My frist car was a 1972 skylark I always wanted a 455 for it. I recently inherited my Dad's 1970 Skylark Custom Convertible. He has had this car since I was 14. It's wierd that I get it 14 years later. He disassembled the car about two years ago down to the firewall with the intention of restoring it. That's as far as it went. Now I have this thing in my driveway with no motor, no trans, no front end. I bought a 455 and 400 long shaft out of a derelict 71 Electra. I took the motor mount brackets too. Now I have it all sitting in the car ( on top of the brackets with holes that don't line up ) and the motor mount bolt holes don't line up with the brackets. I found the problem, I need different brackets. I even found a set in a 69 GS. But what I want to ask is, is there anything else I need to know? What should I do about the driveshaft? There has to be a difference from short shaft 350 to long shaft 400. What do you think? E-mail direct at psalm121@shentel.net Thanks, Paul
Nice car:TU: I did the same swap. The long tail TH400 will cause problems with the mounting point...you can either relocate the crossmember or get a short TH400..or a TH350. I used the original TH350 from my car, no real trouble. Bolt pattern's the same. If you use a TH400, you'll have to hook up the electrical downshift for the trans. The TH350 the car had used a cable that goes from the gas pedal to the tranny, the TH400 uses an electrical switch on the pedal. The nice thing is the TH350 is lighter, the bad thing is the TH350 wasn't designed to see the torque the 455 puts out. It will survive, but you may have trouble if the engine's a real screamer. The TH350 can be beefed up, though. Make sure you have the correct fan shroud, there are two I.D. opening sizes, get the right one for the fan blades you have. The motor mount pads will almost definitely NOT work. The correct frame pads are available from TA performance. Having a driveshaft made is no big deal. I just bought a new custom one with a new slip yoke and u joints installed for 250 bucks.
