The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts bell housing

any one know if its possible to mate a sm420 to a chevy 350 that has the mounts on each side as opposed to the bell housing's that mount on an angle?
I want to put a crate 350 in my 51 coe but want to use the original trans mount and only have to fabricate the front mounts.
Hope I explained it correct
Thanks
chris

Hy 51chris, if I'm understanding your question correctly, you want to use the V8 engines side mounts, but you do not want to adapt the angle mounts of the cast iron V8 bellhousing to the stock engine rear crossmember which uses a flat mount system. How do you propose to support the rear of the engine/transmission? I am not a cabover expert but I thought the rear support of the stock engine was at the bellhousing rather than at the transmission.

I think he wants to use the old 53 on back trans mounts under the bell housing. I just don't think there is a bell housing like that that will bolt to the v-8 engine.

Any typical V8 bellhousing should work then. I'm not sure how big the front bearing retainer is on the 420's, if it's bigger than a typical Muncie or Saginaw then you may need to use a truck style bellhousing with a larger center hole. The transmission to bellhousing bolt pattern is the same as any typical 3 or 4 speed passenger car and truck trans.

I'm not familiar with the COEs so I'm just assuming that they have a provision for a trans mount on the 420. Most SM420s do not have a mount on them that I know of. I'm sure one could be fabricated to integrate with the rear bearing retainer housing though.

Most 420's have the small retainer diameter, if your bellhousing has the 5.125" bore, Advance Adapters make a sleeve to take up the difference, cheaper than making your own unless you have that size stock laying around.

Ed

I have my 420 mounted to a 454 and use the Transmission mounts. Ann I do believe the hole is the smaller one on the BH I used.

hi
thanks for the responses. I want to use the same style bell housing(supports the engine & trans) but one to accept a v8. Sounds like what I want to does not exist.
Thanks for the suggestions
Chris

What you need is a bellhousing #3815891. This has the smaller bearing retainer plate hole. It also has the angled mounting for the crossmember to support the rear of the engine and your SM420. PM me if you need help with getting one of these bellhosuings.

There is a tech tip about bellhosuings. http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/engines/bellhousings.html

His truck being a 51 does not use angled mounts on the belhousing, they are more like 90* mounts.
If first swap the crossmember from a 54 or early 55 he could use bellhousing with angled mounts.

Hi Grigg
So I assume the bell housing I'm looking for does not exist? Maybe no bell housings were built for a v8 with 90 degree mounts ??

Thanks for everyones input.
Much appreciated.
Chris
I

I was not sure myself but I gather from the replies that you are correct.

I'm not surprised that no such thing exists because the angled mounts came about in 54 and the second Chevy V8 (first one in 1917-18) came later than that and would have never needed the older style mounts.

The cleanest way to use flywheel housing rear engine mounts with the V8 would be the early housing as mentioned and swap your crossmember to one from a 1954-55 truck.

Or possibly use a fabricated steel housing and weld on original type mount provisions, if there is even room, not sure it would work well/fit the same.

Grigg

The crossmember the bellhousing attaches to can be interchanged so the V8 bellhousing will bolt to the earlier frame. It's not a particularly difficult swap. That's the only way you're going to end up with the bellhousing you want in the pre-54 frame.
Jerry

I am about done with adapter to put a v8 in a frame that uses the 90 degree bellhousing mount with out changing the cross member if this would help let me know dhamann@wbyte.com