wilcap or bendtsen's?

i'm putting a t400 behind my 365 caddy engine. the wilcap adapter is $550 without the starter, and the bendtsen's adapter is $795 w/starter included.

which would be the better approach? i know the wilcap is aluminum vs steel.

either way it's a lot of money so i'd like to get it right the first time.

thanks.

jw

 

Pat at Wilcap is a great guy.Never had any issues with his product.I'm all for Wilcap personally..

 

Although it appears that Bendtsen's has some following I am not a**** them. I purchased their adapter to install a manual transmission behind my '57 Cadillac engine. What arrived was a flame cut plate with the correct holes in the correct places. Though it did not at all look as nice as the one shown on the Cadillac engine photo on their web page. The pilot bearing adapter was a sloppy fit in the crankshaft. The Chevrolet high torque mini starter motor blows the vintage engine look in my opinion. My vote...... WILCAP! Regards, Ron

 

Buy an Alliance membership, buy the Wilcap through Alliance vendor Riley Auto, get a discount, win win.
I just recently purchased the same adapter.



Marcy

 

I bought a Bendsen's for my 55 Lincoln (LYB THM350), I am happy with the kit.

 

I bought a Bendston's kit for a 57' 365" Caddy. Make certain that you dry fit the mesh of the starter to the flywheel. After completely eating a ring gear I replaced it & had to mill approx. .040" off of the starter block to make the gears mesh correctly. Custom parts= trial & error.

 

I have that adapter from Wilcap in my sedan.Nice product.
I,d recommend Wilcap and I,d recommend Vaphead to buy it from.

 

Pat at Wilcap custom built the adapter for my Ford GAA using an old bellhousing, flywheel, photographs, and the measurements I sent him.

 

I have dealt with Pat at Wilcaps and purchased his adapter, I highly recommend him and his product and would not hesitate to continue purchasing from Wilcap .

 

Pat's a stand up guy. He's in the neighborhood and I have no problem giving him the highest recommendation.

Terry

 

Wilcap is nice quality and you can get new mopar mini starters with a guarantee on ebay for 80$..

 

thanks folks. that was helpful input. as you can see i took marcy's advice and joined the alliance. should save me a few bucks by the time i'm done buying stuff.

 

i only wish pat would get around to answering his emails.

 

Pat can be a little tardy at times but the products I purchased from him were top shelf quality.

 

I had a thought that you could possibly mount a TH400 from a 64-67 Cadillac to the older blocks without any major work. 64 was the first year of the 429, so I do not know if the bell pattern is the same as the 55-63 Cadillac engines. If it is then that would be another possiblity.

 

WILCAP! worth the wait

 

not really sure but i'd be surprised if that were the case. i thought there was a pretty significant change in the engines after 62.

i have a t400 sitting here from a 68 caprice, so that's what i'm going to use i guess.

 

Got to thinking, the 64 Cadillacs used both the TH400 and the DC hydro, so I would find it hard to believe that GM/Cadillac would've changed the bell pattern for the two transmissions. The same would apply for the 65-67 Cadillacs. I would definitely check this out, could end up alot less money than the Bendsten/Wilcap route.

 

I used Wilcap's adapter for t10 4 speed behind an early Cad. Pat is super to deal with and the fit and finish of the parts were second to none. One of the few actual aftermarket parts that I have installed that required absolutely no modification. The quality is definately worth the wait.

 

i used the wilcap adapter on my 56 cad to put a t400 behind it and it worked fine. i bought mine from speedway and it was cheaper than buying straight from wilcap