I discovered at 10pm last night that I had a crack in the bellhousing up near where the front engine mount bolts to it. One of the bolts for the front mount had loosened up and I'm guessing the added stress on the other bolt did it in. The location of the crack supports this hypothesis. I have a spare 555 to heave in, so I won't be out of commission because of it, but I've got some questions for the trans guys on here.

1. Is the 555 case just a heat-treated 520 case? Or is it a different part? I don't have a 520 to put side by side to compare.

2. Is the case on a 520 a weak spot? I'm wondering if I find a junk 520 whether I can just throw my 555 internals in and be ok.

3. Has anybody attempted to weld a cracked case on these particular transmissions? Again, it's not cracked all the way through. I can post pictures later. Poking around online, it seems like many people have had good luck welding and reusing cracked bellhousings on all sorts of different units. When I had my extra boss welded in for the 2.4L block ear, the guy that did it commented afterwards on how good the metal was.

Thanks.