Your mate is correct there are 2 bolt patterns.
One for Aussie boxes and the other for American.

Allan

Just buy a Chev to Aussie 4spd bellhousing. You just wont be able to use the factory rat-trap setup without mods. Try to use full cable or hydraulic. If its a factory combo ie 308 TH350 itll be late HZ or VB Commodore, so ZT, 11ZT or VT prefix on the engine number.

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If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?

quote:

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Originally posted by davequey74
"H series" usally means HQ-HZ,

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no, "H series" is a term dreamed up by morons who dont realise there are other models that start with H

the same morons devised the terms "styleside" for utes and "door skins" when they are talking about door trims.

usually has two us

Just be careful on the bolt pattern change. You cant do it on HQ and earlier 253/308s.

Almost forgot, Bosko is right too. HQ-WB is really W series.

_______________________________________________________
If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?

Edited by user Friday, 29 May 2009 6:22:08 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

All good information regarding the different bell housing patterns.

The upside to having a turbo pattern 308 is that you can bolt any VN-VT 5 litre T5 to it as all of the V8s were turbo pattern by the start of VN V8 production. That becomes an easy upgrade for you.

Yes at first it sounds crazy having two different bell housing patterns on what is essentially the same engine but it was probably cheaper and easier to change the block slightly than it was to convince GM in the USA to make TH350 and TH400 transmissions with a "Tri Matic" style bell housing.

In hindsight they probably should have made all 253s and 308s with the Turbo pattern block and make the trimatics and manuals with bell housings to suit but they obviously had a good reason not to.

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If at first you dont succeed then skydiving is not for you.

quote:

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Originally posted by Allan
Hi Guys,

I cannot see why Holden would make a seperate "manual" and "automatic" block.

Cheers,
Allan

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Others did the same with blocks. Mitsubishi Austraila had two differant blocks in the early 2.6 liter Sigma (Astron motor). The auto cars used a small patern and the manuals run a large patern. They did this by memory as the Auto used was the same as the 2 liter and that box was made in Australia.

quote:

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Originally posted by anonymous
W series ? 110% do you get that when you add in the WH WK WL WM

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Yes, that is correct. In the GM alpha numbering series there are T cars, V cars, J cars & W cars etc.

V cars are Commodores e.g. VB, VN, VT, VE etc.
W cars are the next size up:- HQ, HZ, WB, WH, WM etc. Have a look at the body plate numbering of an HJ KIngswood:- 8WN69

Yes, there is overlap, like VQ to VS Statesman & Caprice IMHO should have been classified as W, but they werent.

Dr Terry

Its easy now, to go back in history & say what should have been done. But look at it from an early 60s point of view.

As HK1837 has said, the 253/308 design began back in the EJ/EH era. In those days there was no TH350 or TH400. In the US the SBC still had teething problems & wasnt yet the proven package that we see today. Rather than use a yank design from any one of the various GM divisions, GM-H wanted to build there own engine, also one which weighed less than the US iron. All the different GM divisions had their own bellhousing bolt patterns, so do you pick one of those, or design your own. They designed their own !!

When they were designing the Holden V8, they knew the Tri-Matic was coming but it was from Europe & not intended for use behind V8s. They figured that because no other suitable 3-speed automatic was currently available, that they would just upgrade the Tri-Matic & build it here. (The early Tri-Matics were made in France). They did this, but for the 308, when the TH400 became available, they altered the bellhousing pattern & used the TH400 from HJ onwards.

To answer the query re:- the 308 Powerglide, they werent only fitted to HT Broughams. Any HT 308 auto would have been a Powerglide (except the last month so, when the Tri-Matics came online) & the same with HT 253 autos. It wouldnt have been too hard to make & use a different bellhousing, they had been doing this on 6-cylinders since HD. GM-H had been manufacturing Powerglide torque converters , bell-housings & extension housings in Australia since late 1964 to suit our RHD 6-cylinder application & to keep up the Australian content. The 253/308 Powerglide also uses a gear-set the same as the 6-cyl with a lower 1st gear than the Chev V8 version..

They couldnt use the 6-cyl style column shift cross shaft set-up because the US bell-housing had no provision for it. Besides they had already been using the V8 style set-up in Chevs & Pontiacs that they were building here at the time. They probably figured most V8 Powerglides were going to be T-bars anyway.

In hindsight it is easy to say they should have had the Chev bolt pattern from day 1, but it didnt go that way. BTW in South Africa they use the Tri-Matic behind their Chev 4 & 6-cyl engines. These have the same bolt pattern as the V8, so there is a Tri-Matic to Chev bellhousing made for the purpose.

Dr Terry.

Edited by user Saturday, 30 May 2009 3:08:57 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified