Timing Cover Install question

[Breitenbucher]

In Deve's book he advises to leave all timing cover bolts loose until after the harmonic balancer is installed which makes perfect sense as you would want the timing cover and seal to center itself on the crankshaft or now onto the harmonic balancer. What I don't understand is why you would want to loosen the front crankshaft bearing cap bolts first. That would, seem to me, push the timing cover seal off center of the crankshaft if the cover bolts were tightened before the crankshaft bearing cap was re-tightened.
Can someone explain why this is the procedure?
Thanks,
Paul

[Deve]

The front crankshaft bearing has two holes that have two bolts to the timing cover from the inside. Without loosening those, you are not completely loosening the timing cover. It was a poor design on GMs part that you cannot just remove the timing cover from the front. There is an article on how to fix that problem in the tech tip articles on stovebolt.com.

[Breitenbucher]

Yes I get the two bolts that go horizontally through the timing cover, timing plate and crankshaft bearing cap need to be left loose while installing the harmonic balancer but why loosen the bolts securing this cap to the block? It is in your second sentence under 'Timing Cover and Harmonic Balancer' section, 'Be sure your front crankshaft bearing cap is loose, and then install the two hex-head bolts loosely'. Then near the end of this section after everything is tightened there is the sentence 'When the hex bolts are tight, torque down the front crankshaft bearing cap to 110 ft-lbs like all the rest'. I would think this would be bad to tighten everything with the cap hanging down slightly then cinch it back up to the block with 110 ft-lbs of force. Sorry, I must be missing something.
Paul

[Deve]

It is sort of a catch 22. If you tighten down the bearing cap and it is not snug against the timing plate and cover, you will be pulling it into place against the 110 pounds. OR leave it somewhat loose so it snugs up against everything, then tighten it down. The bearing caps bolt holes allow for play forward and backward that is undesireable if you don't manage how you tighten it down. With the bolts tight on the timing cover, you pulled it into the correct position to torque it down. I didn't mean to leave the impression that you should just let the bearing cap hang there with a few threads, but it needs to be loose enough to slide into place.

[Breitenbucher]

Thanks Deve, now I understand what is going on, thought I must be missing something. Man, what a crummy design.