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Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: Magnum] #36014
04/30/07 09:02 PM
04/30/07 09:02 PM
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,011
Sunnyvale, CA.
3XCHARM Offline
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Quote:

I didn't really see much change in the mileage. The overdrive just allowed me to drive faster. Same when I lost the overdrive. I went back to driving slower on the highway and with the slower speeds, mileage didn't drop much if any at all.





If you put an overdrive in and then spin your motor up to the same rpm (going faster than your comparison speed) then no you wont see a mpg gain. But, if you go THE SAME SPEED then all things being equal the rpms will be lower and that is where you get the mpg increase.

Last edited by 3XCHARM; 04/30/07 09:04 PM.

1975 Ramcharger 6" lift 35" Mud Terrains 8 lug 44 front, 60 rear. (R.I.P.)
1976 D100 lowered 3" & 5" Now with a 440!!! (sold)
On the hunt for another beauty to build.
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: 3XCHARM] #36015
04/30/07 10:37 PM
04/30/07 10:37 PM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,833
Ontario Canada
Webster Offline
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Great Info Larry, is it in yet??

Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: Magnum] #36016
05/01/07 09:52 PM
05/01/07 09:52 PM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
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Quote:


I didn't really see much change in the mileage.




Boy I hope this is not true for me. I know of one truck like mine that has this done getting about 3-4mpg on the highway more than me. We'll see though. I know what my truck used to get and as soon as it's done I'll report the diffence.


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: adventurer] #36017
05/01/07 11:21 PM
05/01/07 11:21 PM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
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adventurer  Offline OP
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Well I knew it had to happen sooner or later I have run into the first few snags on installing the trans. Let me share a few pics and I'll explain.


The finished trans all ready to install. Now for the problem. The trans went in OK, bolted to engine just like it should. But when I postioned the trans where it needed to be it hit the floor pan with the two thing I have marked with purple arrows in the pictures above. Let me back track a minute, I knew where to position the trans based on my truck is setting on 4 jack stands. I placed a level on the breather before I ever took anything loose and recorded what it read. So with the a518 in place all I had to do was keep raising the trans till the level on the breather read like it did before I started. Now back to the interference problem. Passenger side a bolt boss, drivers side a pressure boss. Had I known before the trans went in it would have been an easy fix. But I didn't. The bolt boss was easy let the trans down some and cut it off with a sawzall. The other side was a lot trickier. Really hard to ding the floor pan in with the trans in the way. It would have taken about 5 minutes had I known ahead of time but live and learn.

Picture of clearence on passenger side after cutting.

Picture of drivers side after denting floor in tunnel area. These pics aren't to great best I could do in tight areas. On the dent in floor there is already a dimple in floor in front of where you need one you just have to dent the floor behind that. You can kind of tell that from the pics.
Next problem Cross member. I know Ric aka 77440se made his original cross member and mount work but after several test fits I really just didn't like the way it was working out. So I decided to go a differnt route. The original a518 mount bolts on to a plate with three mount holes. The front two holes line up almost exactly where the original mount in my truck was. So I have decided to get a brand x mount actually a mount from a 90' Chevy truck 305 700r4. It almost bolts perfectly to the trans just have to elongate the holes in the mount a little to the inside and it bolts right up to the trans.

From there I am going to have a single stud mount straight down to mount to a cross memeber that I am going to make from scratch from 2" 1/4"wall box tubing a cross memeber that will bolt up in the orignal place on the truck, (Yeah so I wasted all that time earlier drilling holes). Metal will be here tomorrow. I'll show you how I make this work out. I think it should be pretty sweet.


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: adventurer] #36018
05/03/07 12:56 AM
05/03/07 12:56 AM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
super stock
adventurer  Offline OP
super stock

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It's beer:30 somewhere
Well tonight I got my crossmember pretty well made. It is just tack welded together at this point but heres a picture so you can get an idea of what I'm doing. Tomorrow it will be welded together very well and ready to install.


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: adventurer] #36019
05/03/07 05:05 AM
05/03/07 05:05 AM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,788
Hamilton, Ontario Canada
Magnum Offline
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Magnum  Offline
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Hamilton, Ontario Canada
Quote:

Quote:


I didn't really see much change in the mileage.




Boy I hope this is not true for me. I know of one truck like mine that has this done getting about 3-4mpg on the highway more than me. We'll see though. I know what my truck used to get and as soon as it's done I'll report the diffence.




You're taking this quote out of context adventurer. Let me explain in numbers.

