'65 Coronet - the beat goes on!

[Richard Reardon]

Christopher, thanks for the responce on the trans. situation between the 440/426 hook-up. Well, I got hold of the seller last night and popped a few questions @ him. The 440 and trans. came out of a New Yorker, not a Newport as I thought - irrelevant! He bought the "K" member from a local guy up where he's from in NH and this guy is also into cars/Mopars, supposedly mostly HEMIs and 440's. This guy told my seller that it will work!!!??? As I mentioned previously,it's out of a '69 GTX. My seller is going to question the guy on this.
The seller is suggesting that the Torqueflite be rebuilt before it gets installed. I know they are rugged, but he says he'd do it if he was to use it, just as a precaution. He said the TF trannys do not have a large resevour/pan for a lot of extra fluid like some other manufacturers do, so they tend to run hot.
If you guys had this project what would you do? I tend to want to go with a stock rebuild and possibly put a 2,000 to 2,500 rpm stall converter in there as long as it's appart. I don't believe in going any more exotic than this for a BB that'll be basically a street machine. I plan on using this w/ the 440 and I really want to use it w/ the 426 later on. I plan on keeping either the 440 or 426 close to stock. If and when I get into a 426, I'll go with the heads you guys mentioned, that I'll port match in & out and do some mild porting to get any restrictions outa there. A 3-angle valve job will round out the head work. I may also go with a slightly hotter cam and valvetrain asm. and generally just do a good blueprinting of the whole engine before I take it to the machine shop for final checks and any machine work I elect to do. I doubt I'll find a 426 I can just drop in. The seller also said this guy he bought the "K" member from does modifications, installations, tranny rebuilds, etc. He has a Moble station he does this out of, as well as @ his house. I'll need a drive shaft fabricated too.I may get in touch with him and see if we can come to an agreement to do the trans., installation and basically make it so I can drive it home. Just a thought. The seller has a flat-bed that I could probably get him to take it over to the Mobile station or for a price deliver it to my house. I have a friend with a trailer he uses for his race car that I could borrow also.
Christopher mentioned I need another project! Not really. I started my last car project in '83 and it's up on jack stands in the garage now, still in process. I only do a little @ a time. Mostly due to lack of funds, motivation or my wife has other ideas where I should be spending my time and money! She doesn't know about this yet either. Figure I'd spare myself the grief I'll probably hear, especially if for some reason I don't buy it.
I hope I don't get up there, possibly Sunday am and get disappointed. I'll be all bummed out.

I'm going to cool-it for a few days. I've busted your ears enough lately. I'll let you know how things work out.

Richard

[Christopher]

I'd turn that tranny over and look at things inside,mainly the fluid,you know the checks on fluid.If all is OK,I'd let it rip!!I've had torqueflites sitting in the garage for years and just clean them up and install them.I usually will pour some new fluid in and start things by hand a bit.The GTX k-frame will bolt up,but as I mentioned before,the right side cyl head will be butted against the firewall,and the trans will be too far back,the trans linkage wont even come close to fitting.This would be OK if you were willing to cut holes in the firewall and such,as this would be similar to what Chrysler did for the altered wheelbase cars of that era.But I know you don't wan't to do that.