Anybody ever put a 472 in a '60 Caddy?

Psychoholic

Psychoholic

Professional Idiot
SUPPORTING MEMBER
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
163
Reaction score
62
Points
28
Location
Loganville, GA
What vehicle(s) do you drive?
72 Miller Meteor
A few months ago I had a chance to buy a '60 series 62 that used to belong to a friend of mine that passed away. I bought it and was going to sell it to anybody in my hearse club but as usual nobody had the funds to do it. My wife said she thought it was cool and we decided to keep it. Has a solid 390 in it but the Jetaway transmission is suspect and finding someone who works on those is challenging at best. I know some would say I should just keep that setup but I have a soft spot for a 472/TH400 combo.


One of my best friends has his '72 hearse at my shop and it is just rusting away. I needed some parts off of it for my car (body parts mostly) and I had the idea of just building the 472 out of it and put in the wife's car after doing a set of seals/gaskets. Swap my TH400 out (which was built by literally one of the best TH400 guys on earth about 1k miles ago) into it since I have a 4L80 for my car.

Wondering how awful of a swap this is going to be. I'm not afraid of fabricating stuff as needed (see my posts about the pulley setup I made for mine) but I refuse to put an LS in anything.
 
You can buy an adapter kit to run a Chevy trans on the 390. Like a 700r4 or th400 if you wanted to

Ok I just looked. They are $1200 now lol. Back before I put the 500/4l80e in my 56 they were a lot more reasonable.
 
The oil filter hits the frame crossmember. Some swappers have notched the frame. It has been done successfully (the swap).
 
I’m not sure if the 60 frame is similar to my 56 but it was way more involved. I had to notch the crossmember for the oil pan, you have to notch for the oil pump and I would have had to notch around the fuel pump if I wasn’t efi. Not small notches either. Like 3 or 4 inch deep notches.i used a 425 pump and an oil filter relocation kit that had the lines straight out the end of the pump.
I also had to angle mill the driver side ex manifold to clear the steering box.
My 56 crossmember is u shaped all the way up to almost the base of the heads and the 500 being longer required the notch for the front of the oil pan.
Very doable just much work. If I did it again I would’ve prob rebuilt an early 390 and swapped it in with a modern o/d trans. But you sure can’t beat the tq of the 500 lol.
 
Last edited:
im doing it now,
putting in a 500 in a 60cdv
was told i need to heat an hammer cross member to make room for oil pump,
will need rear sump oil pan
will prob start next week on cross member
 
A 80-81 368 oil pump will bolt on and work. There is a slight different angle on this pump and it might give you a little more room.
 
im going to order the 425 pump next week,
i believe i will still ned to hammer the cross member some
 
It looks like the 425 pump is the same as the 368 pump. The angle is just a little different...
 
took a sledge hammer to the cross member last nite, will check tonite to see if i made enough room for the 425 oil pump
 
You can always make room with a torch and a welder... How about some pictures.. Good Luck
 
I did end up buying that '72 from my friend and it is now officially the donor. We've got some stuff going on at home with one of our dogs so we haven't been able to put much time in at the shop working on either her car or mine but maybe soon we'll get back to it. I'm trying to convince my wife we need to start a youtube channel for her since she's doing all the work on her car.

I'll definitely post updates as we have them.
 
im trying to find an empty th400 case, so i can fit the engine in, the mounts i got from cadco dont make any sence
 
I am in Massachusetts and I have a case but the shipping would be more than it's worth. You are better off looking local...I am guessing tou are looking for a BOP case..
 
Outlaw said:
the mounts i got from cadco dont make any sence
Click to expand...
Yeah, the CadCo mounts are kind of a ripoff.
Mine don’t really fit.
They go on the the mounts going back behind the block mounting bosses, and as far as I’ve figured out, you have to cut off about 1/2” - 3/4” of the motor mount bolt that goes in toward the block, or it won’t fit.
I had to grind on my block mounting bosses and drill the holes a bit on the mounting plates to get them to even bolt on.
The angle doesn’t come close to matching the angle of the frame motor mount faces.

I’ll end up making these things work big for everyone else’s sake… don’t buy these, they’re overpriced poorly fitting rip-offs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top