My grandpa had an Ice blue metallic '76 D'Ville with white interior with this engine. I rode with him as a kid in NE Ohio at 1 AM to check on his laundromats collect the coins and load the vending machines. Absolutely the quietist and smoothest V8. Grandpa would punch it on the interstate and we would get to the next 'mat in no time. We would wrap it up at a Howard Johnsons where he would get me food and he would talk to his friends. The '76 D'Ville made it happen. Great car. Good memories.
I never had either of my grandfathers while growing up, but my very first car was the 1976 Fyremist Blue Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with this engine. That is probably the same blue that you are referring to. So I feel you completely. This is the only car that decades and decades later I continue to dream about, but I absolutely definitely did not hit 140 miles an hour on an empty freeway at 3 a.m. with it one crazy night. That wasn't me.
@@brotherowl Yeah my Grandpa's car was a pillarless hardtop. I believe Fyremist was the color. It was a very light blue metallic and had a white vinyl top. White leather inside. That color combo just popped. That Caddy was such a nice car. They don't make 'em like they used to!
We owned the 472 and 500 versions. They were sweet and lovely engines. Lots of torque at low RPM so that a slight depression on the throttle would quietly and quickly increase our speed. Neither engine required maintenance outside of oil and filter changes. Sadly, the body construction was not as good. We had corrosion problems, failed plastic body parts, and generally marginal body construction. But on the highway, the smooth ride, superbly soft seats, and generous power made cruising a delight. I drive a twin turbocharged Mercedes V8 now (E550 E-class). It is an inferior, temperamental, high maintenance engine.
I was in high school auto shop and also working as a pump jockey part time in 1973 when the Arab oil embargo hit. One of the teachers brought in her 1967 Caddy with the 472 and begged us to tune it up so it got better then the 7 MPG it was getting in city driving because she couldn't get enough gas to go to and from home everyday. She ended up donating the car to the school when she bought a new VW because VW wouldn't take the Caddy in trade. Gas had gone from 36 cents to around 75 almost overnight and that was when you could find it. Gas stations were closed on Sunday and most wer closing at 6pm.
It was a Horrible time. Gas Prices, Government Regulations and Insurance Costs. I took HS Auto Shop and graduated in 1971. I had a 1969 Plymouth 440 GTX. Best Regards.
Remove the pushrods from 2 or 4 of the cylinders and adjust the idle upward so it doesn't stall. I know a guy who got 26mpg highway on a big v8 clunker running on 4 cylinders.
Growing up, my neighbors had an Eldorado and Delta 88. The old man retired from GM. He would tool around on his Caddy and light up the tires and smoke out the neighborhood as he'd burn rubber. Great old guy.
I have rebuilt a 472 and a 500. These engines were seriously underrated. The thin wall casing helps make this massive engine as light as it is. With an aluminum intake, it's a full 150 pounds lighter than a 454. The 472 I have rebuilt is setup with Sniper EFI and a 4L80E. It's going into my '72 Chevy C20. I remember farmers back in the 70's and 80's snapping these engines up to put in their pickup trucks.
My first car I inherited from my grandfather was the 69 coup de ville with a high compression 472, and that thing would pass everything except the gas station. If they hadn't had to compromise the intake design to make hood clearance, it would have been even better.
Forgot to add to my previous long comment that today you can still find abandoned Caddies with these mammoth 500 cid motors, and they will run like you had only parked the car yesterday. It is an amazingly long lasting motor. I've heard this from people that know. You also pointed it out here.
My father had a 72 Sedan de ville with the 472 engine learned to drive in that car, what a torque monster if you into the throttle in 2nd gear you feel it in your neck how hard it pulls
I knew I had seen "fuel injection" badges on some of these Caddies. Wow, what a step forward, since we had to wait until the mid 80s to finally enjoy the smoothness of an early morning f.i. cold start. Also those older Eldorado brochures drive me wild with those beautiful vehicles featured in their pages. Thank you for taking us back to times we wont see again. Seems that GM's muscle year was 1970, with 1971 a close second.
It takes a long time for advanced technology to become affordable. Fuel injection is a perfect case study in that. Another is in-car phones. Those were available in the 1960's but, only the rich could afford them and you had to be in a city that had the telecom infrastructure to work in.
I had the 425 version in an Eldorado, it really was a marvel of an engine. Very reliable also and easy to work on. Definitely agree it was Cadillac's best engine.
@@LuciFeric137 things may be bad but don’t lose hope in the earlier 1900s wealth inequality was about where it is now. And we changed that over time by electing officials.
