Flexing a Flex Plate?

There should be some free space between the torque converter and the flex plate before tightening the flex plate to converter bolts. Enough to side the converter back and for it to spin freely without making contact with anything on its drive surface. This is to prevent thermal and hydraulic expansion from fouling the front pump and/or main input drives or the crank thrust bearing. The anti-ballooning plates are to prevent hydraulic pressure from deforming the torque converter shell and taking up this available gap and cause the same condition. But, at any rate, there are good quality parts store over the counter converters based on the factory hi stall converters that will do everything the Hughes converter will do and then some for less money, and if I were looking at an entry level torque converter from a performer transmission company, I would go with turbo action. But if you really want a good torque converter purpose built for your combination, call Precision Converter Concepts or PTC (Performance Torque Converter). One of the single best performance improvements you can make to the car.