The Hydramatic was used behind a lot of engines* but I don't remember any behind a nail-head Buick. The Buick Dyanflow was used behind Olds & Caddy due to the factory fire in '53(?) but I'm sure GM never put a Hyrdamatic with the Buick - were there any aftermarket adapters for dragracing? *From memory: Olds Cadillac Chevy Pontiac GMC 6 Packard Lincoln Chrysler Hemi ? (Stone Woods and Cook?) RR/Bentley (under license)
I dont remember any being behind a Buick motor but the nailhead was used in some larger Chevy trucks in the 50s.
Its time for someone to make a adapter since the hydro is a much better trans then the dynaslow,I only driven one Buick with a dynaslow and that was enough for me. I like to feel the trans shift and it felt too funny for me.
I put a 700r4 behind the 401 in my 40 pickup project. I could have used the 400 switch pitch that came with the motor.
if memory serves there was a fire at the plant in Ypsilanti that built Dynaflows. GM was using Hydramatics cause thats what they had and rather than halt production they built some Buicks with Hydramatics. That is my recollection being from Michigan and having family in Ypsi. in the early fifties. Could be wrong but thats how I remember it in fact one circle track guy pulled a nailhead and hydramatic to put in his 54 ford pickup as his shop tuck and race car hauler in my area.
I am sorry, but that is exactly the reverse of what happened. It was the Hydramatic plant that burned in '53 and some olds and caddys got dynaflows. I expect a Google search will provide more info on the fire. Ray
From what I was told the reason why the Olds and Caddys got the dynaflows was they had contracts to supply trans to other manufactures so they had to come first and got what was in stock
Just did a Google search and there are several articles regarding the Hydra-matic Plant fire on August 12, 1953 and the consequences. Articles say Dynaflow for Olds and Caddy..........Powerglide for Pontiac and nothing for the independent makes who used Hydramatics. However, in an amazingly short time, GM began building Hydra-matics at Willow Run in time for late '53 production of '54 models. Says all '54 models had Hydra-matics. Ray
In the late '50s, Chevy had the small block in trucks with Hydramatic....I do not know if they also used the 348 with the Hydramatic in larger trucks, but did with manual shift. I really doubt the Buick with Hydro, in school busses or any other application. Eventually Chevy had truck versions of 409, 366 and 427 but I believe automatics by then were Allison units. Ray
This thread is kind of all over the place. There were MANY "Hydramatic" transmissions, but as I read the OP's post, the Buick fire in '53 was a tip-off that he's talking about the early single- and dual-range hydramatics. On those, I have see a transverse-mounted one mated to a GMC inliner in the back of a very old (early '50's?) GMC bus. Exceedingly rare transverse hydro I also once bought a hot-rodded hydro (with Chevy V8 bellhousing) that had been mounted behind a Studebaker engine, utilizing a thick steel adapter plate. B&M (and probably others) also used to sell adapter bellhousings for later BOP, early hemi, and Ford FE in the 60's. All hard to acquire now. The early hydro also came in some Lincoln and Rolls-Royce cars from the factory. I know this for a fact. I think possibly even some Nash and Hudson cars? Maybe even Packard? Not sure, I have sold all my literature off so can no longer look up. But thought I'd toss that out there. Pretty sure at least one of these others (I'm leaning toward Hudson or Nash). Man, I used to know this stuff... but it has faded over the last 15 years of not using it.
Oh yeah... as for the original question. I don't think the early hydro was ever available in Buick cars. But I do believe B&M (and others) offered an adapter setup for the Nailhead. Pretty sure that used to be in their catalog. But I could be wrong, too. One note on the aftermarket adapter setups. They most often were comprised of a new bellhousing, a modified flywheel with new crank flange, and quite often a pilot bearing adapter plate. Probably depends on the engine.
Blownolds, you are correct insofar as wide use of the early single/dual stage Hydramatics by many other automakers. Lincoln, Hudson, Nash, Kaiser/Frazer to name a few. I do not believe Studebaker or Packard ever used that series Hydros, nor did Buick as an OEM unit. And, the fire at GM was not the "Buick fire", but it was the GM Hydramatic plant itself, that burned. Hence the use of Dynaflow and Powerglides in some apps. GM apparently replaced the factory and tooling in a military style push as they had Hydramatics back in production in an amazingly short period of time. As for Rolls Royce, they did use the TurboHydramatic 400 in their cars from the mid/late '60s onward, but I am unsure about their use of the earlier models. That may well be the case. The transverse Hydros you mention, I have seen in GM busses....the tranny was pretty much the same as any commercial Hydramatic, but had a gearbox on the back of it with an angle drive that connected to the rear axle differential, which faced rearward like most/all 'pusher' drivelines. The early Hydramatic was one Hell of a transmission in it's day. Ray
I worked on a Rolls that had a hydro,even though it was a 62 it had the 55 era trans where to put it in park it went in reverse with the motor off. I was told Rolls bought the rights to it after it went out of production here in the states but I have no way to verify.
I think I just saw some info online (@ docstoc.com was it?) where the early dual-range hydramatic was used in both Rolls Royce and Bentley. I just glanced really.... I almost want to say that this was up through the early '60's (maybe through '62, the same years GMC was still using this model)??? If you're interested, maybe you can go to that site and type in 'dual range hydramatic' and see what comes up. On a side note, I had always heard that the Rolls dual-range hydro trannies came from the factory with finned aluminum oil pans. I looked for many years but never found one.... The only aluminum pan I ever saw for one of these was from one of the '60's aftermarket suppliers (I'm leaning toward Cal-Hydro). It was at a swap meet one day.
A few years back there was a post (on HAMB) that mentioned that a larger Chevy or GMC truck had a 322 Buick Nailhead with a hydramatic bolted to it. I would guess that finding one of these is a needle in a haystack. It seems possible. I would think it would not be a difficult task to make an adapter plate and crank spacer for a 322 to hydramatic. The 364 and 401 used a triangular flex plate for dynaflows with the flywheel as the torque converter front cover. In that case the 401 and 425 nailheads used with ST400 transmission has a flex plate that has the ring gear attached, so this might work for 57-63 nailheads when adapting to hydramatic. The Olds hydramatic has a short bell housing that attached to the integral bell housing, and this may work well with nail head as the nail head has an integral bell housing too.
So far as I know the early and the dual-coupling Hydro were made with short bellhousings and used a bolt in adapter between block and trans if the block didn't already have a partial bell on it. Pontiac, Olds anyhow. Even the Slim-Jim was done this way.
The hydramatic was used in the Chevy and GMC light dutys with the Chevy 6 and V8 and in GMC with the 6 and Pontiac/GMC V8. The heavy duty Chevy trucks used the 322 Buick with a 6 speed Powermatic auto trans not the 4 spd hydro.
Yep, and as far as I know... if you see that super long tailshaft, then it's either Lincoln or Caddy. I never knew any other dual-range hydro's to have a very long tail.
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