Early T-400 tranny

[Rande]

What bolt pattern did the early Turbo-400 trannies with the adapter ring have on the bellhousing? Chevy or BOP?

[Kenall]

the bolt pattern is for a buick 'nail head' engine..but, it will not fit any buick engine u might find.

about 2" were shaved off the bell housing compared to current 'direct bolt' th400s.

the buick engine had a 2" ridge cast into the back of the block. hence the shorter th400 jeep used in there FSJs.

the absence of 2" of material made it ideal to adapt to any engine with an inexpensive iron adaptor ring.

jeep used this 'universal' th400 body to adapt its 327s 350s 304s 360 engines up till the 74 model year.

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Ken
1966 Super Wagoneer (http://www.home.earthlink.net/~kenns9/)
'The Predecessor'

[TimB]

This particular TH-400 was known as a "round top" or BOC, for Buick/Olds/Cadillac, not to be confused with the newer BOP, or Buick/Olds/Pontiac cases. One could get a newer BOP TH-400 and swap-in the guts and short tail shaft from the BOC tranny to eliminate the adapter ring between the engine and tranny. Course some re-engineering would have to be done to the mounting and possibly driveshafts.

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'66 Jeepster Commando w/Buick 252/4.1L V-6
'70 Wagoneer w/Buick 350 V-8
'76 Wagoneer w/AMC 401 (sold)

[Kenall]

i disagree timB.

if the engine, in this case i spec we talking about da buick 350...is left in its OE mounts, then the install of a genuine buick 'direct bolt' th400, shood leave the nu th400 in the same location as the original.

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Ken
1966 Super Wagoneer (http://www.home.earthlink.net/~kenns9/)
'The Predecessor'

[TimB]

As I recall, the adapter that resides between the Buick 350 and the "round top" TH-400 is 1/2"-3/4" thick. Installing a newer "twin ears" TH-400 would cause it to sit that much further forward than the "round top" due to adapter elimination. Whether that's enough to require new driveshafts, I'm not sure, but the tranny mount would have to be adjusted accordingly, I would think.

[jeepbob]

I have done this swap and Kenall is correct it is a direct bolt in. The Buick Super Turbine 400 as this tranny was known as, was a Buick only case and the engines that it was used on had a long section of the bell housing cast into the block. The adaptor plate was needed on the 350's to compesate for the lack of that cast in section. This made the tranny easily abaptable to the different motors that Kaiser used in the Jeeps.