Im building a 455 to put in my 1962 Bonneville coupe. It came without a trans, with the 455 lying on its side on the front crossmember. I have a 61 Bonne with 389/automatic parts car. Is there a way to use its 4-speed automatic on my 455? The 455 is a 1974. Also looking for parts for this car.
No.. If you want to use the Super Hydramatic (315), you need to use the 64 unit.. I had a 64 Superhydro behind a built up 462 with ported 6X heads and 041 cam. It handled all that power without any issue. I eventually went to the Turbo 400 so I could wind out first longer. Frankly, I liked the overall performance with the hydro better. That cool "grounded" third gear lug is so nice.. I should of swapped cams from the 041 to the 068 instead of swapping transmissions. The overall swap from the good running 389 to the 455 wasn't what I expected it to be. I should of just left the 389 alone. If you have a good running 389 I'd use it. They are excellent street motors with the Carter AFB and there closed port heads. I used to pound freeze plugs into the exhaust crossovers to keep the intake cool Todays gasoline doesn't need or like to be heated! When racing with one of these ******s, you leave the lever in L and let the hydro do all the shifting.
Well, there's an adapter to go late trans with early block, because on 1964-back the starter mounts to a bellhousing while 1965 up bolt to the block. The ear was added in 1964, some even drilled and tapped. But you want to go late block with early trans and that may work, I would take a bell and see if it will bolt to the block. Guessing you'd have to run a bellhousing mount starter on it, so the next step would be seeing if one will mesh up to the flexplate. So far as I know all of the four-speed Hydros have a separate bellhousing that bolts to the trans case, so if you need the 1964 bellhousing to bolt to the block, that is the only part you need. But I believe that part is Bonneville only, I can't remember if the Gran Prix I parted out the slim-jim used them or not. It could have, but it could be different on the trans side for the different transmission. On the other hand a BOP case TH400 should be easy to find and cheap to have rebuilt, it may be simpler to just use one of those. I think it will fit under a Bonneville floorpan okay.
Don't bother messing with a Slim Jim roto hydromatic. Bolt the 455 to a Turbo 400 and drive the **** out of it. I have a 400 behind a 472 Cadillac in my 49 Buick and love it.
Those trannies are not the cat's *** either. Often are replaced in stock applications by TH400 with an adapter ....readily available from Wilcap and others. Since the OP already has a BOP pattern engine block 455 the TH400 is a bolt on, no adapter needed and retrofitting the old Hydro would not yield any benefit.
61 thru 64 Bonneville & Star Chief would have the 4 spd super hydro in as built condition. Short wheelbase models got the roto rooter.
Thanks for the responses. Sorry for the late reply to you all. Im slow learning the HAMB and how to interact with it. Wish I could figure out how to search for threads and parts. I liked the 4-speed hydro idea, for stock, and nostalgia. Turbo 400 is easy, guess Ill go down that path.
Thanks! My 61 eng trans are in my parts car so it would be a bit to pull it and check. How do I search the cl***ifieds? I going in circles trying to figure this stuff out.
Having driven both the Hydro is much more pleasant to drive. The problem with them is few know how to rebuild them or care for them.
The Jalopy Journal
