455 Buick/Olds diesel with the electronic over drive trans. What car had that engine and trans in it??? Long time ago a guy use too tell me stories about taking a 455 diesel engine and trans [I think form a Buick] and putting it in his 76 Cutlass. He changed it over too gas and told me about rigging the over drive with a switch. Fly up to about 140mph hit the OD and the RMPs drop down too nothing and then you can just hit the gas again and go. BS, True or Half Truth ???? -Matt
An overdrive switch? It's called shifting. I've thought about putting a lockup converter switch in my car, but had heard that you can't unlock the converter in fourth (OD)? that would be my main motive.
Are you talking about the OD switch that the late model ford trucks and van use? It's more of a tow-haul mode to keep the transmission from chgging out in 4th gear when pulling a load. Basically all it does is keep the trans from shifting into 4th when engaged.
ebay i too have on several occasions received email from ebay concerning my username. i believe that ebay are checking the user names that are identical for a number of characters up to an @ or _ or - or some other special character . i am about to change my username for that reason . gerry
It was actually an Olds 350 diesel with a lockup transmission. That was in the mid to late '70's. The diesel block was a terrible diesel but a very strong gas motor. That's why those Olds guys love 'em because you can get up to 454 inches out of them and still have lots of iron left. Excellent hot rod motor. The trans was a TH350 or 400 with a lock up convertor. You could put a toggle switch on it and lock it up any time. Even in first gear. I had that set up in my Regal. It didn't drop the rpms but a few hundred though.
Olds diesels are OK, but they use weak head bolts that stretched causing blown gaskets. converted to gas, they are REALLY strong performers and NASCAR used them in the late 70's/early 80's. Dave Laurer uses one and regularly gets 8's on the track spraying. The Hunt brothers are building a twin-turbo setup for it that has incredibly high amounts of boost. that was shown in Car Craft in the article about the Dick Miller nationals. If it has an OD tranny, it's probably the 200-4R. As you guys that have them know, they are really good transmissions, but they're a bit weak. After having this car, I couldn't imagine living without OD. My car has 3.23's in the rear and at 60, it's turning 1300 RPM's if the Torque converter's locked up! 120 should be no problem, but I haven't taken it past 90. if I find a pic of the Hunt's twin turbo beast, I'll post it.