I was getting about 18mpg. Mixed city and highway with my 360 Ram. Confident it was over 20 straight highway but that's beside the point here. During my highway commute I regularly drove 120km/hr @ 2100rpm.

When I lost the od in my 518 I continued to drive it for the rest of the year using D on the highway. Not comfortable with the high Rpm's in 3rd with 3.55's. I decided to drive 100-105km/hr.
My mileage stayed around 17-18mpg.

Didn't actually try to test mileage in 3rd at 120km/hr but I'm sure it would have been less.


69 Super Bee, 93 Mustang LX, 04 Allure Super
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: Magnum] #36020
05/10/07 03:02 AM
05/10/07 03:02 AM
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 762
Ca
7
76440 Offline
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Posts: 762
Ca
How is the swap going?

Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: 76440] #36021
06/11/07 01:10 AM
06/11/07 01:10 AM
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,011
Sunnyvale, CA.
3XCHARM Offline
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No more updates? I am dying to see what has become of the tranny mount.


1975 Ramcharger 6" lift 35" Mud Terrains 8 lug 44 front, 60 rear. (R.I.P.)
1976 D100 lowered 3" & 5" Now with a 440!!! (sold)
On the hunt for another beauty to build.
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: 3XCHARM] #36022
06/28/07 12:17 AM
06/28/07 12:17 AM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
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adventurer  Offline OP
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It's beer:30 somewhere
Well hello all. I am sorry for the long time between updates here but I had some problems. I had a two period there that I was down and out with a back injury and couldn't work on it and I have a home remodel project that seems to have taken over my life that put a real slow down on this project. Also I was taking pictures all along of the progress and my Daughter deleted all of the new pics on the camera by accident. So all pictures from here on out are after everything is in place and running. So I left off on the cross member. I got the cross member all made and had it powder coated. I have access to a powder coater so I can get that done for free.
Turned out nice. I changed the mount I used a Napa #620-1070 instead of the #620-1233 I have pictured. The stud is offset a bit and made everything line up better with the orignal mounting holes.


So now that worked out nice and it was time to make the shifter linkage bracket on the trans bell. I made it out of 3/16" plate formed it around the bell made an L in it to mount the shifter bracket and drilled and tapped two hole in the bell housing. Also had to make a little bracket to attach the kickdown cable return spring. These two brackets have arrows pointing at them.

Next on to the pressure switches, the pressure switches go into the trans at the pressure port that is shown in picture #14 of the post. It is a 1/4" pipe plug locatated just in front of the purple arrow in that picture. You will need to be sure you have floor pan clearence here as well. I used a short 1/4" nipple out of the trans then a 90 degree fitting a couple of 1" long nippels and a tee to plumb this for the 44psi & 52 psi switches. 44psi is for the overdrive and 52 psi is for the lockup torque converter. On a side note I used the A518 flex plate it bolted right up to my crank and of course it bolted up to torque converter.

Vacum switch was installed on frame rail, vacum line ran from vacum port behind carb.

The wiring of all this is pretty straight forward.
You run a switched power wire with an inline fuse to the vacum switch. Then run the other lead of it to the middle wire on the three wire trans plugin. The other two wires of the trans plug are to establish ground not power. Front wire is overdrive, rear wire is lockup. Take the front wire on the trans plug run it to a toggle switch which I mounted in an already drill hole in my dash, run from the toggle switch to one side of the 44psi switch. Don't hook the other side of the psi switches to anything they are self grounding when they get to the desired pressure. Run the rear wire from the trans plug to the 52psi switch and your done wiring.
Now onto the kickdown cable I used Lokar cable #KD-272HT. Worked like a charm after fabricting more brackets. I had to make brackets at the carb so the cable would be pulled as I step on the gas pedal also a small L braket to hold the cable still. Brackets have arrows pointing to them.

On the cable at the trans I used the orignal cable bracket from the A518 to mount the cable.

