63 Cadillac 390...punch to 429?

Can the one year only 63 Cadillac 390 be punched out to the 4.13 in bore of the 429? Can it then use the 429 internals, heads? Will it accept the 64-67 th400?

 

I don't think you can bolt a TH400 to a '63 block. Every old adapter catalog I have lists '55-'64 Cadillac as being the same on the back of the block.

 

My '64 429 has a TH400 on it from the factory. From what I've been told, there was a huge fire at the transmission factory that was Cadillac's main suppplier of the Controlled Coupling Hydramatic, and they machined a really thin adapter onto the backs of the 429 at the factory to accept the newer TH400s. They were going to go to the TH400 anyway, but the fire hastened the transition.

~Jason

 

Maybe that was the "A-dapter kit" Johnny Cash was singing about in "One Piece at a Time".

 

The Hydramatic Plant fire was in 1953. The controlled coupling (4 speed )
Hydramatic came out for the 1956 models. Check out at
The Great Hydra-Matic Fire

 

Man, I guess I was wrong.

The info I had was 3rd+ hand 10+ years ago, and stuck in the back of my head. To tell the truth, I had never checked it out, and it just stuck.

429s with an early TH400 do have a factory adapter, though.

~Jason