Technical Adapter plates - Caddy 500 to....

In your position I believe I'd forget the ZF and go with a Caddy 500, aftermarket flywheel, drill the crank for a pilot bearing/bushing and buy a Chev truck manual transmission. No adapters required, no starter hassles and replacement parts are readily available from the US or Canada. Yeah, you will need to pay for the US made transmission [not very expensive over here] but they'll last forever.

 

Best advice so far for manual trans install!

Ray

 

As I'm actively looking for a truck right now, as soon as I find one, maybe I can try and find a motor and trans to crate up and strap to the back to import in the same container - save a fortune in shipping costs, as finding a Caddy over here will be very tricky. What GM manual transmission should I bee looking for that will live with the torque of the caddy? Any model numbers?

Are you sure it will bolt up to the Caddy BOP bolt pattern?

 

An SM465 is what I'd swap into it. You'd need a manual Cadillac bell housing which are available as an aftermarket piece. Or get creative. I don't think the swap is that hard.

 

I agree on the SM465 trans recommendation. For the bell housing, you have a few options using factory GM parts. GM used a full circle aluminum bell housing on many 1 ton trucks (C-30) with the big block 454 and 465 trans. The 465 bolt pattern is standard GM/Chevy. Pontiac used a similar aluminum bell on their V8/manual shift cars and the Buick/Olds/Pontiac (BOP) bell housing to block bolt pattern is the same as Cadillac. Ergo..........you could bolt the 465 trans to the Caddy with the BOP bell.

Should you prefer a heavier duty bell, the Chevy and BOP bell bolt pattern shares the locating dowel pins and lower bolts locations. A thin plate is available, and also could be locally fabricated, that bolts/screws to the block and provides bolt locations for the remaining Chevy bolts. Using that approach, any Chevy truck bell, aluminum or iron, could conceivably be utilized. The primary caution to that approach is potential starter mounting/alignment issues.

Ray

 

Quite by accident, I've found a lakewood scattershield for a chevy bolt pattern [chev only] will work on a BOP and Cadillac engine if there's a lump on the driver's side for a starter. Yeah, I had to weld 2 ears on the top of the scatter shield for the top 2 bolts but the dowel holes and the other 4 bolt holes lined up. The chev truck transmissions will bolt to this and they come with a mount for a hydraulic slave cylinder if you prefer a hydraulic clutch setup.
A better bet is a scatter shield drilled for both chev and BOP [and Caddy] bolt patterns.
Depth of GM bell housings and scatter shields from '55 up are all the same.
This is not to say a factory aluminum BOP bell housing won't work but I've seen stupid prices asked for them on ebay. Hell, if I'm gonna pay $250 for a stock, used aluminum bell housing, I'd prefer to go another hundred bucks or so for a new steel scatter shield from Lakewood.....just sayin.
BTW, and old standard chev truck "granny" 4 speed will work behind the torque monster caddy if you plan to keep the weight to 7500 lbs. The gear split will drop RPMs between shifts but the mega torque of the caddy won't be bothered by it. Use a truck 12 inch clutch [again, the scatter shield will insure clearance for the big clutch] and you'll be golden.

 

Everything you need to know about the SM465.
http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/transmissions/manual/sm465

All of the older GM truck starters bolted up to the bellhousing which eradicates a lot of starter to the block woes. Most aftermarket scattershields have this option.

But with the trucks, you still have to accommodate the mounting ears of the bellhousing that bolt to the frame. This is a structural piece and the SM465 weighs 175 lbs by itself.

Contact Wilcap and Bendtsen for Cadillac to GM adapters. I know they have items the older swaps.

 

To be honest, I was hoping for a 5 speed so I can turn 2,000 rpm at 65 mph and still have a low enough first gear.

Is the NV4500 not an option?

 

I had thought about the NV4500 but didn't mention it earlier. I don't know all it's applications in the US, but I do know they were widely used in Dodge trucks here. I would not be surprised to find them in late Chevy/GMC as well.

Ray

 

A T56 would work too, and there are commercially available BOP&C to T56 bellhousings. The gear ratios, however, may nut be suitable for a truck. The 500's torque should be able to overcome this.

An LS-series F-Body one would be the one to choose, were you to do so.

 

A drop out LS1/6 speed would be perfect,but they're still quite expensive - especially over here in the UK, circa $8k for a running combo.

I need to find the right balance of cost and simplicity but making sure the combo is suitable.

The BMW 540i manual option is so appealing because you can get an entire car for $3k equivalent and reduce that down to $2k when you've sold the valuable bits like the wheels, tires, interior, rear end etc.

The only issue is that it doesn't start making torque until 2k rpm...