My mother's 1973 Eldorado had this engine in it - massive, monstrous engine that had great heaping, steaming gobs of torque. 0 to 60 may not have been so stellar but once rolling, the instantaneous acceleration to pass or just the exhilarating kick down was seriously strong. I still have a soft spot for the 1971-73 Eldorado. You just have to drive one in like new mechanical condition to understand their beauty and power - truly the American Rolls Royce/Bentley!
I drove one 4100 miles a month ago. Averaged 15mpg, going 75mph. I went 90 and it went down to 12mpg 😂 if it didn't have a useless 3 speed transmission it wouldn't be as bad. Insanely smooth motor, had a blast 🥰
I had a 1965 Lincoln with the 430 ci plant & a 462 ci plant in my 1966 Lincoln, it did put out great power, as did my several 440 ci Chrysler's I've owned. The only American brand I've never owned is a Cadillac which I've always wanted but for some reason never pull the trigger on one.
I was in high school and a friend of a friend had his uncles '71 deVille with the 500. "Numbers" don't translate or do it justice. Merging onto the highway; I was just looking down at something and day dreaming. The soft "hum" went up slightly in pitch and I sank a little into the incredible seats. Ny the time it took me to glance up, the needle was already past 90 mph and meeriy going north. Not a standing-start dragster, but gobs of power for merging and passing. 100 mph still felt like you were sitting on a cloud
Those Cadillacs from the middle 1970s also had lots of comfortable interior space to go with that 500cid engine. Though they weren't designed for racing, they could hold their own with most vehicles of the time. I still recall a Sunday afternoon when an impromptu drag race took place with a 1970 or '71 Ford Mustang in the left lane, a 1964 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 coupe in the middle lane that I was a passenger in, and a 1975 or '76 Cadillac Coupe deVille in the right lane on an avenue in Brooklyn, NY. Truth be told, the Mustang would have prevailed if the cars were on a race track, but the Oldsmobile and the Cadillac each held their own despite the Cadillac easily outweighing both the Ford and the Oldsmobile.
I had a '76 Eldorado Convertible with the fuel-injected version 500. It was a dream to drive; you could watch the gas gauge drop, and you kept your foot to the floor.
If I bought a luxury car, it would be a 1970 Cadillac with this engine. 1970 was without a doubt one of the best years for American cars, and Cadillac was hands down the best in the world
Having worked on the later 500 c.i. V8, the addition of the EGR valve was detrimental. These engines had big problems carboning up. Removing the cylinder heads and de-carbonizing the engine was a temporary fix. The EGR valve set it all off, starting the carboning problem and creating driveability issues. The addition of fuel injection was a godsend. The last Eldorado convertibles in 1976, with their 500 c.i fuel injected V8 was probably the smoothest running version. With this fuel injection system, also used on the Seville's 350 Olds V8, problems were usually caused by fiddling with them.A popular mod was smashing in the vacuum end of the fuel pressure regulator with a socket. Sure it increased fuel pressure, initially, but down the road it caused the diaphragm to stick causing severe running issues. The secret that escaped many was that you could stick an allen wrench inside the vacuum inlet and adjust fuel pressure that way. Another problem plaguing Cadillacs from 1974 and the rest of GM vehicles from 1975 was the HEI ignition. It produced so high a voltage that it would burn through the ignition rotors. I'd done more than a few road calls to repair stranded vehicles. It took GM a few years to figure it out, but the aftermarket figured it out well before GM did.
Since EPA smog restrictions on CO, HC, and NOx were fixed and not scaled to engine displacement, the V8's of the malaise era (1973-1983) got thrashed by the early smog controls. But, the small four and six cylinder engines didn't get choked as badly and still ran fine. Even then, the average HP/cubic inch ratio was 1/3. If you got 1/2 hp per cubic inch, that was a performance engine! I think the worst was the mid-late 70's Ford 250 inline six. 250 cubic inches and could only make 72 hp at 2900 rpm. That engine was crushed. The EPA's smog rules was one of many reasons why VW Beetles and Datsuns became popular in the 1970's. It was much easier to bring those tiny engines into compliance.
