Coupla questions- adj cav plate and starter...

[Icarus prospector]

As the turkey slowly works it's way South, I've got a couple of questions about the rebuild on my 21' Hallett daycruiser.
Now that the Olds/Velvet drive is in someone else's garage, I'm putting in a 454/T400. As I am mounting a 1/2" plate between the engine/trans, what issues am I looking at in regards to the starter? Do I need a starter with a 1/2 longer nosepiece??
And second, I need to source out the parts and pieces for an adjustable cav plate- motor, rod, seal, bearing blocks, turnbuckles... anodized red if possible.
Hope your holiday was great and thanks in advance.

[Budweiser]

I am mounting a 1/2" plate between the engine/trans, what issues am I looking at in regards to the starter? Do I need a starter with a 1/2 longer nosepiece??
It seems to me you'd want to be worried about the input shaft legnth on the trans. The starter bolts to the block doesn't it? and the flex plate mounts to the crank, so no matter what you put between the block and trans the starter/flex plate alignment will remain the same. But now you have an input shaft that's 1/2" too short.
As far as the cav plate hardware, try Glenwood Marine (http://www.glenwoodmarine.com) or Rex Marine (http://www.rexmar.com)

[Icarus prospector]

The starter bolts to the block doesn't it? and the flex plate mounts to the crank, so no matter what you put between the block and trans the starter/flex plate alignment will remain the same.
Yeah... now that I think about, that's correct. The T400 is being built with the plate mounting in mind.