Motor options for Toronado transaxle?

I'm cooking up a project that will involve a '66 toronado transaxle in the back for rear wheel drive. The 425 needs to be rebuilt, but am thinking of other motor options. Does anyone know of what other powerplants might fit. mostly, a SBC or something that has more performance parts available than the 425. A friend of mine is trying to talk me into a Vortec fuel injected 350.

 

There is all the performance option you need for an Olds, it's already 365 hp stock more torque than a chev can dream of making .
any Buick Olds Pontiac Cadillac all bolt up, Chev is the odd ball and would require adapter. Problem is oil pan to clear axle shaft . THe next problem is if you want headers, the transaxle is in way of std. bolt on headers. There is a company that made/makes some kind of shorty header for the Olds in a motor home which will work for you .

 

Plenty of adaptors out there to mate BOP transmissions to Chevies. I'm thinking 454 with Hilborn stack injection...

 

Replace the crank, and rods of the 425 with 455 stuff (same block and bore)

 

you must have researched the trans axle. now research the 425

 

I put one of those Toronado, 425, STOCK, in the front of a 1949 Ford F-1 Chopped sectioned and a disck brake independant rear suspension,

WHAT A RIDE, more tire smoke on demand than you could ever expect. It will surprise the competition so much that you never loose a race......

stock has sooo much torque....just leave it and drive it.....you won't be disapointed.

 

hell every caddy/toronado trans axle i looked at was fried.motors were plenty.
i was gonna build one a while back,just look around for the right style motor,
just heads up don't put one in a pontiac fiero! bored red necks

 

You can't beat any big Oldsmobile for a Torque monster ! Hell, my 69 Delta 88 thought it was a Tow truck ............. scrubba

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mid-...8?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item35b4e3e2c0#v4-40

Check out that... not HAMB friendly. Might be more of a Dogfightmag thing really

might want to rethink that one, what you meant to say is "any Buick. Olds, Pontiac, or Cadillac with the standard BOP bellhousing pattern"
Lots of those engines didn't have a standard bellhousing pattern.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I do love the 425. My confession is that I want to put this mess in a vintage motorhome. I have a 1967 Ultravan that was corvair powered. I can barely push the coach with the 110 hp it creates. I want to travel long distances and pull a car on a trailer. That corvair 6 won't do it.

Now don't make fun of me..., but I'm a little concerned with fuel mileage. I know that's not a cool concern, but the motorhome is more of a tool to drag the cool stuff around. I daily drive a '65 Caddy hearse and an Avanti with a GM 400, so I don't give a squirt about fuel mileage. But driving thousands of miles?...yes I do.

I see that adapters are out there. Even Jegs has them. I was wondering what modern day powerplant would be super reliable and give decent MPG. at least better than the 425. The motorhome only weighs 3800 lbs. and I'll be pulling an old Barris Kustom "T" buggy. So, it won't be a terrible amount of weight.

 

A Chev V8 can be used, and the dowell pins line right up, as do some bolts. The other holes will have to be drilled in the bellhousing at two locations, and a tab/bolt arangement built for the last two holes.
The BOP to Chevy swap was done in one of the rod mags years ago, and that's what they found to work. If you can find a bare block you can mock it up to the Toronado and see what I mean.

 

What's the width on one of those trans axles....curious as to which applications it might fit

 

Go with one of the new LS style Chevy engines, buy a takeout with all the computer harnesses, a 5.3 L from a 2000+ truck would be perfect, ultra reliable and probably about the best you could get for gas mileage. Of course mpg is a relative term when pushing a box that big down the road.

 

What "W" option turned the Toronado motor into a 400hp monster??? I think it was a '68-'69 option.. Anyone know???

 

The 5.3 can be had in a transverse mount with 4t65e trans axle too in complete drop out.
I love my hemis but that 5.3 is a close second. I've swapped those into a few different things.
Also the 3.8 supercharged is in the same configuration.


Maybe the toronado set up fits better in the space idk? But Thats a cool motorhome.

 

Some food for thought.

I have a friend with a 68 Toro and a lot of the routine wear components in the early toros and very hard to find/expensive.

The late 70's early 80's Riv/Eldo use the same basic setup but the parts are really easy to find. They are also a little less wide so you have more options with wheels.

Carmak
Riverside, Iowa

 

A '66-'67 Cutlass, Lemans, etc.....

 

So the MH weighs about the same or even less than a oem Toronado. What did the fuel mileage of the day look like?
Just resist the urge to compare the fuel mileage of a carb'd 425 to a new efi anything.
Perhaps using a sbc with about ½ of the torque is a good choice so it will be easy on the front drive internals.

.

 

I'd second that. You can buy 5.3's and 4.8's around here all day long, with the complete under hood harness and fuse panel for 500 bucks, so even the (minor) hassle of adapting to the Toro trans wouldn't be a big $$ issue. Those are neat little campers, we know several people who have them and love the quirky little buggers.

Brian

 

A 350R would bolt right to that trans-axle an have plenty of poop in most cases unless you get into hill climbing with that motor-home.
I'd still go though the 425 or get a 455 for the torque. To install anything except an Olds engine or a Cad Eldorado engine you would have to modify the pan and most likely build the exhaust from scratch.

 

Wonder what kind of trouble i could get into with Clutch-Turbohydro guts into that transaxle and placed in the trunk of a gasser......... it's basically a turbo400 right?

rick...

 

I wasn't thinking gasser myself but more along the lines of putting it in the trunk of one of these!

 

The '73-'78 GMC motor home used a 455 Toro front wheel drive. We used to tow a 22' enclosed trailer with it.

The Eldo/Toro front drive package is one of my favorites. We had a slalom chassis with one on each end. 800 hp, 1000 ftlbs, 4WD, 4 wheel steer, and only 2500 lbs.

Also installed them in a Porsche 912, a '67 Beetle, and I'm trying to talk a friend into installing a Caddy 500 into his VW Thing.

 

Dont forget the reason those lil turd SBC and LS motors get great mpg is the overdrive trans which you do not have ,they feel strong because of a low first gear also , they suffer greatly in the torque department . My late gmc. truck dropped off so bad when I put a trailer behind it I sold it, was same as my 77 burb which tows better .

 

why not just keep the corvair trans and mate a late fuel injected sbc to it and be done.

 

W30 and the Super Wild W33 455CI

 

I dunno I have a friend with a stock 5.3 in a G body Grand Prix , turbo 350 trans and 2 something gears ...impressed the shit outta me!

 

I kinda thought about that. like bolting up a supercharged 3.8 liter V6 out of a 90's Buick blah-blah, but the corvair tranny goes in the reverse direction. So it won't be that easy. I would love to do it though.

 

why not a SBC to corvair adapter (Crown?)

 

Those 3800 V-6's are killer engines with all their torque coming in at around 2000RPM......
The vehicles they came i also weigh about the same as your camper...
I believe they share the bolt pattern on theri blocks with the 60 degree 2.8 andL4 inlines and not compatable patternwise with you Olds transaxle.
Why not just use the entire frt wheel drive assembly[locked in straight mode] that goes with the 3800 in your swap?