@@muffs55mercury61 Yup. But some 70's cars were so definitely defective in their design that there was practically nothing legal which you could do to remedy the situations. I bought a California spec.1976 Toyota Celica Liftback new and the EGR caused such an adverse reaction that when cruising in 2nd gear at 25 mph, it would buck and kick. The Toyota dealer couldn't do anything about it. After I figured out that it was the EGR, I plugged the vacuum line going to it. It ran great after that. The next situation was the catalytic converter. It really didn't hamper performance but it would spit out hot little pellets out the tail pipe. You didn't want to get hit with one. It also had a foul smell that my friends complained about. I looked into what the 49-state Celica's had and they used a head pipe with a resonator in place of the cat. I bought and installed one and ran the car that way for another 20 years. California had biannual smog inspections then with constantly lowering emission standards. Luckily we did smogs at our shop so we ran the car as-is. It was lower in emissions than brand new cars and never failed a smog test. If they had done a visual inspection, which they should have, it would have failed. When I sold the car to a friend, I put everything back, to be safe. However, I never unplugged the EGR valve.
My dad had a caddy with the 472. It wasn't a motor that men talked about like a 327 or a 351. It just did its job and did it well. Can you please consider doing a video on the first Ford F100's, 1953 to 1956? These were beautiful trucks, and they spanned the timeframe from flatheads to overhead valves for Ford. Thank you.
Wow I never realized how good the torque numbers were , 550lb ft that’s 100lb ft more than the 454 SS which had 450 gross, from only 800cc more displacement
Just bought a 1970 Caddy 500 long block, working out a deal on a 1950 Pontiac Streamliner roller, gonna restomod it with the Cadillac 500ci and a TH400 at the heart of it. Looking like it's gonna end up disc brake converted with a Ford 9 3/8" rear end
I was extremely lucky to own a 75 Eldo with this monster. I miss that car. I still brag about owning a car that had/has the biggest motor ever stuck in a passenger car!!
My father had a 1975 Coupe de Ville with the fuel injection engine. The only real issues that I remember were some of the fuel injection sensors. It would get 10 miles per gallon in the city and about 16 to 17 on the highway. Not bad for pushing 3 tons.
The cool thing about the 472 and the 500 Cadillac is the blocks,and heads were all the same the displacement was increased by the long stroke crank,they were and stiil are great engines.
I had a 1972 Coupe, Firemist Blue (silver) with whole leather and white vinyl top The 472 could move that thing off the line as fast as most muscle cars of that era. And it was quiet, as you said. The headlights were pushed to the very edge of the body and intimidated drivers at night when you came up from behind. Not a great car overall, but I sure loved it even though it knocked terribly on unleaded without fuel additive.
I've had four with the 472 engine (three '72s and a '73) Best trouble free engine ever. The '72s all had in excess of 100,000 miles on them or more. Some were known to have valve lifter clicking after a while but none I have ever did. Cadillac set sales records in the early 1970s until the 1974 model year (in '73 they sold 300,000+ cars) Unleaded wasn't required until the 1975 model year. The government ruined the auto industry and by 1980 it was a far cry from the 1970s.
I was a young salesman back in 1976 and selling these cars was so easy. We had many customers who changed cars every few months. The joke was: “oh, the ashtray is full, time for a new car “. In reality, customers would get a convertible for Summer, a sedan for Winter. But the smooth power these cars had was glorious. Nothing was better on a long road trip than a Sedan DeVille.
In the mid 09s I had a 69 El Dorado w the 472cu in , sounded like the batmobile, looked like a shark amd big as a house.. Owned a boutique then and easily perched a dozen models on the roof, hood, and trunk while parked in front of the shop. Merged like starshop Enterprise engaging warp drive. 5-12 mpg. Fond memories...
Had a 70 Fleetwood brougham in 87 as a fixer upper should have kept it !! That 472 with 10:1 compression could really move. My previous 73 coupe deville was noticeably less energetic and the 75, 76s I had after the good ol ‘70 were even slower. Although I certainly loved these cars for styling the earlier ones were stronger and seemed to have had better materials/quality. Great memories all the same.
There was a lot of media confusion on that at the time. Buick, Chevy, Olds and Pontiac stopped convertible production in '75 but Caddy kept them a year longer. Many are still around.
I have proudly owned a 1976 de Ville 500 and the 472 in a 1973 de Ville and 1974 Fleetwood. Fantastic, refined, utterly relaxed engines. With 5-inch bore center spacing, they are as big block as it gets in noncommercial vehicles. To its credit, the 429 in the 1967 Fleetwood Limousine in my school carpool moved that car authoritatively and with impressive refinement. Years later as an adult I was surprised to learn of its relatively modest displacement.
The 472 ci based engines had some of the best blocks ever cast. On center bores, high nickel content it was so tough that it could tear boring tools up. The engine only needs a cam and intake swap to really wake them up, and if you tune them right they will get over 20 mpg.
