The booster is from a 67 Skylark. I think one from a 64-67 will work. The Master cylinder is also from a 67. So John Schmidt, is that 65 running yet?
John I have a 65 Skylark with a 455 with automatic. Joe Mendlik built the car and I think did an outstanding job. Everywhere I go with the car I get people looking at it, asking questions and offering compliments. I think Joe goes by TNTLark on this board. Joe is a good guy and seems to be very knowledgeable about these matter. Shoot him a pm. Maybe he can help.
i have a 65 skylark with the 455 swap and a richmond 6 speed. a had to order frame pads and engine mounts from TA. the frame brackets were donated from a chevelle and the clutch linkage was from a gto. i currently have the engine and tranny out and am looking for roller components and a reliable machinist in the woodstock ny area. any ideas?
Scotty Guadagno is in NY someplace. It might be worth the drive.... By the way, did the 6-speed require any "massaging" of the floor to fit?
455 Engine Swap to 1965 Special Wagon I would like to hear from anyone with tips, tricks, suggestions and/or experience dropping a 455 in a 65 A body car. I see from this thread it's been done a number of times. I'm well on my way with parts acquisitions. Engine and Turbo 400 are ready along with motor mount pads from T/A Performance to adjust frame angle to accept 455 motor mounts. The recipient car is a 1965 Buick Special Sport Wagon with factory A/C. Current motor is a 300 V8. After measuring the width and length from the valve covers of the 300 versus the 455 in my 1968 Buick Skylark, it appears it's going to be a very tight fit in the wagon, especially on the passenger side due to the factory air conditioning. I've ordered front coil springs for 70-72 GS 455 and am putting together the remainder of parts for the engine, suspension and cooling. Any assistance offered would be very appreciated. Arthur Throckmorton Las Vegas, NV 1965 Buick Special Sport Wagon 1968 Buick Skylark Custom "GS 455" 1999 Buick Regal LSE
believe it or not, my 64 has the stock springs still....ya know, it had A/C prep, so maybe the springs were stiffer too. I've never seen one with a 455 and A/C but they did it in 67, so it should work. I don't think, but don't know that anything was changed in the A/C unit to accomodate the 400 in the GS400.
D-Con, I'm assuming your '64 has a 400 or 455 in it? What did you do for a radiator and did you upgrade the front brakes to disc? Also, do you have power brakes? Mine '65 Special has four wheel drum with no power. I've got a new disc brake setup on it's way but after looking at that sad single-chamber brake cylinder on the fire wall, I'm not sure what I should get to upgrade it to power brakes? I also wonder if I'm going to have to cut the fire wall to accommodate a power brake booster?
I put a 70 455 in my 64 Special Deluxe in 95 I made my own frame mounts and just contoured them to the mounts from my 69 GS400 I first lined up the engine on my transmission to postion the mounts, then after it was in I changed to a SPTH400 I use stock manifolds and the stock 64 Brake booster with 70 lemans m/c and dual brake lines ( modified the push rod for brake operation on M/C ) Very close to the cross flow rad ( 4 core ) 67 340 lark The car has over 20,000 trouble free miles and still has run in the 12's at over 106 MPH. It has driven 600 miles one way just to race and works GREAT. I lifted the rear of the hood to let heat out and built a custom Dual Ram air on either side of the rad opening to duct cold air into the breather, The grill also has ducts so as no hot air gets into the Carb air. I could post pictures or e mail them if you wanted thanks Ken K
oops almost forgot I use stock 64 Springs with 1/2" rubber pads under them the pads you can get from Year One
Yes, my 64 is pictured above with the cowl-duct aircleaner. My user name changed when the bulletin board crashed a while back. I have a 455 and 200-4r trans in the car. I used a cross-flow rad from a 65 and just upgraded to Wilwood disc brakes last year. A huge improvement over the drums with power brakes. I did retain the power brakes with the discs. This thing was scary to stop on the street after being on the gas. Brake fade was terrible even with aluminum drums.
I have a 71 455 with a 200r4 tranny in my 65 as well. It's all fairly stock so if you would like pics of how things are put together, let me know. I didn't do the conversion myself, just got the car a couple months ago. I do know the tranny was around $1200 for a rebuild with HD parts and installation. I really like the OD transmission setup as I get aroung 18-19 just crusing back and forth to work. It's not my daily driver, but it sure is fun to drive and I do as much as I can. Tis the season now in AZ with daily temps in the 70's. Keith
You did what???? Per your comments quoted here, please see thread Power Brake Booster Clearance Problems. If you would, expand on the notes you made about the LeMans master cylinder, dual brake lines and the modifications you made to the push rod for the master cylinder? Thanks for your feedback.
