But as I mentioned, the small blocks longer input shaft tip also worked just fine with a shallower depth passenger car bellhousing. At least with my 428 crank, there was plenty of room inside the pilot bushing bore for the tip. Not to mention that both my Jerico and G Force transmissions came with the longer SB tip, and I believe those are not available with a shorter FE tip. I can not say that every FE crankshaft ever made has the same depth pilot hole, but it would appear that relying on actual measurements on each combination is more reliable than blindly following "old wives tales".
Kinda like the "you MUST block off the hydraulic lifter feeds when you use solid lifters". On my drag engines I did that, but when I put this smallish solid flat tappet cam with dumb bell lifters into my 59s 428, I checked to ensure the narrow center section did not become exposed at full lift, and since it wasn`t even close, I just put them in. After 3000 miles, it still has 45 pounds hot idle oil pressure with 10-30 oil, and has 60 psi driving down the road. This is with a high volume, standard pressure Melling oil pump. Also much like I used to "fix" Fords "mistake", by grinding the main bearing oil feed holes to match the holes in the main bearings. After one of my 428 blocks split # 2 and 4 main webs, right thru the elongated oil holes, I stopped doing that, and I have not had a cracked main web since. When I think about some of the "Mandatory" oil passage modifications people did years ago, I have to wonder how many FE blocks were ruined by guys drilling and grinding too much, un necessarally.