I still have my 470 sitting out of the car on the dolly. I have the 727 I'm using attached to it. I've run the engine four or five times now. so I'm trying to button everything up to get it in the car. I still had to put the inspection cover on the trans. so I did that this morning. Fired up the engine again and had to shut it off right away as I heard noise which I suspected right away was from the cover. Sure enough, I took it off and there are marks on it where the flex plate bolts were hitting it. I'm using factory flex plate bolts. The only thing different from stock is I am using a PRW flex plate (using the 10" bolt pattern) which I believe is slightly thicker than a factory flex plate.The trans. (early 73 model) probably had an 11" originally. I didn't think the difference in thickness was enough to be an issue though. My question is, did the factory use a different inspection cover depending on if the flex plate was 10" or 11"? I have another cover that is for a big block but it is a little different in design. The cover on top in the pics is the one I tried using that got scraped. The bottom one is another cover I had in my parts stash. I haven't tried it yet but the cutouts where the bolts were rubbing are wider on the 2nd one which I think might clear the flex plate bolt heads.

Also wanted to ask, is it typical to have a little trans. fluid dribble in the bellhousing after installing the torque converter and filling the trans. with fluid? I found a little sitting in the bottom of the bellhousing when I installed the cover.