Re: Mcleod vs Lakewood SFI Bell Housing ?
 

aaah, I found this thread....

I received my new Quick Time bell housing, last week.

Facts:

First thing, these guys are down right fun to deal with ! Very accommodating, and informative.

The SFI approved unit, for Chevrolet using a 168 tooth flywheel... P/N RM-6022

The 22 pounds that they state on their site, does not include the 7 pound block plate.
Actual weight savings looks to be around 13 pounds... which is still quite substantial.

The block and transmission mating surfaces, are machined finish... which makes me MUCH more confident about alignment.

In speaking with the fellow about the manufacturing process, I can't see how they could possibly be "off-set" in relation to the block. The final machining process, indexes off the transmission centre.

oh... and they look like NOTHING you've seen before !

Here are a couple photos:

Re: Mcleod vs Lakewood SFI Bell Housing ?
 

I got a Quicktime housing a week ago for Olds/Pontiac from an ebay seller. Looks simiilar to the one above. The only thing I saw that you have to be careful about is the upper two tranny mount bolts. The holes are blind and you want to catch all the threads in the rear piece that is welded to the "cone", so you should try-fit and trim down the bolts to length.
Weight (bathroom scale accuracy--weighed several times to get close as possible) is 23 lb + 5 lb for block plate. A current Lakewood for Olds/Pontiac weighs 31 lb, plus 8 lb block plate. The Lakewood also uses a bunch more upper bolts that are hard to access with the engine in the car, whereas the Quicktime uses only the factory block mount bolts in the top half. They have 8 bolts across the bottom per NHRA rule, and the housing came with current (6/08) SFI sticker with its serial number etched on the housing next to it.

Anyone who has used a Lakewood for O/P in the past 30+ years knows the Lakewood morons put a block plate to housing bolt boss right where the clutch rod has to go. I sent mine back to them when it was new a couple years ago (I thought they might have learned, but, nope!) and they cut it off and didn't even change the SFI sticker. Cost me $65 shipping both ways for something I could have done with my Sawzall, just because I wanted to be legal. After several emails before sending it to them, they finally admitted that there might be interference in "some applications." Yeah, right. Only those that actually use a clutch inside the Lakewood. Happily, the Quicktime has no boss in the way. Their spun "cone" is thinner but stronger steel and apparently is so strong they don't need so many bolts to sandwich the block plate to the housing.

Re: Mcleod vs Lakewood SFI Bell Housing ?
 

Aubrey, Rory had an important point in his post re/ the block dowels and crankshaft centre. No matter how precise the new bellhousing is, you have to dial it in mounted on your actual block. Even if the dowels were exactly correct originally, and you can't be certain without checking, subsequent align boring or factory machining tolerances could have affected the crankshaft centreline location. Similarly, the block face could be out unless you've had it machined off the crankshaft centreline so it's worth the effort to dial both the bellhousing bore and the transmission face of the bellhousing. The fact that they make the offset dowels indicates this can be a common concern, I think from distant memory that Lakewood might also have offered those dowels at one time in several different offsets. Make sure that the dowels are sticking out enough to properly index both the block plate and bellhousing. Occasionally they get driven in too far by accident at the machine shop when they stand the block on end on the shop floor.

Re: Mcleod vs Lakewood SFI Bell Housing ?
 

Aubrey I looked on the web site and it listed the bellhousing for 438.00. Is that about what you paid? Hell a lakewood that has the inspection/adjuster cover is 1100.00. ED

Re: Mcleod vs Lakewood SFI Bell Housing ?
 

Yeah, that's it, Ed.... some $438.
$1100 ?
OBVIOUSLY a different Lakewood from the one I had !

Yes Grant, I'll still check the alignment. I'm pretty particular about not machining away an engine block... IE, decking to death, unnecessary line boring, ect.
I have a number of different blocks that I can get this thing mocked-up on. Be curious to see if there IS inconsistencies in the factory dimensions.

Good point about making sure the dowels are out far enough to engage the "bell", and not just the plate... cuz, you bet, I've set this block upright on the floor a few times !

I'll report back with what I find out about the alignment.

Re: Mcleod vs Lakewood SFI Bell Housing ?
 

8020 is $400 at wpparts on ebay.