In 1980, Ford revised the castings of the 200 to incorporate a low mount starter. The bell housing pattern ended up as 2/3rd's of the small block V8 pattern. The top two bolts were placed differently due to the very short deck height of the 200 block. Mike Enren has taken one of these blocks and outlined the steps necessary to adapt a V8 Bell housing to it. While Mike's adaptation is for a C4, this should also work for an AOD or a 5.0 T-5 bell housing.

In Mike's own words I’ll just list the steps I took and reference the pics with the steps. Since I wanted to use all 6 holes and my concern for the new holes being very close to the radius on the bell flange, I decided to be safe and use Grade 8 5/16-18 Allen head cap screws. You might be able to use 3/8 if your really careful on the amount of material you remove on the radius of the bell to accommodate the head of the bolt, I’m just chicken. Since the cap screws I used have a very short shoulder, close tolerances on hole locations and sizes were my concern and determined my choices for bit sizes. There were different ways we thought of doing this, but for the average “Joe” in mind, we went this route.

1. Use the I6 block plate as a template to locate two new upper holes on the V-8 block plate. Using a transfer punch to mark hole location, drill 3/8 holes.

2. Install key-locking threaded inserts into upper two holes in the back of the block. (Type of insert is up to you i.e. key locking, self-locking).

3. Hang the V8 plate on locating pins to determine where new holes in the V8 plate should be, making sure you're centered over inserts

4. Using the V8 plate as a template, mark hole location with a transfer punch on the flange of the Bell housing. Bolt the Bell to the drill press table and using the Letter drill bit “O”, drill both holes.(Letter drill bit O is .3160”, you can use a 21/64 at .3281” though). I recommend a drill press for this because ¼ of the bit will exit on the radius

5. Turn the Bell over and lower the spindle to barely touch the top of the flange with the ¾ Flat End Carbide Bur, then tighten the spindle depth lock. Hand feed the bell into the bur slowly, remove JUST enough for the bolt head to sit flush on the flange. That’s it for the Bell!!

6. The V8 flexplate needs attention too. Have your machinist drill new crank holes onto the V8 flexplate using the I6 enforcer ring or the I6 flexplate as a template. The counterweight needs to be removed. Then rebalance the flexplate to zero imbalance.