I've always wanted a GM big block car. Any would do. But a 1970 Cadillac with the 500 or a 1970 Buick GS 455 would be the best. One for cruising and one for flying
I'm with you, but I prefer just a bit, the "472"........ Love those BIG Cadillacs..........mom had a '72, Coupe De Ville w/a 472. 16mpg in the city, (driven moderately) and 21 on the HWY, (@ 55mph) loved it, it was only 8, or 8.5-1 compression,, 220 BHP......... loved it!
The Rare Classic Cars channel said that these were known for overly lean quadrajet state of tune that made throttle response more mushy than it should have been. Maybe that's one reason the EFI drove so much better.
I like the Caddies and pretty much any car of this timeframe. Funny thing is I owned a 76 Oldsmobile Toronado (sister car of the Eldorado) with Oldsmobile’s big block 455. It had a 4BBL carb and was rated at 215 HP. This 455 was only in the Toronado and the entire drivetrain was used in the GMC Motorhome.
Olds offered thier 455 in all their full-size cars through 1976. Delta 88, Delta 98, Custom Cruiser, Toronado. They may have advertised it as a higher horsepower in the Toronado, but it was the same engine.
@@johneckert1365 No. Oldsmobile offered 2 different 455s in 1976. The L74 was rated at 190 HP which was offered in the Cutlass, 88 and 98. The L78 was the 455 for the Toronado and GMC Motorhome. I think it had a little more cam and larger bolts in the main bearing caps. Pontiac only offered 1 version of its 455 in 75-76. The only difference in them was carb jetting and distributor advance were used in the F body because it required a 4 speed manual. Everything else available with a 455 was automatic. Initially Pontiac dropped the 455 for the F body for 75. They brought it back mid year and labeled the shaker HO 455 for 75 and took flack because it was no different than a station wagon 455. In 76 the shaker simply said 455. Not sure on Buick.
I had one I bought cheap in the 80s. It came from a caddy collector an was his least special car, even though it was in pristine condition. I was to young to respect it properly an I can tell you it was as great of a machine to do burn outs in as anything built! You could actually get decent gas mileage if you drove it "nice", but when you hot rodded it you could watch the fuel gauge dive towards empty.
I don't know if I'd use the word "greatest" to describe such a big engine with so little power, but it certainly was impressive. Ironically, the same huge block was used for the tamer 425 and the downright wimpy 368 which found their ways under most Cadillac hoods until 1982. That heavy block was the reason the 1977 Deville and Fleetwood models had a wheelbase stretched 2.5 inches further forward than their Buick and Oldsmobile C-body counterparts; the cars would have been nose-heavy without it. I think it was a huge mistake for Cadillac to ditch the 368 V-4-6-8 in favor of the fragile, half-baked 4100 for 1982. If they had kept the 368 as a V-4-8 (disabling the shaky 6 cylinder mode) until the FWD C-body cars were ready, they would have had much more reliable cars to sell and a better reputation.
My mom had a '77 Coupe de Ville d'Elegance with the 425 cubic inch engine. The four barrel carb meant a screaming 180 horsepower! I timed it in 1983, it needed 16.4 seconds to reach 60 mph from a dead stop. This is a 4100 pound car with a 7.0 liter V8 engine. Did I mention it was "Bimini beige"? That means it was pink. When my dad bought the pathetic car, whenever I rode around in it in the back seat I used to hide behind the C pillar so that the other kids didn't see me in it....
@@Flies2FLL : All over the internet dude. Just type it in your web browser- "1970s global cooling". Next time do your research and learn something first. Nice try.
I have been a passenger in a early 1070's Cadillac Coupe and Sedan DeVille and 6 fat guys like me can go accross the U.S. with room to spare and a very large trunk for peoples suitcases.
@@KetchLambier There also aren't that much hop up parts for them compared to Chevy engines, there are a couple of companies that do make speed parts for the 500.
The cylinders were a little close together on these. The head gasket would blow out in between cylinders and resulted in big power losses while the two cylinders pushed back and forth between them. They (472, 500) were really good otherwise, always wanted to build a ratrod with the '70 engine.
I never liked those great big things. Perhaps I was affected by the sight of one of their cast cranks in 2 pieces. I liked the 429 much better. That was a very small block, about the size of a chevy small block. It really left tons of room under the hood. Anyway, the 429 was super smooth and quiet while delivering tons of power. It really was a well-engineered engine and ran forever.
Gas was cheap then, pocket change. The politicians screwed it all up. Used to drive all day long but today teenagers can’t afford such luxury that we just took for granted
