Posted 2013-12-15 8:50 AM (#416404 - in reply to #416371) Subject: Re: B, RB engine/Trans adaptor.
Expert
Posts: 1742 Location: Alaska
Can you just imagine putting 375-400 HP or more into an old Ferd 3 speed trans! These old adapters were made for the guys that didn't have the money to build it right or didn't have room for a real trans!
Posted 2013-12-23 9:35 AM (#417956 - in reply to #416404) Subject: Re: B, RB engine/Trans adaptor.
Inactive by user's request
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
58coupe - 2013-12-15 5:50 AM
Can you just imagine putting 375-400 HP or more into an old Ferd 3 speed trans! These old adapters were made for the guys that didn't have the money to build it right or didn't have room for a real trans!
Agreed. I don't know much about the earlier Ford manual transmissions, but I don't think Henry's boys were contemplating that somebody would be using those units behind mills cranking out three times the torque and horsepower they were designing them for.
As the owner of two stick '59 Plymouths which will retain their original type trannys as long as I own them, I can say that it was pushing the limits with just a 318 four barrel in front of those. Yes, you could get them behind some of the B blocks and Hemis, but they were still based on a 1940s design meant for flat head sixes and eights.
Old-timers used to tell me the La Salle transmission was the best vintage transmission to put behind a newer or hot rodded original engine during the 1950s.
This reminds me of people during the late 1970s who tried using Vega torque converters behind built GM engines as they acted like a high stall unit in a Turbo 350 or Turbo 400. They were cheap and worked until they exploded and destroyed the front of the transmission.
I suppose it would be a piece for a trailered show rod built to old time specs as a historical piece.
Posted 2013-12-24 12:17 AM (#418111 - in reply to #416371) Subject: Re: B, RB engine/Trans adaptor.
Expert 5K+
Posts: 8948 Location: WHEELING,WV.>>>HOME OF WWVA
it's not the HP alone that would blast those old trans. . mostly it was death by traction , like 10" slicks ---------------------------------------later