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Best resource for adapting a manual transmission to a Buick nailhead?


Centurion

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I received a telephone call yesterday from a friend who is an experienced engine rebuilder, but he has never rebuilt a Buick nailhead.

He has a customer who has purchased a 1962 Buick 401 nailhead, and the customer wants to put a manual transmission behind the nailhead and install the set-up in a 1950 Ford custom project.

He needs a manual transmission bell housing, clutch, flywheel, etc. Will he need a crankshaft, since the engine came out of a Dynaflow car? Is there an adapter available that will allow him to use a manual transmission?

Better still, can you point me to an expert individual who can answer all the nailhead questions? Thanks!

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  • 9 years later...
On 3/15/2015 at 11:41 PM, Centurion said:

I received a telephone call yesterday from a friend who is an experienced engine rebuilder, but he has never rebuilt a Buick nailhead.

He has a customer who has purchased a 1962 Buick 401 nailhead, and the customer wants to put a manual transmission behind the nailhead and install the set-up in a 1950 Ford custom project.

He needs a manual transmission bell housing, clutch, flywheel, etc. Will he need a crankshaft, since the engine came out of a Dynaflow car? Is there an adapter available that will allow him to use a manual transmission?

Better still, can you point me to an expert individual who can answer all the nailhead questions? Thanks!

Hi ! Im restoring my 1962 Buick electra 225 which has a 401CI nailhead engine. Need complete manual transmission to mate with this motor. Any help would be highly appreciated, I believe you had done the same earlier

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Over the 45+ years I have owned my '64 Riviera I have thought about a manual transmission a few times. I have also owned large cars with a big torquey engine with four speeds. I found myself not using 1st gear unless  was being a real Yahoo and "rowing the boat" became tedious.

 

My final choice, if I ever did pull the trigger, would be a Chevy close ratio three speed with something like a 3.55 gear set. Think about that for a bit and the Turbo 400 sounds just fine.

  • Haha 1
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