The booster I used was the original one from my 64 Skylark and as far as the master I shortened the orginal pushrod so that the rod just barley touched the plunger on the new doner master cylinder. I used all the brake lines fron the 70 lemans that gave me the combination valve that split the brakes up to a dual system. I did this all about 8 years ago so my memory is not the best on that one. I will be replacing the entire brake system on my pro touring 64 skylark with in the next 6 weeks. the system I will use came from my 74 Nova I plan to use it's master and the disc brake combination valve that bolts under the master ( the Lemans one I mounted to the frame ). As for the booster I am sure i can make the stock one work just fine I will post pic's of what i do to the push rod when I finish. see above for the pic's of how it all looks just e mail me if you want more pictures kkklassen@shaw.ca Ken :TU:
65-455 I have a 65Lark that I put a 455 in to. #1 Put in your new frame pads, Have some one help you and have a good pen type mechanic's magnite handy as you may need it to get some of the bolts and nuts started through the cross member of the frame. #2 Try setting the motor on the pads with the motor mounts loose if they are new mounts. They were a pain in the ass for me to get the bolts through the pads until I loosend them up a bit. #3 With the motor now bolted in, install the tranny. If your replacing a st300 auto you should be able to use the old cross member. What I did was bolt the trans to the motor, slid the cross member in and bolted it to the trans, centerd the tail of trans (out put shaft) between the frame rails (measured), then I drilled new holes in the frame rails for the new cross member position and bolt it down. You then need to either have some one, or get exact instructions for measuring your drive shaft, as it will have to be shortend if your using a th400. It also uses a differnt yolk than a st300, and who ever you have shorten your drive shaft should beable to get you one, or no what one to get. #4 Easy parts over....... I Would highly recomend finding a donor 455 for all of your brackets if you don't already have them (Alt, Ac, PS, ect.) After you get all of that stuff figured out then it's just a matter of hooking stuff up. Most of your wires from the 300 should hook up to the 455, but you may have to exstend some of the wires to get arround the big motor and still keeep them clear of the manifolds. One problem I did have with this was the power wire from the starter to the Distributor did not supply enough power to run the Hei, and I still have no really good solution to this problem, I was told that I may need a heaver guage wire, but I would have to tear apart the wiring harness in order to run it properly. So I ended up running a hot lead with a toggle switch from the Battery spot in the fuse panel to the Hei. Now The key is used for cranking the motor, and the toggle turns the ignition on and off, not the best but it works. I am also running an elctric fan so I have a manual fan switch next to it. I had to go with the elctric fan due to clearance issues with the clutched fan and the radiator. you may beable to find a fixed fan that will fit though, I got this fan set up for free so I used it. #5 Throttle linkage.......I don't know if your running a Switch Pitch converter or not, if you are this set up may not work for your application. Through much trial and error I made a pretty slick throttle linkage. For parts you will need 2 threaded 3/8 hime's, 4' of 3/8 threaded rod, 2- 3/8 nuts for starters. I used the hime's to attach to the carb lever and foot feed lever, and bolted them down tight as the swivel part of the hime does the work, but make sure they swing freely because you dont want the throttle hung wide open the first time you decide to get after it!!!! Then it's just a matter of playing with the length and shape of the threaded rod until you get the foot feed and the carb lever in sinc. The 4' of rod is so you have enough on hand for the first 2 mistakes and the 2-3/8 nuts are for stops on the rod to the hime. Make sure you also leave enough clearance for the rod to the air cleaner(hung throttle) I wish I had pictures o No: of all of this but the car is away in storage until the weather gets nice. #6 Let her Rip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :3gears: :3gears:
C. Randolph said""""One problem I did have with this was the power wire from the starter to the Distributor did not supply enough power to run the Hei, and I still have no really good solution to this problem, I was told that I may need a heaver guage wire, but I would have to tear apart the wiring harness in order to run it properly. So I ended up running a hot lead with a toggle switch from the Battery spot in the fuse panel to the Hei. Now The key is used for cranking the motor, and the toggle turns the ignition on and off, not the best but it works."""***** Just a note you need a full 12 Volts to a HEI at all times!! The wire from your starter to your HEI is only hot when cranking and then only supposd to go to the coil. The wire in your harness from the factory is a resistance wire ( white coth type 8.3 volts i think ) you need to loose the wire from your starter entirely and replace the entire wire in your harness with a 10 or 8 giauge wire directly to your HEI. I just re attached the proper end at the junction block on to a new wire that I ran to my HEI in the engine compartment. The wire on the fues panel side is the proper size for what you need. I have made this conversion on 20 or more early Buicks and have had NO troubles at all. If there is any other opinions on this please feel free to correct me or e mail me at kkklassen@shaw.ca Ken :eek2: Other than that like was said GO for it and have fun I still use mine on a regular basis when the sun is out and still pulls low 13's at 3500+ feet above sea level :3gears: :3gears: :3gears: :3gears: :beer
deep sump oil pan??? Good thread. Anyone running a 455 powered 64-67 Skylark with a deep sump oil pan? Do any off-the-shelf deep sump pans fit? Maybe the TA or Poston pans (although they are a bit pricey $$$)?? My 455 currently has a deep center-sump pan (it came out of a Rivvy) so that will have to go. As soon as I get a new pan I'm gonna drop the motor into my 66 Skylark. Thanks!
I've spent about 5 frustrating hours trying to stuff my Stage II engine into my 65 'lark. Now here's the rub. I've read the previous posts several times. I've installed the 67 400 frame pads leaving the top two bolts slightly loose to there is a bit of movement. I've also tried two different style of motor mounts, mounted every which way and the engine just does not sit down far enough to line any of the holes up. So, where am I going wrong....and I am going wrong, no doubt. I have an older set of motor mounts off a 430, they don't work, I have a set, new for a 72 BBB in a big car, they don't work either. Help please.
you are using the factory mounts or the PAE frame pads. They have an odd-ball engine mount that doesn't quite fit right. Don't tell anybody, but I think I put my Driver's mount bolt in and ran it a little while until it "settled in". I also remember taking the engine hoist and attaching to the driver's cyl head and lifting in order to twist the engine over enough to get the pass bolt in. Or, you can buy the TA mounts that are made to use the newer "normal" engine mounts.
