Transmission / Overdrive: Auto Tranny Can Bell Housing and Torque converter be installed w/o Tranny?

[Mrs K Corbin]

have a Stude V8... Can the Bell Housing and Torque converter be installed without the tranny temporarily so I can start the engine with tranny out of truck?

I'm cramming a 232 in place of a 259 in a Transtar that came with the AUTO....

anybody know what the front mounts looked like?
The ones I have look too short...

[Alan]

Truck and pass. car mounts are completely different, so are the bell housings. If you have the proper housings you can.

[Mrs K Corbin]

I have a truck auto tranny I believe (came with the truck,but not installed), but 53 commander 232.....
I have some 6 cyl mounts which are taller, would those work? Parts book looks like the 6 and 8 mounts are different.
didn't know the car and truck mounts were.....

I know about the water pump differences as well.....

Looks like I got a hard road ahead.

Also, Can I install the torque converter and bell housing just to start the engine?
I know that I will have to remove the stuff later to install the tranny...
Mostly concerned that there may not be enough stiffness in the flex plate to allow the engine to start and may flex enough to strip the ring gear.....

Are the starters different from a stick to auto?

[StudeRich]

Yes the Starters are different from Auto. to Stick. Also the water Manifold on your original Truck engine will need to be swapped over to the "new" Car engine as it locates the fan much higher to match the Radiator.

You will need V-8 Truck Front and Rear Engine Mount BRACKETS, they are quite tall "Legs" cast in Iron. Then you put the (8) Truck Engine Mounts (Insulators) on them.

Then you have the "Dial-In" proceedure needing to be done, whenever switching a Engine to a different Converter Housing than originally factory fitted.

If you had an original complete 259 Truck Engine to start with that needed work, it would be a lot easier and WAY better result to Rebuild it than to use a smaller, questionable condition Car 232.

[Mrs K Corbin]

Unfortunately, the original engine is AWOL..... All I have available at current is a 53 commander V8 232 that was locked up a week ago and now is running..... Interesting story to that one... It's got a 4 barrell and dual point distributor.... was mounted in a 54 truck way low and was running dual exhaust.....

I do believe I have the original Auto....

My plan is to just put this truck together and bomb around in it then tear it down a year from now and restore it.....
In the meantime, I'll pull parts together, etc for the resto.....

Yes the Starters are different from Auto. to Stick. Also the water Manifold on your original Truck engine will need to be swapped over to the "new" Car engine as it locates the fan much higher to match the Radiator.

You will need V-8 Truck Front and Rear Engine Mount BRACKETS, they are quite tall "Legs" cast in Iron. Then you put the (8) Truck Engine Mounts (Insulators) on them.

Then you have the "Dial-In" proceedure needing to be done, whenever switching a Engine to a different Converter Housing than originally factory fitted.

If you had an original complete 259 Truck Engine to start with that needed work, it would be a lot easier and WAY better result to Rebuild it than to use a smaller, questionable condition Car 232.