A518 behind a 440?

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Stormy69

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In order to make my 71 duster a little more street friendly, i want to put a tranny in with overdrive. i know valvebody mods and better clutches will be needed but will it fit in my duster without a lot of butchering? best year to look for? any thing else i should consider?
tia
 
518 only came behind small blocks...you need adapter to mate them together.
 
Try and get a hold of a company/shop called Tranz Tech I think they are from Iowa they do a lot with the 518's including putting on some solenoid system for the OD or something that a buddy was telling me about. Sorry I don't have any contact info for you but from what I've heard they are the ones to talk to about the 518's. good luck with it.
 
Its a pricey swap but worth it. We just swapped one into my buddies 70 Coronet. We found a 518 in the junkyard and rebuilt it with a shift kit and red eagle clutches. You can use a vacuum switch and pressure switches to make it all work. There is a complete kit for that available as well. I think it was from SMR. Anyway for trans, rebuild kit, shift kit, bellhousing adapter, and the kit to make it all work was around $2000, but now cruising at 70mph with 3.91s and a 440 is a joy.
 
Man the more I read about this the more I think it will be the big mod for my 74 Dart someday. There was an A-518 in Craigslist for $300 dollars posted very recently.
 
It might cost a little more but it'd be alot less work to install a Gear Vendors OD onto the trans you have now. Nice thing is you don't have to cut anything to make it fit in the car. Just need a new driveshaft.
 
I can`t speak for installing a 518 but I can say (without a doubt) that the overdrive transmission I installed in my Barracuda was the best modification that I made to the car. I can cruise 70 mph @ 2200 rpm with a 3.91 rear end gear ratio. It drastically transforms the car for the best.
 
Longgone said:
I can`t speak for installing a 518 but I can say (without a doubt) that the overdrive trans that I installed in my Barracuda was the best modification that I made to the car. I can cruise 70 mph @ 2200 rpm with a 3.91 rear end gear ratio. It drastically transforms the car for the best.
Click to expand...

What OD did you install?
 
a stick would be sweet as well but the car came as a 340/727 (tho thinking about it, its so far from that now what does it matter..)
tranny will be $120 at the jy, and i can do the rebuild.
JVX = www.jvxracing.com adapter kit is $535
rebuild kits w/good stuff ~$430
valve body reprogramming kit $127
parts to auto control od & lockup ~$200
converter - still looking.....
basically about $1600 though
 
That`s a fraction of what I paid but I bought mine as a kit from Keisler. No matter which way you go you`ll be very happy with the results.
 
Good score! There`s some other threads on here that may help you with the install. This topic has come up several times in the past and there has been several protracted discussions here with a lot of good information.
 
Stormy69 said:
a stick would be sweet as well but the car came as a 340/727 (tho thinking about it, its so far from that now what does it matter..)
tranny will be $120 at the jy, and i can do the rebuild.
JVX = www.jvxracing.com adapter kit is $535
rebuild kits w/good stuff ~$430
valve body reprogramming kit $127
parts to auto control od & lockup ~$200
converter - still looking.....
basically about $1600 though
Click to expand...

That price is definitely right. Are you good with metal working to make it fit? If not don't forget to add the price to have somebody do that for you.
 
Put a 518 in a 72 RR 440. Used a JW bellhousing that bolts to the front pump.Worked out fine.
Did have to do a little floor clearance work
 
You'll still need to do some pretty significant mods the the center crossmember and floor pan. Nothing cosmic, but the weight of the car is carried by this crossmember so whatever you cut out, you must put back.
 
Here are a few pics of floor mods done on a 71 Duster with an a518od.
This was done about 2 1/2 years ago. I like it alot but.....
If you have a console shifter, you will most likely have to convert to a cable connection. I've been told that the the shaft that goes down thru the floor runs into the fat part of the OD case. and there is no provision on the tranny for the bottom bracket to attach to.
As for the converter, the 94 probably uses a lockup like my 93. I spoke to SMR and Dynamic and both said that due to limitations that the lockup creates, the highest stall will be around 2800-maybe 2900. And that was special order so I went with an off the shelf TCI 2500 stall w/lockup.
If you could find a 92 and older it would likely be a non lockup and then you could use any 727 converter you like.
I have a bench seat so I kept the mods as compact as I could. It was a lot of work. I probably had the trans in and out at least 7 times, and I don't think I could have done it without the Harbor Freight tranny jack I bought.

duster floor04.jpg


duster floor05.jpg


duster floor06.jpg


duster floor07.jpg


duster floor16.jpg
 
i can do metal work, acft structural maintenance is my AF career :)
i didnt expect so much in the way of mods to the tunnel, its a real 340 car but when i bought it in 90/91 it was a former race car with fenderwell header cutouts that have not been repaired... i'll get some pics up....
 
I had a 518 trans built for the 440 in my Willys, try www.phoenixtrans.com or call them at 817-599-7680, I dealt with a guy name Greg, he is a Mopar guy and was very helpful, hope this helps.
 
Did you get any pics of the process?
I'm sure alot of guys (like me) would like to see how it was done.
I was happy with the one in my Duster, so I'm considering putting one in a 69 Super Bee I'm working on now.
 
I dont have any pics of it being done, but if you go on their website, click chrysler transmissions and look at the pic of the PTA518SS you can see where the BB bellhousing is joined to it, once I get this cars mock up completed I can get somemore pics for you, but at the rate I'm going it might be awhile
 
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