I had to use my orignal shift lever for the trans as the hole where the shift linkage clipped to was to large. The shift lever simply unbolts and the orignal one bolted right on. Kickdown lever is the A518 one. Used orignal 727 dipstick & tube. Seemed to read right with fluid. Made new trans lines you'll have to get a couple of adapter fitting for you lines.
Well at this point I'm pretty close and then I ran into a big problem. I hadn't put the starter in yet. So I got to put it in place and low and behold it won't fit. I try to put it in the bell housing it stops about 1/2-3/4" short of bolting flush to the bell housing. I work and work and it still don't fit Finally I get the starter one time to sort of start into place so I think the bolts will pull on in. BAD IDEA

Broke the nose right off the starter. So this is on a Sunday no way to call the people that made the bell to get help. So I guess that maybe they made the Bell for a late model mini starter. So I go get a mini starter. The mini starter won't go either. To line up with pilot hole in the bell where the nose on the starter goes the mini starter is hitting the block. So I quit for that day. Monday morning I am on the phone with JW trying to figure out the problem, "we've never had a problem out of these bells" I'm told. "If you'll ship the bell and both starters to use we'll figure it out". This means pulling everything and I do mean everything back apart as this was one of the last things I was doing. I didn't want to but I didn't know what else to do. So apart all my hard work comes. Only good thing about taking this all back out now I could make better dents in the floor pan for clearence, remember dent the floor before installing the trans. So now with the trans in the floor I get to trying to figure out the problem. I find that with the old big starter the pilot hole is to small for the nose of my starter to go in. Either my starter nose is bigger than most or they miss machined the bell. My vote is the later (miss machined). So now for the mini starter the nose goes in the hole but lacks about 1/8" of completely seating against the bell. I look at it close. There is no bevel to the edge of the pilot hole in the bell and the starter has a small raised area on it that with no bevel won't go all the way in. so I think easy fix on that just bevel the pilot hole on the bell. I did and now the starter goes all the way in. But I still had a problem with the mini starter hitting the block. So I had another bare 440 block in the garage, I took the bell off the trans and bolted it to the 440 block, put the mini starter up there and it hit the block Now what? So I get to reading some tech articles on Moparts (Thanks Moparts )about mini starters on big blocks hitting the block and having to grind the body of the starter a little and thats what I did and it bolted right up. So with all these issues figured out its back together with it all. But I bolted the starter up as soon as I had the trans in place this time rather than last thing. It fit like a glove, YEAH. So I warn all of you that are using the ultra bell be sure before you ever install it take your starter an fit it into the bell housing. Such a small detail cost me a lot of time and a lot of cusing.
So now that all that was in place I got it finished bolted up. Hooked all my wiring back up, refilled with fluid. Adjusted the kickdown cable per instruction which is to have no slack in cable, as soon as you step on the throttle it should be pulling on the kickdown cable. On first test drive I found this not quite the right adjustment as the trans held the shift from 2nd to 3rd really long and when it shifted it was very harsh. I readjusted it to have about 1/8" slack at idle and it shifted like a champ. Everything worked perfect. I drove it today for the first time put several miles on it, worked great . Trans shifts smooth and easy downshifts very well. Overdrive seems to come on at about 48-50mph step on the throtle vacum drops and it makes it drop right out of overdrive just like it should couldn't ask for any better. So far I like it. I can tell a big differnce in the rpms at highway speed just from listening. Don't have a tach to say (some of you know why but thats a whole nother story) but I'd say at least 1000rpm less than normal. Don't have enough miles to say what kind of mpg differnce it made. I know for sure what I got before. So I will report that as I know. Now in conclusion on this long winded post. Is it worth it to overdrive? It's more work than I thought it would be. More fabricating and figuring out things than I thought there would be. I'd say it's not all that hard most any of you could do it. Even with all the trouble spots I have had it hasn't been that bad other than the starter issue. Remember check the starter first thing & ding the floor pan before the trans is in. I think fabbing a cross memeber is a better deal than tring to make the orignal work. Worked better for me. As of right now I'd say I can tell a big difference in the way the truck drives. Shifts so well and just all around seems better. I like it. I will let you know about mileage as soon as I have a true figure. I have a 100 mile drive coming up to Knoxville TN on July 14th so I should get some good data on highway milage then.
I hope you found all this useful and not to boring. If you have any question about how I did anything or how any of this worked just ask I'll do my best to answer. I will be more available now than I have been.
Thanks
Larry

Last edited by adventurer; 06/29/07 12:42 AM.

77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: adventurer] #36023
06/28/07 12:56 AM
06/28/07 12:56 AM
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,011
Sunnyvale, CA.
3XCHARM Offline
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Sunnyvale, CA.
Wow, very comprehensive and helpful!


I think I have finally made my decision about doing this swap as well. Now I just need to find a 518 and get me a JW Bell!

Thanx a whole heap for the pics. adventurer!



1975 Ramcharger 6" lift 35" Mud Terrains 8 lug 44 front, 60 rear. (R.I.P.)
1976 D100 lowered 3" & 5" Now with a 440!!! (sold)
On the hunt for another beauty to build.
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: 3XCHARM] #36024
06/29/07 12:34 AM
06/29/07 12:34 AM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
super stock
adventurer  Offline OP
super stock

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Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
Your Welcome.


