[JSeery]

The bolts are not what breaks, it's the cast metal in the bellhousing. There are hundreds of people who post about how they have "hung flatheads from the bellhousing for years and never broken one". That's good and I wish them the best of luck and hope they continue to have success with it. I'm an engineer and I wouldn't do it if I had never heard of one breaking. Even a quick look at the thickness of the casting in the area where the bolts mount tells me this is not a good idea. I would guess that because so many get away with it the damage only occurs when something out of the ordinary occurs, such as a block with a flaw in it, or uneven pressure at the bolt locations, etc. I am not about to say every early style block hung from the bellhousing is going to break, that would be silly and false. I am not going to say that even some of them with break, it goes not appear to happen often. But I will say that it has occurred and I am not about to have one of my blocks be the next! Ford and all of the early rebuilders would not have been using the different types of side mounts for the hell of it. Ford engineering knew it was not a good idea and I know it's not a good idea, so why do it? But if you must attempt to prove it can be done, I'm sure it will work out fine 99% time. It's just the engineer in me I guess that says just because I can get away with something most of the time doesn't make it a good idea.