drhach

What's "van life"? All I can think of is this

Find your timing mark. Guessing at timing settings has its own set of risks. Too much advance or retard is not good for an engine.

I work with a lot of Engineers and "it's done" seems to be one of their favorite phrases. They always look so shocked when I counter with my favorite response, "well, what about...." and "you are aware that we can't ship it to the customer like this?" Sometimes I think "it's done" really means "we're tired of working on this, so we are moving on".

The 4 cylinder and the rack and pinion steering from that car have been very long lasting legacies in spite of the overall reputation of the car.

That Packard looks great. Did you do anything special regarding the care of the interior? Did you use it much? I'm curious what precautions need to be taken with fabric that old.

If your car "self identifies" as original that's no business of mine

A 1958 Roadmaster versus a 1965 Riviera? I don't think transmission had much to do with the Riv being faster The Riviera is probably 500 pounds lighter.

The ting that compliments 3D printning is 3D scanning. As Gary said, that's what's making the difference. I've seen a few of this guy's videos. Once this becomes accessible, I think think the game will change for those who want to adopt the technology. My wife had her knee replaced not too long ago. On the surgery table, they opened her knee, scanned it and 3D printed a replacement.

I think the "not feeling it shift" thing was actually a selling point. Buick owners didn't want harshness. These aren't Chevys.

All good points. As I said earlier, if I had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn't have bothered. So my "butt dyno" didn't register huge numbers I think R4 has OD which I agree would ultimately be a better choice. But still, I probably would just fix the Dynaflow. The car is what it is. If the OP really really wants to do the change, that's the final decision point.

That's part of it. There also are shear forces all through the system, not just the TC. These forces are inherent in a hydraulic system and they are additive. They can be more or less present based on design. The design of the Dynaflow consumes more horsepower than the design of the TH400. It's not just the torque converter. It's the whole package. Here are some common horsepower requirements for different GM transmissions. All are 1:1 at top gear. But you are going to use different amounts of power to sustain that speed. I doubt anyone has ever measured a Dynaflow just because it has never really been considered a viable transmission for performance work. GMPG 18 hpTH-350 36 hpTH-400 44 hp

Thsat isn't necessarily true. There are frictional losses that occur. It takes horsepower to run these things.

Here's the adapter I was telling you about. 57 to 63 pilot/ converter adaptor | Centerville Auto Rep (nailheadbuick.com) It looks like he also has (used) flex-plates for sale. I wanted to use the Buick kickdown just because it looks OEM. I'm sure there are a hundred other ways to go. I felt that the less I had to reinvent the wheel the better. If you have the yoke from the transmission that you're buying, you can use that one. If you can't get that, make sure you measure the of the bushing. Mine (1965) had a smaller diameter and less common yoke. I ended up changing the tailshaft housing to accept the more common bigger diameter unit. It just made finding parts easier. The seal and the bushing for the smaller diameter yoke are not terribly common. Here's a link to the thread about my car. I think I have some pictures and discussion there. Feel free to PM me. I can discuss it more or I can send you my phone number and we can talk. Not to be a broken record, but you still may want to try to get the Dynaflow working. It's probably your quickest and easiest path to driving the car.

I would say my fuel economy went from terrible to just pretty bad. Although I did add dual quads. So maybe I'm not the guy to ask about that. You can reuse the starter. You dont have to machine the crank. But you do need to get a spacer/ adapter. Centerville auto sells them. You do also need the flex plate. For that trans. You'll need to shorten the drive shaft and source a new yoke. Also you you'll need to work out a new trans mount and shift linkage. I modified my existing trans crossmember and used a generic shift linkage from Ebay. The current trans kickdown is mechanical. The 400 is electric. You can use a Buick st400 kickdown from a 65 or 66. They will have the circuit for the torque converter. I would also get that torque converter rebuilt. I have a nice used one if you're interested. I modified a shift quadrant from a 66 riviera for the new shift pattern

I've done that conversion on the exact same car. I'll be happy to answer any questions. It wasn't terribly complicated. I will say your quickest path to getting the car running is to rebuild the Dynaflow. I don't want to talk you out of the conversion if that's what you really want. But I will be honest that if I had it to do over again, I would have just stuck with the Dynaflow. It was fun to do the conversion and it was a good project, I learned a lot. But the net gain was not that significant. Regards, Dan

A manual transmission car is just an anti-theft device for pretty much anyone under 40.

I used to drive big trucks. I saw those units but never got to drive one. At this point, it probably will never happen. My first truck had a two-speed rear axle with a splitter on the transmission (1978 International Transtar II). 21 forward gears and manual steering. Most of the time you never used them all and you were just showing off if you did. With the narrow power range of most diesels, there were times when a slight change meant the difference between getting up a hill safely and blocking lots of traffic. You also get pretty good a floating gears instead of using a clutch. That's an even rarer skill than knowing how to drive a stick. Those were good days.

Reminds me of the Pink Panthermobile

How would you feel about driving around with a mini Hindenberg supported above your head? That looks terrifying.

Thanks, I'll call him Monday.

Is the BHA still in business? I've been trying for a few weeks to get a resposne about an order I placed.

How much you spend on them is what they're worth, right?

I could use a Carter 529S if you have one.

Now we're getting somewhere. Great picutres so far.

Is the 55 radio still tube? A modern radio probably will draw less amperage than the tube radio.