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: adventurer] #36025
06/29/07 11:47 AM
06/29/07 11:47 AM
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 102
Round Rock, Tx
PlumCrazyChris Offline
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Round Rock, Tx
Larry that is an awesome post, so well put together and excellent explanations. I think if the conversion was hard for you, then you just made it MUCH easier for everyone else that will follow in your footsteps. I just copied your post into a doc. I hope you don't mind, to share with the other members of the Austin Mopar club. I think a lot of them will be very interested in this conversion now that you've laid it all out for them.

I think your right about fabbing your own crossmember, I was kinda leery about cutting up my original anyway.

Thanks so much for sharing all your hard work! I'm sure I'll have many more questions to come with my own overdrive conversion.

Chris


VP of Mopar Muscle Cars of Austin
70 Challenger
www.mopar.org
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: PlumCrazyChris] #36026
06/29/07 05:36 PM
06/29/07 05:36 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,077
Oklahoma City
Jwilli500 Offline
top fuel
Jwilli500  Offline
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Posts: 2,077
Oklahoma City
Hey Mods! this thread needs to be archived!

Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: Jwilli500] #36027
06/29/07 10:47 PM
06/29/07 10:47 PM
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,011
Sunnyvale, CA.
3XCHARM Offline
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Sunnyvale, CA.
Quote:

Hey Mods! this thread needs to be archived!




I Second That!


1975 Ramcharger 6" lift 35" Mud Terrains 8 lug 44 front, 60 rear. (R.I.P.)
1976 D100 lowered 3" & 5" Now with a 440!!! (sold)
On the hunt for another beauty to build.
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: PlumCrazyChris] #36028
06/29/07 11:35 PM
06/29/07 11:35 PM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
super stock
adventurer  Offline OP
super stock

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Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
Quote:

Larry that is an awesome post, so well put together and excellent explanations. I think if the conversion was hard for you, then you just made it MUCH easier for everyone else that will follow in your footsteps. I just copied your post into a doc. I hope you don't mind, to share with the other members of the Austin Mopar club. I think a lot of them will be very interested in this conversion now that you've laid it all out for them.

I think your right about fabbing your own crossmember, I was kinda leery about cutting up my original anyway.

Thanks so much for sharing all your hard work! I'm sure I'll have many more questions to come with my own overdrive conversion.

Chris



Thanks Chris,
I'm glad you really liked it, I hope it helps you or someone else along the way.
A couple of things to consider that I didn't say before about doing this conversion. This is in a truck application, in a car your going to have a whole nother set of floor pan issues. Also I am running a steel crank 440 engine. On steel crank engines they are internally balanced, no added weight on torque converter. If you are running a cast crank 440 engine you will need a balanced flex plate or some kind of a balanced torque converter. Maybe one from a 360 would work not sure on that someone better on transmission could answer that. Or maybe knock the weight off your 440 T.C. and tack weld it to the Lockup T.C. in the postion it was on the 440 T.C. On the cross memeber deal, I could have made the original work without cutting it by drilling the holes I did and didn't use in the early part of this post and then fabbing some kind of mount from the trans to it. But you have to space the orignial cross memeber about 3/4-1" away from frame rail at top with long bolts and washers and I just didn't like the way it was working out. I like mine better. It fits well and is solid as a rock.
Larry


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: adventurer] #36029
06/30/07 12:03 AM
06/30/07 12:03 AM
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 2,590
Piqua, Ohio
dodgeram440 Offline
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Piqua, Ohio
Quote:

Also I am running a steel crank 440 engine. On steel crank engines they are internally balanced, no added weight on torque converter. If you are running a cast crank 440 engine you will need a balanced flex plate or some kind of a balanced torque converter. Maybe one from a 360 would work not sure on that someone better on transmission could answer that. Or maybe knock the weight off your 440 T.C. and tack weld it to the Lockup T.C. in the postion it was on the 440 T.C.
Larry




I wasn't aware that the cast crank 440s had weights on the converter or flexplate. My cast crank 440 has a balancer that says "used on cast cranks only". Am I still going to need a weighted converter to put my 727 behind it in my truck? I don't have the original converter anymore so I can't verify if it had any weights on it.

Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: dodgeram440] #36030
06/30/07 12:16 AM
06/30/07 12:16 AM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
super stock
adventurer  Offline OP
super stock

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Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere





I wasn't aware that the cast crank 440s had weights on the converter or flexplate. My cast crank 440 has a balancer that says "used on cast cranks only". Am I still going to need a weighted converter to put my 727 behind it in my truck? I don't have the original converter anymore so I can't verify if it had any weights on it.



Yes you will need a torque converter with a weight or an aftermarket flexplate that is weighted.


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: dodgeram440] #36031
07/03/07 06:31 PM
07/03/07 06:31 PM
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 102
Round Rock, Tx
PlumCrazyChris Offline
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PlumCrazyChris  Offline
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 102
Round Rock, Tx
Quote:

Quote:

Also I am running a steel crank 440 engine. On steel crank engines they are internally balanced, no added weight on torque converter. If you are running a cast crank 440 engine you will need a balanced flex plate or some kind of a balanced torque converter. Maybe one from a 360 would work not sure on that someone better on transmission could answer that. Or maybe knock the weight off your 440 T.C. and tack weld it to the Lockup T.C. in the postion it was on the 440 T.C.
Larry




I wasn't aware that the cast crank 440s had weights on the converter or flexplate. My cast crank 440 has a balancer that says "used on cast cranks only". Am I still going to need a weighted converter to put my 727 behind it in my truck? I don't have the original converter anymore so I can't verify if it had any weights on it.




Or you just need an earlier 518 thats not a lockup, then you can use any torque converter, stock or aftermarket for your application. I knew aftermarket converter will run $2-300 I bet. and LU converter selection is limited.

Larry were able to find a LU converter for yours?


VP of Mopar Muscle Cars of Austin
70 Challenger
www.mopar.org
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: PlumCrazyChris] #36032
07/03/07 06:46 PM
07/03/07 06:46 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 3,934
Nova Scotia Canada B2Y 1E4
SANDYinNS Canada Offline
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Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

Also I am running a steel crank 440 engine. On steel crank engines they are internally balanced, no added weight on torque converter. If you are running a cast crank 440 engine you will need a balanced flex plate or some kind of a balanced torque converter. Maybe one from a 360 would work not sure on that someone better on transmission could answer that. Or maybe knock the weight off your 440 T.C. and tack weld it to the Lockup T.C. in the postion it was on the 440 T.C.
Larry




I wasn't aware that the cast crank 440s had weights on the converter or flexplate. My cast crank 440 has a balancer that says "used on cast cranks only". Am I still going to need a weighted converter to put my 727 behind it in my truck? I don't have the original converter anymore so I can't verify if it had any weights on it.




Or you just need an earlier 518 thats not a lockup, then you can use any torque converter, stock or aftermarket for your application. I knew aftermarket converter will run $2-300 I bet. and LU converter selection is limited.

Larry were able to find a LU converter for yours?





440/400 have the same weights if they are cast crank motors.(340 cast crank , 360 and 360 magnum are all different weights!) Most of the cast crank c body converters are 12" narrow ring gear and take a different flex plate than the wide ring gear 11" verson.

The above convertors are non l/u You can weld the weights from a 440 cast crank converter to any converter you swap in there. I've had to do it for customers with 360's 400's you name it.

Watch out for 518 convertors that DO NOT have the one offset bolt. You could probably use one on a 440 cast crank with the coresponding flex plate but you would have to do serious figuring and marking where the weight would go!


Sandy in Nova Scotia formerly drdodge340
68 coronet wagon, 68 formula s 340 fb barracuda-69 super bee-72 aussie charger-72 aussie vh dodge ute
-76 feather duster-76 duster-77 street van
- 98 ram 1500 SS/T-99 ram 1500-13 ram red express truck- 2015 hellcat challenger
Re: Big block a518 overdrive conversion (lots of pics) [Re: PlumCrazyChris] #36033
07/04/07 07:52 AM
07/04/07 07:52 AM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere
adventurer Offline OP
super stock
adventurer  Offline OP
super stock

Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,093
It's beer:30 somewhere







Larry were able to find a LU converter for yours?



Yes, I'm running a Lock-up on mine. The lockup is supposed to give the most mileage increase over the nonlockup. So when I was hunting the trans I made sure I found a LU.


77 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd SWB
78 Dodge Adventurer SE 440 2wd Utiline
90 Dodge D150 SWB 2wd 318fi 4speed
60 Desoto Adventurer 2dr
67 Dodge Dart Gt Conv. 273 4bbl
04 PT Cruiser GT Turbo
14 Ram R/T
"Life's to short to drink cheap beer."
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