55 pontiac help
 

hi guys, new to the forum. im building a 55 starcheif and the orig engine is tired. so i located a 59 389 thats a complete and good running engine. my question is, what trans will bolt up to the engine and orig crossmember. i know the orig trans flywheel would need to be modified to clear the crank. im trying to avoid that. will a 56-58 trans bolt up to both crank and rear mounts. ive searched all over the place and cant seem to come up with a awnser. i also checked my hollender and it says that 58 is different then 56-57. i know that 58 still used the side mount motor mounts but is it still in the same location as 55-57. thanks for any help....john

You didn't say Hydra-Matic or standard transmission.

Find some info on Larry Gorden's site here http://www.pontiacsafari.com/L1Garag...ions/index.htm
and here http://www.pontiacsafari.com/L1Garag...eID/index.html

Manual transmission bellhousings are grouped 55, 56-57, and 58-60. They will all bolt to any 55-60 engine. 55-57 has the unique Buick standard tranny pattern. 58 and newer adopted the "GM standard" pattern for transmissions.

sorry, automatic.

I put a 59 engine in my 55 when I was 18 yrs old. I used the 55 trans beefed up by hydromatic hydro of Chicago. Great trans. Yup flywheel needed work. I used the cast iron timing cover from the 55 engine on the 59 engine and also used the coolant tubes from the 55 on the 59 heads. Used the front engine mount on the cast iron timing cover. Car ran great and never broke anything. Surprised a lot of Chevy guys on the street which was a lot of fun in the early 60s. Car was a ball. Then I got married. Mistake.

As for '56-58 HydraMatic mounts- I should remember, but don't for sure (hell, it was only 55 years ago!). I ran both a '55 Hydro and a dual-coupling hydro at different times in a Pontiac-powered '57 Chevy- seems to me I had to do some adapting of mounts between the two hydro's.
Fitting a '55 hydro flywheel onto a '59 crank only needs a very small amount of metal removed from the crank flange's counterweight. I used a lathe to chamfer the counterweight of a '59 crank, but you could easily do it with a hand grinder. It isn't enough weight removed to affect engine balance (I ran such a combo to 7,200 rpm with no problems).

[How about adding "location" to your public profile?]

thank you, im in ct

I also used an early hydro to a '59 engine. I don't remember having to modify the motor mounts on the bell housing but I forgot about the torus cover [think torque converter] problem . I had to slide the entire transmission back to grind the crank flange edge. I was lucky I didn't tear a pump out of that transmission having driven it about 6 miles before grinding the crank flange.
Yeah, it had a pretty bad leak !

55-60 trans will bolt up to 55-60 engine. 56 dual-range trans is same as 55 trans except for a few internal differences. 56 Strato-Flight (aka dual coupling) and 57 will bolt into the 55 with a 56 or 57 crossmember, which will bolt in to the 55. For 58, you would need the 56 Strato-Flight or 57 crossmember and then make a couple of adapter plates to bolt up the 58 trans.

59-60 trans will bolt up to earlier engine but they don't have rear engine mounts. That would be a problem.

thank you

ok,so im almost done with the long block for my 55. i would like to go to a spin on oil filter. ive been doing a bunch of reading and cant really find a awnser. what do i need to do the swap. will a 60 housing fit on my 59 block. or will a later housing work? there isnt even a adaptor offered anywhere unless im a idiot and not looking in the right place. i think the last time i posted on here i had bought a used 389 from a local wrecking yard, that has since changed. i was able to find a rebuilt 59 389 short block on facebook marketplace. i wound up taking the heads off the used engine and having them rebuilt by a local machine shop, so now im putting it all back together. thanks guys for any help......john

I put a '77 oil filter housing on my '57 347. As far as I know, the bolt and gasket pattern are the same for all real Pontiac V8s. Only differences are whether the filter mounts 90 degrees (straight down), leans in a bit towards the centerline of the engine or (very rare) leans towards the rear axle.

55-79 filter mounts all interchange. There are mounts/adapters all over Ebay.
There are some frame & manifold considerations... But not in a '55.

thanks guys, i really appreciate the help....john

When I did my 55 with 59 389 engine back in 60s I had extra flywheel torus cover. Looked at both of them and chose the original. I fired up car on Jack stands fluid running out of rear of engine! After 2nd episode, I started thinking humm what's the problem, seal? Then I read BMs catalog-- modified flywheel! Looked close at 389 crank and 287 crank now I see difference.then I had flywheel modified (didnt think grind crank). When I got modified flywheel back I compared to flywheel I didnt initially use,they were the same 50/50 chance and I chose wrong one! I had guy rebuild slant pan wow almost knock the windows out of car on full throttle shifts with 4.33 gears. I used 65 GTO heads and intake.I would use late model trans if I were doing it again. Yes I surprised myself and a few other guys never had it on strip. Poor afraid to break something.