Never Tighten Oil Pan Bolts With The Flywheel Cover Off!!!!

Glad to hear it didn't get you Dartman. When I was 17 I was tuning up a buddies 318 and don't know how I did it but I got a finger ran around the alternator pulley. It cut it real bad but not off thanks to the belt being real loose. Buddy I'll tell you what that hurt too. A couple yrs. later a kid I knew got killed helping his dad work on the family car. It had a noise in the engine and the dad jacked it up and put it on stands and had Steve lay under the engine while he revved it to see if he could tell where it was coming from. It was a rod and it came through the oil pan and hit him right in the forehead. Bad deal for sure. Things can sneak up on you alot easier than you think sometimes.

BTW: you may be able to salvage the converter. The stock bolts are only 5/16". You may be able to drill them and tap them to 3/8" or 7/16". Should be able to do the same on the flexplate. Most race converters use the 7/16" bolts anyway so their common.