The stock shaft is long enough if the pilot bearing is mounted in the outer recess of the crank. The OEM Chevy-style bronze pilot bearing was in the inner recess, I figured that the trans shaft missed that one by about 1/2 inch. You're right, that beat the hell out of the input shaft but it never broke. Darrell's spacer between the engine trans is about 3/4 inch. I drew it all out to scale, it actually matches up pretty well although the clutch disc is closer to the end of the input shaft than in the stock location. A custom bellhousing can't change the geometrics of this - it depends a lot on what engine block and flywheel you are using. This one in particular is a 1984 or so Buick GN if that's any help. 3.8 litre I think. The custom bellhousing is 3/4 inch deeper than the stock OEM bellhousing - same difference as Darrell's spacer. Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marc A. Levy" <malevy@xxxx> To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <swingle@xxxx> Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 10:53 AM Subject: RE: [DML] re:Engine Swaps and tranny Questions (Buick Version-LONG) Dave, I agree, that Darryl's method is a lot cleaner but how did he solve the problem of the input shaft seating in to the recess (and bushing) in the crank? [snip] -----Original Message----- From: Dave Swingle [mailto:swingle@xxxx] Subject: [DML] re:Engine Swaps and tranny Questions (Buick Version-LONG) <SNIP> ---I compared notes with Darryl on his Supercharged Vortec installation. Rather than the cast bellhousing, he used a custom-milled adapter/spacer plate with the original DMC bellhousing. This is a much more elegant solution than the custom bellhousing, and I'd recommend to anyone doing this conversion to go that route. Darrell also has designed and installed a much stronger input shaft (due to breakage) and other than that has not had issues with the trans. <SNIP>