cowboy76

hello. I'm new here but I'm building a traditional early 1950s Hot Rod and I'm using a 53 Olds 303 engine with Olds rear Diff.

My question was, does anyone know of an adapter or adapters being made to mate an Olds 303 V8 to a Muncie 4 speed trans? Something that won't break the piggy bank would be nice,...something used but not abused would be great!!

Thanks in advance for all the help!
Jason

PetChemMan

I don't have any information on the transmission adapter. JC Whitney used to be a good source for those, but they've dropped most of that type of equipment from their listings. Have you considered the 4 speed hydramatic that was available with your 303 ? That trans has really low first and seconds gears, and will probably outperform the 4 speed , at least until you hit third gear. The hydramatic would also be period correct for your rod !
Good luck !

cowboy76

Well, to my knowledge it still has the (three speed??) Hydromatic with it,...(its still in the 53 olds,..but the car body is sold,...very rough!),....we're pulling the motor and trans out Monday.

I've heard that the Hydro is a heck of a trans,....so was a 4 speed the option over the 3 speed.....or am I just so new to the Olds world that i don't realize that what is already in there IS the 4 speed Hydro??

Thanks
Jason

PetChemMan

If the 303 is mated to a Hydramatic as the drivetrain came from the factory, it is a 4 speed automatic transmission. The later 3 speed " Slim Jim" automatic transmisssion , used on Oldsmobiles in the early 60s, was never mated to the 303 , 324, or 371 engines, but only to the 394 CID engine. Your 303 Olds is a 1953 or earlier engine. The old 4 speed Hydramatics were great transmissions. They were strong, had "stump puller" first and second gears that made the cars super fast ( up to about 42 mph , when the relatively tall third gear kicked in) , and were beefed up and used in drag racing Gasser class cars in the early to mid 1960s. Until the Chrysler TorqueFlite was introduced, the Hydramatics were the only successful racing automatics. Your early 4 speed Hydramatic is the preferred unit, and was considered better for high performance than the 4 speed Hydramatic used in 1957 through 1959 ( 1960? ) cars.
Note that first gear does not appear on the shift quadrant as a gear you can select manually, which may be why you didn't realize your transmission is a 4 speed. " Low" is actually second gear, with "Super" and "Drive" being third and fourth gear respectively. ( I'm not certain if the shift quadrant on the 1953 and earlier Hydramatics used the Drive, Super, and Low terminology, but they did as of 1954. ) A nice thing about the 4 speed Hydramatic is that you could use a 3.23 or 3.42 rear axle, but get "off the line" acceleration like you had a 3.90 rear gear.

cowboy76

Wow,...that sounds great!!! Awsome,..well, I think I'll be sticking with the automatic if I can't find a reasonably priced adapter,....or,...find a stick bellhosing and flywheel off an olds 303 olds so i can mate the muncie to it.

Thanks for all the info!!!!
Jason

cowboy76

So does anyone know of any companies making a stick shifter conversion for the olds hydro trans?? I know B&M used to make them as I've found out,....but I can't find them anywhere???!!

Jason

PetChemMan

There were some floor shifters made for racing Hydramatics, , and they were used with altered valve bodies for the transmission that gave complete control of the transmission shifts. It might indeed be neat to have full control of the Hydramatic using one of the racing valve bodies made by B&M and by Hydromotive back in the 1960s. However, for street performance, you won't see much difference between the racing version and the factory version, especially if you're using the 303 Olds engine. The stock Hydramatic always starts in first gear, then shifts to second gear, where it will stay if the shifter is in Low range. If the shifter is in Super, the trans will shift from first to second to third, and stay in third. In Drive, the trans will shift into fourth gear. When the transmission is kicked down into a lower gear by flooring the gas pedal, it will downshift into third or second, but not into first. That's ok, since first gear is so low that it runs out at about 20 mph or less. The engine rpm when the transmission shifts and downshifts is controlled by the transmission internal governor settings, and by the TVR rod, which is a rod that runs from the transmission to the throttle linkage on the engine. If you adjust the length of the TVR rod, you can increase the rpm for transmission shifts, within limits. Since your 303 is probably not going to be running at a lot more maximum rpm than stock engines ( I'm assuming), I think you can get good shift points simply by small adjustments on the TVR rod. Some transmissions also used a vacuum modulator to help control shifts, but I don't think the early Hydramatic had one. Finding a floor shifter for your retro-rod would be a nice touch. Be careful, however, because the racing floor shifters were made to be used with altered valve bodies, and the shift pattern may not be the same as stock. Hence, a racing floor shifter might not work with a stock valve body. Or, it might work, but you'd wind up with an odd shift quadrant that puts reverse between Low and Super ! It may take some custom alterations to make it work, but that's what hot rodding is all about !

Kennybill

They made a lot of stick-shift 303's, Just get the stock Bell-housing, the muncie is bolt-in.

cowboy76

Are you sure?

The only Reason I ask that is because I asked if I could do just that, (bolt up a muncie to an olds stick bellhousing) on another forum, (I asked three guys who were running muncies) and they said you have to enlarge the center hole and that the bolt holes are off on the bottom and i'll need the flywheel off a stick shift setup also because there was a size difference??

thanks!!
Jason

pro_olds67

You need to machine the crank to accept a pilot bearing for the 4 speed shaft to fit in because Olds did not drill the crank on automatics until the late 70s. Mondello has a bushing you can fit into the crank if there is a small center hole but I would call them and ask about it first. Good luck!

idaholc

Bendsten's Transmission has exactly the adapters you need. See:

www.transmissionadapters.com

dan2286

This thread is two years old.

mrveezi

This is not related to your topic but I need help. I have a 1987 Cutlass Salon with a 307ci V8 and auto trans. I am not sure what transmission is in it but I am sure it is the standard tranny for this model year since the car is all original. I have seen from time to time a little fluid leaking from the tranny as well as the rear main seal on the motor leaking into the bell housing but I don't think it leaks enough tranny fluid to keep the car from going in gear. I have tried things like Lucas and Trans Medix but those are only temporary fixes that really didn't work very well. I haven't had a chance to get the car in the air and diagnose visually what is going on under there but I was wondering if anyone else has seen a similar problem and could point me in the right direction.

88 coupe

Good reason to start a new thread, with a title that will attract those who have the answers you are looking for.

Norm