Some kits for the traditional SBC do not place the flywheel face as deep into the tranny as the 2.8 or most other FWD setups. Having the flywheel face deeper than the 2.8 (or stock depth for the tranny) will potentially cause clutch/pressure plate clearance issues.
If you are going with a 5/8" plate, then the standard 153 tooth flywheel will not clear the tranny case without clearancing. I assume you are using a smaller diameter flwwheel. The flywheel used will be important - the face must not stick into the tranny any further than the stock depth for the tranny, and the starter designed for the particular pitch on the ring gear must be able to engage the teeth fully.
I would place the ring gear where it needs to be to engage with a stock starter. The starter is a wear item and you don't want to have to do custom machining every time it needs replaced - especially if it goes out 1000 miles from home.
There are several possibilities, but it all starts with the parts that are selected to be used.
If you wind up with additional space between the flywheel and the throwout bearing there are a couple things that can take up this room:
On trannys using a slave/pushrod setup you can use a longer pushrod between the slave and the throw out bearing arm.
On the 92-94 hydraulic throwout bearing getrag tranny you can make a spacer to go between the throwout bearing and the case to take up this gap. This may hold true for other tranny's using the hydraulic throwout bearing as well.
[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 04-30-2006).]
