Suppose I wish to bring back to life my grampa’s Olds Toronado,
Eldorado,
http://www.bestautophoto.com/images/tuning-cadillac-eldorado-8.2-06.jpg
or even the GMC Motorhome,
…all of which had a 3 speed heavy duty auto trans and a 7+ liter pushrod v8…which more than likely required premium gas. (ultra-expensive today)
I want to update the relatively inefficient gas-guzzling drivetrain with a modern 6.6 Duramax Diesel. I also want the efficiency of the Allison 5 speed tranny with lock-up torque converter, but alas…the allison is only longitudinally mounted.
Is it at all possible to mix-n-match THM-425 parts with the Allison trans?
Um, the engines on those old FWD cars were longitudally mounted! Here’s what the engine bay of a Toronado looks like: http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/1966_Oldsmobile_Toronado_Deluxe_For_Sale_Engine_1.jpg
The El Dorados and weird RV’s are similar. Since they shared platforms with RWD cars, swapping in a regular old RWD drivetrain is relatively easy as far as these things go. I’m not sure if there’s any modern longitudal-mount FWD transaxle that would work. VW has used a similar arrangement on some Audis with big turbo V6’s that would put the old GMs to shame in terms of horsepower. I can’t imagine the dimensions are remotely the same, though.
I didn’t make myself clear.
I meant to say, instead of the engine in front and the transmission behind the motor (in a RWD setup) the THM-425 sends engine power 180 deg about-face and the bulk of the trans is underslung under the driver side bank of cylinders.