For the couple of bucks extra, go up the street to Bergers and buy an NEW flex plate. Cost me $61, and $40 for the used one from ZZP.

 

Is that factory GM pricing? 61 bucks?!

 

Because I figure what they are going to put on my car is going to be the same stuff they put on their cars... so why not trust them, ya know?

 

did that torque converter shave the 1/2 second off?

 

My 2002 SS 3800 had a ticking noise when you first started it up.when it warmed up you would not hear anything for a while.Then it would tick and sound somewhat like a lifter but the noise was not coming from that area.
This problem started with about 34K miles on it and the Chevy shop could not tell for sure what was wrong but suspected flex-plate or torque converter it never got worse until lately.It now has 134500 miles on it.I put it up on a Friend's lift and he sprayed a lubricant up towards the middle.He sprayed up near the crank and man it went NUTS for about 4 seconds.He repeated that a few more times to make sure and it did the same thing every time.I took it to a shop and had the flex-plate and torque converter replaced as suggested.The flex-plate was cracked almost all the way across to the ring.The crack started around three of the bolts in the center where it bolts to the crank.It had been bad for over a hundred thousand miles.
It had a oil pan gasket bad so I had them change it out also.Total 1100 dollars.It's great not to hear the embarrassing ticking noise not to mention the danger that was lurking.
Sorry for the hijacking of the thread but if someone does a search as I did at least they will find the info in the same place.
sorry again,