem. Since the holes and the tapers are all the same they fit the small 3/8" tapered bolts perfectly but since the 7/16" bolt is a little larger the tapered portion is also a little larger. The taper is the same (it is standard), but as the tapered bolts increase in size the bolt head gets larger to maintain strength. This is why I couldn't get the tranny to pull flush!!!

The larger 7/16 bolts requires a deeper hole (tapered portion) in order for the head to be flush or below the surface. They made the holes to fit the 3/8" bolts but the larger 7/16" bolts won't go down far enough which will interfere with the mating of the components. Look at the pics and remember to check your adapter if you plan to do what I am doing. I have no idea how Mopar To Ya got his to bolt up properly unless TCI changed their CNC programing between then and now. Either way, I know for a fact, that if mine is this way then every single adapter they produce will be the same until the CNC programming is changed. I guess I could be wrong and you can bet that I will call TCI Monday but if you look at the pics you will see the 7/16" bolts standing off (.008 - .010) and the 3/8" bolt below flush. As everyone knows this throws the whole drive train out of alignment. In fact .008-.010 thousandths at the back of the block would be .030-.040 at the trans tail housing. The simple fix is to use 3/8" tapered bolts and nuts for the two lower holes on the adapter so that's not a big deal. The big deal is for all those who don't notice this problem and bolt there stuff together and blow a tranny. The last pic is the 3/8 bolt as you can see it's below flush. The other pics show the supplied bolts with the instructions which you can probably read if you look closely. The other pics are the holes in the back of the block.


AGAIN - I could be all wrong (I hope I'm wrong) but the instructions clearly read, "Bolt adapter plate to engine using bolts provided with kit (four 3/8" X 16 X 3/4) flat head socket cap screws, Two 7/16" X 14 x 2" Flat socket head cap screws and two 7/16" X 14 Nylon Lock Nuts". Just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind I used my calipers on the bolt heads and the 7/16" bolt head is about .065" -.070" bigger.

And yes, I did remove any paint left in the holes just in case. It made almost no difference at all (.001" -.002")
treblig