t-5 behind an Olds Rocket 324

Ok, now that I have built the Hudson mostly with what I had layin around and was able to put a bunch of fairly trouble free miles on it I want to change a few things to try and make it a little bit more of an older style hot rod. First thing I would like to tackle is to put an Olds Rocket 324 in it with a t5 manual behind. I already have a 30 over '56 Olds 324 and factory manual tranny. The tranny I have is the 3 speed selector that came factory in my buddies '56 Olds 88. The only reason I do not want to run the 3 spd is no overdrive. I have plans on driving my Hudson down to the salt flats in a couple of years and try for the 130 mph club and the 1:1 final drive is just not what I am after. I have done a bunch of figuring with one of the online drive line calculators and the 3 spd is gonna have me revving too high. I know there are a few companies that make adapters to make this happen but I would like to know if anyone has mated the t5 to the 324 with out spending the big bucks on adapter kits plus I like backyard home made tricks and tech. If anyone has any info that would be great. Ya I've done a ton of research on the HAMB and could not find the answers I was looking for. Here's a pic of the 324 I am going to put in with the 3 spd that I want to sell to help fund this swap.

Cool mill, and even more cool that it was a stick to start with...........so many of these were automatics. What does the aftermarket adapter look like? Is is a simple plate or a complete bellhousing? Reason I ask is if it is a plate it would be easy to fab up one, but if it is a bellhousing, not so easy. There is also probably a pilot bearing adapter involved.

Sometimes it is just better to bite the bullet and buy a readily available part and move on to other things in the build. I wrestled for a while with the same decision and finally bought that $ 1000 adapter setup from Bendtsens Transmissions to mate my 394 Olds to a TH350. Glad I did, it is a quality piece and will now allow me to just bolt the two together and concentrate on the rest of the car.

How much is the aftermarket adapter for your application?

Don

Just to toss a possible stupid idea up, there is no overdrive unit that you can find that would help your overall ratio? http://www.gearvendors.com/testimonials.html

Appears to be somwhat pricey, but depending on what you are looking at for the adapter may not seem as steep. Maybe it's me but I'd probably try to use the 3 speed, but then again I do prefer to drive a manual.

I think you will need a bell housing from a 50 Olds or Caddy, one year only. The one you have probably has the input bearing in the bell housing, kind of a weird arrangement. Although you might get it machined or an adapter made. I made my own adapter to put a T5 onto my 63 Ford 260.

Ford and gm have fairly short input shafts so you may be able to build the 'missing' part to pair the t-5 to the 324. You have about ½ of the depth already covered.
Do you have access to a milling machine and a lathe? A similar project was discussed on the Hamb regarding a 331 Hemi which has a similar 'extension'.
See if this link works.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=326725&page=2

I am currently talking with a guy at Bendtsens and he said that they sell the bell housing for $325.00. I don't think I can do it any cheaper. So I'm gonna put the above tranny and bell housing for sale. I am waiting to hear back from him to tell me what bolt pattern and input shaft length tranny I will need for their bell housing.
This is the place that sells them.
http://www.transmissionadapters.com/coments.htm

hudsonhotrod said:

I am currently talking with a guy at Bendtsens and he said that they sell the bell housing for $325.00. I don't think I can do it any cheaper. So I'm gonna put the above tranny and bell housing for sale. I am waiting to hear back from him to tell me what bolt pattern and input shaft length tranny I will need for their bell housing.
This is the place that sells them.
http://www.transmissionadapters.com/coments.htm

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Back in the 70's I did a very similar swap using the 324 Olds in a 55 Chev pu. After burning up a bunch of hydros, I lucked upon a Speed Gems aluminum bellhousing and flywheel/ clutch for the Olds. I had a local guy with a lathe make an adaptor to fit a Chevy pilot bearing into the crank, not to difficult to do. I redrilled the bellhousing to bolt up a Muncie 4 speed and made a ring out of sheetmetal to bush up the size of the throwout bearing housing to fit the bellhousing and I was off to the races !!
Here's the amazing thing - I came across Bendtsens after seeing a magazine article and emailed him, seems he aquired the old Speed Gems name and some patterns and produces a similar bellhousing to the old one I had.
You've got a real rare thing having an original standard tranny setup - it was a major point of pride for Oldsmobile that they were the first US maker to introduce a mass produced automatic tranny, standards are very uncommon, in fact their 4 speed Hydramatic trannys were used by other auto makers, my 55 Chev pickup even had one behind the 6cyl.
Another route you may be able to go is to use a 3/4" aluminum plate type adaptor with countersunk bolts to mount to the stock bellhousing then drill it for the T5, make a pilot bushing adaptor and find a throwout bearing to match up to the Olds pressure plate. Since the Olds flywheel is pretty beefy you may also want to redrill it to a bolt pattern for a more commonly available pressure plate like a Chevy one, then it makes it easier to match the throwout bearing to it.
It's great to see another vintage mill being kept alive - those Olds engines are very tough.