Looking at a 57 J2 Olds for the '34 roadster, and I think I'd like to put a T5 behind it. Supposedly the crank has a pilot bearing in it, but there's no bell housing or flywheel. Would a Chevy bell housing with an adaptor work? What about a clutch and flywheel? I'm used to putting automatics in my cars, so this is all new to me...
Get ready to pull your credit card out. As far as I know, there is one way to do what you want, and that is with a Bendtsens adapter. About $1500 for the kit to put a T5 to the Olds. http://www.transmissionadapters.com/early_olds.htm Tony, (Goatroper) from Ross Racing may have another solution, but these Olds engines are unlike Chevy and other motors in the respect that the bell housing is about 4 inches deep, and a unique bolt pattern. I just got tired of dumping money into the 64 Olds engine I was using for my rpu and sold off the Bendtsens automatic adapter and al the other parts. Playing with these things ain't cheap. But, like I said, Tony may have a better solution. Nobody knows Olds better than Tony and Ross. Don
Yeah, that's not gonna happen ;-) It'd be cool to do, but I can't break the bank making it look cool, when I've got the 350 setting there on the floor by the car. I'll contact the guys at Ross Racing. Thanks!
I just got off the phone with Ross Racing (who flattered me by remembering my '36 and complimenting me on it , and it's very do-able, but, I think it's going to be WAY out of my budget to use this engine, much as I'd like it. By the time I buy the engine, freshen it up, buy all the accessories, intake, carbs, etc., etc., I'd have close to 5K in it. So I guess it's going to be an SBC and 700R4 not a J2 with a T5. Sigh...
Put a lasalle, Buick,T5, or 4spd behind it adapters are about 200-500 you can scrounge the other parts
I'm putting a side-shift lasalle in mine, coupled to a shortened torque tube. It doesn't HAVE to break the bank, but you may have to think outside the std. HAMB box a little when you build the engine. It really pays to start with the very best core you can as well.
The cost is the reason I threw in the towel on the 394 I was going to use in the rpu. I already had $3000 in the motor, plus a grand for the Bendtsens adapter setup, more in the tripower stuff, and even more in the dress up items. When I discovered that the motor wasn't machined the best way the first time, that was when I dialed 1-800-JEGS and ordered a sbc crate motor and I sold off all the Olds stuff. I know it is not as cool as an Olds would have been, but sometimes you have to use your head instead of your heart. Don
use a 5 speed out of a truck. They have built in bellhousing, and should bolt right up to the 350. like the 2nd photo here http://www.rebuiltautotransmissions.com/truck_transmissions.html
The price of cool ain't cheap, if you are building the roadster in similar fashion to what's in your avatar then a Jegs Chevy will be like eggs & bacon.
When I first opened it, I was thinking about responding with " a trail of 90W and broken gear teeth?".
That's what I was trying to say @falcongeorge But supply and demand have driven the prices up on some parts.
Yes, and it depends on what you "gotta have". I paid throught the nose because I REALLY WANTED an OL496 and 4 carbs, but a tri-power intake and three rochesters would have cost me half as much, and probably worked better. And of course, once I had the intake, then I "needed" matching Edelbrock valve covers. I think a lot of comes down to guys way overbuilding these things, because they read on here that they "need" this and that, when most of them will never even wind it past 5500... I still frequently see aftermarket 4-bolt tri-power intakes relatively cheap. 100% period-correct on any circa '55-up rocket build, and probably outperform most 3-bolt set-ups. If I was willing to do this deal with tripps and a hyd. cam, I could bring it in within a few hundred of a decent period correct chevy. Most of the big money was eye-candy.
I had heard an old story of a local guy who had put a stick behind a 371 J2 back in the day, and part of the story involved him having to drill the Olds crank for a pilot bearing. I wasn't aware that they were drilled from the factory, and since I have no experience first hand with 371s, and since to the best of my knowledge were only equipped with Jetaway Hydros, I had no reason to believe that 371s were factory equipped with pilot bearing provision. So are they, or are they not, and the OP here just has a crank that has had some work done to it over the years?
As I understand it, cars that left the factory with "jetaway" trans need to be drilled, hydro equipped motors don't. FWIW, My '56 324 is drilled.
Sticks were available on Olds J2 in the 88 and Super 88, not 98. So, there were J2 motors with factory drilled cranks. I have two here, one still has the original trans, the other is an old race motor. Somewhere in the last few years, I read that Olds dealers were advised to steer customers away from the J2 sticks, because the vacuum outboard carbs come on full blast as the vac switch opens. The article said it was violent or whatever, and using the auto trans absorbed the "kick in the ***" better. .
That's great info, thank you for the clarification. That "kick in the ***" sounds awesome, and would probably persuade me to buy the stick!
Info sources say that 57 Olds was available with a 3 speed stick trans but I have never seen one with a stick and doubt many of us have. That factory stick setup would probably draw more coin than a Bernstein adapter setup. Dad had an 88 with a J-2 in the mid 60's and that car was spendy to work on then.
I don't know much about A/T after the first generation 57-58 371 which were all Jetaway if A/T. I thought there was a different A/T somewhere in the last years of what we call "Rockets" up to 1964. I ***ume you are asking if 57-up ever had the old Hydramatic with the crank bushing.... the last "car" that had a hydro was the base model 56 88. The 56 Super 88 and 98 had the new Jetaway. The reason I said "last Car" is that I have no idea what the medium duty GMC trucks with Hydramatics were built in what years. They supposedly used the Olds, but I see some references to a 370 instead of 371. When I was preteenager, there were some junked State Highway dump trucks nearby, and they looked like a 371 non script valve cover, and had hydros, but I don't know what year, they looked at least 55 56 style, so might have been 57s? {Single headlights style) Back in the 80s, I worked for CT DOT repair garage, and our special tools were kept in a room which the veterans called "the transmission room". There were no transmissions or related things in there, so I asked why it was called that: They said when they had the hydro GMCs, one guy stayed in the room rebuilding hydros 12 months a year !
I think the roto was '60 and up.Yes, basically what I was asking/suggesting was that '56 was the end for pilot bushings in auto equipped rocket cars.
Sorry, I typed it wrong and just changed it to "last CAR hydro was 56 base model 88" , and Jetaways were used for the first time in 56 Super 88 and 98. .
GMC big trucks from the late 50's used the mentioned Olds "370" engine. I believe it was pretty much a 371 with a different model number so to speak. These truck bell housings may not be suitable for car use...
my book shows the combination was available. here is my '58, essentially the same as the '57 this was a stick motor from the factory, (although it now has the guts from the original selector transmission in a '37 Roadmaster case) I'm also using mechanical operated secondaries verses the stock vacuum controls. If the one you are looking at was a stick engine the carb linkage will be slightly different, notice the stock throttle bellcrank is stick specific here, with no provision for linkage to automatic transmission. of course a pilot bushing could have been added either to put a Hydramatic or manual transmission in
Early Single-range and Dual-Range Hydramatic required a pilot bearing. Later Hydramatics such as Controlled-Couling and Roto-Hydramatic did not. So... in essence, all '49-55 Olds cranks are drilled. '57-64 Olds auto cranks are not drilled from the factory, though the stickshift cars were. And it is quite possible to find drilled cranks in engines that were hot-rodded or had a crank swapped along the way. I once had 26 394 cranks, and only one had a pilot. Probably from a stick car, or maybe from an old hotrod engine where a stick or early hydro was installed. And for '56, I'd ***ume that the Jetaway cars were not drilled... but I can't ***ume that, because with all the '56's that had stick or Dual-range hydro, for all I know maybe the factory just drilled them all. But I don't know that, either.
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