Mystery Turbo 400?
Oldsdruid
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 10,628
From: Southside Vajenya
And what a crying shame they never made it to bolt up to a pre-1965 Rocket engine.
If you didn't know, this thing is descended from the Triple Turbine and Flight Pitch Dynaflows Buick was experimenting with in the late 50s. Once Buick finally realised HydraMatic had a better idea with their distinct internal gear ratios, the stage was set for the TurboHydraMatic, and GM finally caught up to everyone else in automatic transmission development with a 3-speed torque converter automatic.
Original HydraMatics were good, but could shift a little rough. Dynaflows were smooth but inefficient as hell because the torque converter did all the work while the transmission stayed in high range all the time (which is why Buick was constantly fiddling with it). Powerglides had torque converters but only two speeds (and that annoying-*** whine in park/neutral).
Meanwhile, Ford, Chrysler and even the independents had three speed torque converter automatics way earlier than GM.
If you didn't know, this thing is descended from the Triple Turbine and Flight Pitch Dynaflows Buick was experimenting with in the late 50s. Once Buick finally realised HydraMatic had a better idea with their distinct internal gear ratios, the stage was set for the TurboHydraMatic, and GM finally caught up to everyone else in automatic transmission development with a 3-speed torque converter automatic.
Original HydraMatics were good, but could shift a little rough. Dynaflows were smooth but inefficient as hell because the torque converter did all the work while the transmission stayed in high range all the time (which is why Buick was constantly fiddling with it). Powerglides had torque converters but only two speeds (and that annoying-*** whine in park/neutral).
Meanwhile, Ford, Chrysler and even the independents had three speed torque converter automatics way earlier than GM.
Last edited by rocketraider; Jun 16, 2009 at 06:01 PM.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 7,318
From: NJ
And here I thought I stumbled across a prototype for a 394 engine.....Thanks for the info, I did not realize that early Buick, Caddy? had a different bolt pattern for the Turbo 400......the trans is on Ebay and located in NJ
Old(s) Fart
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 50,802
From: Northern VA
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