RE: Bellhousing advice

[Davidless]

Hi Guys
Any recommendations on a SFI rated bellhousing that won't break the bank? I see steel and aluminum as choices but not sure which one would be better since they are both SFI rated

Thanks

David

[DanEC]

QuickTime seem to have a good reputation for quality. I have one in my ERA and it centered nicely when I checked it with a dial indicator.

[eschaider]

Unless you go the race-only route which has heartburn for a street-driven car the best choice and essentially the only game in town today is Quicktime. I believe they bought out Lakewood, and Holley bought them out, or Holley bought out both of them at different times.

I have a Lakewood from before the company was sold. The registration was terrible and required re-centering the can on the back of the engine before you could use it. I was talking about the poor registration to a friend back in Ohio years ago, and he told me the reason for the misalignment issue was the way the dowel pin and bolt holes were supposedly put in the can. He maintained they were drilled using a drilling jig.

I have done several Quicktime cans for different guys, and I have never needed to recenter the can! The story I got on the Quicktime cans is that their bolt circle/dowel pin locations and transmission register are finish machined on CNC equipment to duplicate OEM locations. I can't prove or disprove that, but I can say I have done three of them without the need to realign any of them.

Another consideration in favor of Quicktime is the Lakewood offerings are being slowly but systematically removed from the catalog, application by application. Additionally, the Quicktime can, with its conical shape, I suspect, offers better protection than the Lakewood design.

The bad news is the Quicktime cans are essentially a $900 to $1,000 proposition in today's dollars. The good news is they have a can to mate just about any transmission to just about any block. I wouldn't be surprised to find a Lenco to Briggs & Stratton can offering from them — of course, at the $900 to $1,000 price point.

Get a Quicktime! You will be very happy with the product, not so much with the price point.


p.s. At one time, you could buy a Quicktime that was not SFI certified, and they would sell it a couple of hundred dollars below the certified equivalent. I am not sure if that was to get rid of old inventory or to address a secondary market at a lower price point. When you contact them, it doesn't hurt to ask if they still do this.

[Davidless]

Thanks for the info, my spec sheet has a QT but @ 850+ and not SPI certified I was questioning the value. Anyway, based on your alignment experience I guess I’ll have to splurge for the QT.
Thanks for the write up.

[1795]

I have had both the QT SFI rated one and the non-SFI rated one. The SFI rated one is heavier than the non rated one, and targeted more towards racing where the likelihood of a flywheel/clutch/pressure plate disintegrating is much higher. Both of them were easy to install and did not required any shims or adjustments. The non-SFI rated one is plenty strong enough to handle a street application.