360 had a granny gear four speed looking to put it in place of a 318 with overdrive. Does the np435 bell housing have dual bolt patterns? Will the bell and flywheel work with the 833 od?. Do they take the same clutch and spline count?

I'd use the 318 bell, clutch and get the correct flywheel for the 360.

I'd look at your bellhousing. Many only had one pattern. (Either a 435 or an 833.) I think some multi-pattern bellhousings were made though.

The 360 takes a unique flywheel. These engines were externally balanced. The 318 flywheel will bolt onto a 360, but it is not weighted correctly. Incidentally, the LA 360 and the magnum 360 also require different flywheel weights.

If you need to buy a flywheel, make sure it is the right diameter for the bellhousing being used. (Count the teeth.)

The NP435 flywheel is 143 teeth. Also, the clutch from the NP435 should be 12" and 23 spline. The 833OD also uses a 23 spline clutch.

NP435 bell

833OD bell (the overdrive bell has larger retainer hole than the regular car 833 bell)

If they made a dual pattern bell housing, the 833od should bolt up. The input retainer diameter is the same. I think you will find that to replace the 318 with the 360 that you will need to keep the 833od bell housing and buy a new 360 flywheel for it. I believe the np435 uses a 143 tooth flywheel and the 883od uses a 130 tooth flywheel.

It looks like both bell housings have dual bolt patterns.

But neither has both the 435 and 833 patterns

Here is the 833/435 dual pattern bell. This is the hard to find BB bell. I've never seen a SB bell like this.
As stated the 435 bell uses the 143T wheel
The 833 bell uses the 130T wheel. You can find a 130T 360 wheel or McLeod make 360 balance weights for their 130T wheel.

I may have been thinking of the multi-pattern bellhousing that Moparmarks posted. After thinking about it, I'm not positive the multi-pattern bellhousing I saw was for a small block. It was years ago.....so I can't say with 100% confidence which engine it fit. The guy who had the bellhousing LOVED 440 powered W350 trucks with the 435 transmission. He built several trucks with that drive train that he used for towing.

They made some bellhousings in the later 1980's that had a hydraulic clutch. Does anyone happen to recall if those were those multi-pattern?

Pic of smallblock hydrobell.

Make sure to grab the 2 piece driveshaft and carrier bearing from the NP435 donor truck.

Did the hydraulic clutch make it easier to depress the clutch? The reason for the question is my knees have some arthritis. I'm concerned that in the future pushing a clutch pedal will become an issue. I'm assuming pedal effort is more closely related to the springs in the pressure plate than to the clutch linkage. Anyone happen to have any thoughts or experience on this matter?

The hydraulic setups I've seen have a diaphragm pressure plate. The older mechanical setups use the B&B.

I currently have a 5 speed with the hydraulic clutch. Having had mechanical clutch linkage in the past, I would say the hydro is easier on my old knee (I'm 67), but like mentioned earlier, it does have a diaphragm pressure plate. That could be a big part of the easier pedal push.

The hydro clutch seems to have a bit slower clutch engagement then the mechanical linkage used to have, but the difference only shows up when you dump the clutch or shift fast (again, that could be the pressure plate). Under normal driving conditions its very hard to detect. If you don't intend to do much "racing" it works out OK, I believe it might show up in time slips. For the occasional burn out, or rubber in 2nd, it still works OK once you get used to it Clutches seem to last a lot longer then they did when I was younger, but that probably doesn't have anything to do with the hydro / mechanical thing though.

i think maybe the biggest difference between the mechanical and the hydro is the hydro is consonant from start of pedal movement until its finished. There is little effort required to hold the pedal down at a traffic light (it about like holding your foot on the brake pedal at a stop light), and there is not that hard spot in the center of the pedal travel. The hydro seems to reduce the shock to the drive train, but that too could just be my old age.