Just finishing up the refresh on my 727 for the Cuda. I noticed the 10 valve body mounting bolts have done a bit of a number on the bottom of the valve body. I believe this car was a bracket racer in a past life and suspect the tranny has been apart a few times. I seem to recall those 10 bolts do not have washers on them (pan is currently loose fitted on the case so I need to remove to see them for sure). That would explain some of the wear into the aluminum valve body base. Is there a reason they do not have washers to smooth the interface to AL? Could I put washers on - might then loc-tite the bolts.
The wear on the valve body was also evidenced by weak screws in the valve body itself - several stretched on me - broke one. Will be replacing them all with new allen screws I think. Interesting the '74 manual says 35 inch pounds on all VB screws - the VB is actually a '71 and that manual says 28 on end plates and 35 on the 17 assembly screws. The end plate screws necked out on my around 30.
Sure couldn't hurt to use a thin flat washer against the alum body .