My '93 parts truck has an automatic (518? 618?). I know I'll never need it, because my truck is a stickshift. So it occured to me that a good use for it would be to get overdrive in my motorhome by using the spare transmission to replace the 727 loadflight it has now.

From what I've heard, the problem is that the Cummins uses a unique bolt pattern and there's no way to make it fit. The motorhome originally had a 440, so I assume anything that will bolt up to a 440 will work. Does anybody know of any parts that will allow this swap, or is the only way going to be to have a new adaptor plate made?

 

I'm wandering if the 727 can be modified to take the OD unit.

 

I'm sure some one will correct me if wrong but was'nt the adapter plate meant to bridge the gap between cummins and big block bellhousing?

 

No. My guess they did it to keep someone from putting a gasser transmission which is set up internally different on the Cummins. Or vise-a-versa. I has seen some adapters, but they were for a Cummins to ????

 

You know what the solution is here... Put a cummins in the motor home!

 

"You know what the solution is here... Put a cummins in the motor home!"

Actually, that is one of the alternatives I've considered. I may even end up doing just that. A couple of owners back, the motor home did get a diesel conversion, a Perkins 6-354. I tried to keep the question simple by only referring to the 440 bolt pattern, not what was in front of it. The Perkins turns about 1000 rpm slower than the 440, so it's the reason this rig needs an overdrive.

Putting the engine and trasnsmission from the parts truck into the mh would certainly solve the problem of mating a transmission to my engine. Also, even the 1st-gen Cummins has a little more power than the Perkins.

The down side is that somebody already went to a lot of trouble to make the Perkins fit and I'm not sure I want to go through all that again. Every engine conversion I've ever seen ended up having many, many things that didn't quite fit, that weren't apparent before the job was started. The other downside is that I know the Perkins is good but I don't know the history of the Cummins in the parts truck, except that it has a lot more miles (hundreds of thousands) on it than the Perkins.
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you can get a apaptor for a small block 318/360 727/518 to big block.or cut the bell housing off and go with a J&W ulta-bell this may not fit the diesel convertor http://www.racewithjw.com/ ken PS at one time it was very common to do the Perkins swap into puckups and motor homes and the 727 is what they used.