47-55.1 What's going wrong inside my 350?

[mr48chev]

That probably wasn't an issue as he could turn the converter easily to line up the bolts when he put the flex plate to converter bolts in. At least he didn't say it was hard to turn.

Cracked or broken flex plate is usually a rattle or almost a knock that goes away when you put the trans in gear and put a slight load on it. I got a free engine that "had a knock" from one of those back years ago and drove that engine about 80K after that.

You can buy the mechanics stethoscope at O'Reilly's or Autozone for about 8 bucks if you don't have a HF close. The one I use now came from Autozone after one of the ear pieces came missing on my old one. I've done the broom handle thing, hose thing and what not but the stethoscope really works to isolate noises.

It made the noise when the converter wasn't connected so that rather eliminates the trans and converter. To be positive you could pull the three bolts out of the flex plate and slide the converter back in the trans with about a half inch clearance and fire up the engine again. If you already had that clearance before forget that step

You could raise the truck up and have a helper fire it up to see if the starter drive releases from the flexplate when it starts. You would have to remove the cover if you already put it on but that only takes a minute. You should see it pop back as soon as the engine fires up. I'm not sure if you could catch it by laying a phone or camera on video under it and aiming it up there but if you are working alone that might be worth a try. If it is a fresh from the parts house rebuilt starter a lot of rebuiders machine the mounting surface every time they go though the rebuild plant and after two or three go arounds over the years a lot of metal gets shaved off them. It may just need shims.

On old engines with a lot of miles on them I have seen a number of worn out timing chains that rubbed the timing cover with a couple of them wearing though the covers.

Like most other guys on here I am not a fan of Fram filters preferring either the Wix or a Napa Gold. Years ago Fram decided to put most of their money into advertising rather than producing the best filter they could and their filters are far from the best.