Inspection cover hole? Pics

Crawling around chasing an oil leak I snapped a picture of this hole in my transmission inspection cover. I'm pretty :dunce: in this area. I know there is supposed to be the gap in the sheet metal to let fluids drain out of the bellhousing. But is there supposed to be the hole too? I can see the teeth of the flexplate through it (I think).

At first I thought it was damage from a road hazard but the more I look at it the more it looks factory. Woudln't crap climb in there?

That slot is engineered into the sheet metal stamping so that they could transition the surface from the flat for the bolt to the raised area. Your's also has those interesting wrinkles going down from the slot like somebody bent is and hammered it back flat or welded it back up. Maybe it's just corrosion. It's just a cover to keep big rocks out. No problems there.

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What he said...

That slot has to be wide enough to accommodate a radius at the end.

The radius is there so the plate wont crack.