This time they find a junkyard Cadillac 500 big block and use some modern-day performance parts to make a monster out of GM's biggest luxury car engine. As expected, the final truth is in the dyno numbers.
I spent over 40k on several 425s and I finally got a 500 caddy that was super built up. 500 hp 600 torque built by cad. Co. In Albuquerque. Yes they dynoed it. The problem is very few people can build them properly. Yes they make tons of torque but you can get a crate motor with warranty to do the same that is lighter. Once you started getting more power out of these engines with bolt ons and cams look out your wallet will look like a Ethiopian. I had 3 caddys I drove over 24 years. I worked on them nonstop. I also rebuild the transmission, differential which was a posi diff out on a caprice, brakes, suspension you name it I did it all. That Ole 1979 caddy with that 500 could outrun just about anything. It was a 500 swap. The engine I had out probably 8 times and the th400 took 2 hours to get out and I'd have it completely disabled flat. I know every bolt in that car top to bottom including torque spec.
Used to have one of these motors in my 76 Sedan DeVille. So much torque. Thanks for the great, thorough video. Reminds me of the detailed videos from the glory days of car shows on TNN when I was young.
Yep...had one in my triple white 75 Sedan De Ville 4 door hardtop. Even in 70s emissions form it had gobs of torque. I was 19 and had some good times in that car 😂
@@scottclark7559hire much mpg do you think that build would get? I have a 500 and it seems like I get 10mpg. Wouldn’t this make mpg worst? (I’m not a gear head)
My Dad use to service trucks for a local tire shop that used Ford F-250 trucks. When the engine would south which they did as he bought these trucks used and then painted them in his company colors my dad wouldn’t bother with a ford engine. Those old Cadillac motors and transmissions were a dime a dozen so out came the ford power plant and in went a Caddy set up. The guy like them so much he had my dad rebuild a 500 and put it in his ford crew cab.
I never understood why people would choose the 472 when for a few $$$ more you could have the 500... :) My dad had a 1960s caddy in the 1980's I always loved that car!
@@darealyunga.v.3392 It had real style, all them fins and chrome, and a low rider too, and it was shorter than the seventies caddy that came after... Those 70's cars had trunk and hoods about 6 foot long each... lol A blessed and prosperous new year to you, brother...
@@barking.dog.productions1777 that’s a true caddy for sure! I love them lowriders tho lol those trunks could fit a family in them😂 same to you brother stay blessed and have a great 2022!
Answered in the video at 1:45. Max HP from the factory was a mere 190 and there was no aftermarket support for a long time. That changed when performance parts became available.
Back in the late 80s early 90s I put a 76 500 caddy in a 77 GMC half ton pickup it was a real fun tire shredder got about 8 mpg with 3.40 or 2.56 rear gear didn't change anything but the smoke off the rear rubber. Lol @memories
I'd replace the intake with a dual plane for the longer runners, to bump up the mid range TQ. I went from a Max Wedge Indy heads and single plane EFI intake on my 500 Mopar, to a longer runner ported Edelbrock Pro Flo XT intake with standard port TFS240 heads, and gained approx 40 ftlbs at 4400 rpm. With nearly the same cam specs at the Caddy, the Mopar (installed in a jetboat) turns the same spec'd Scott Jet 912 drive at more RPM than the KEM LT4-650tq/650hp marine engine.
Your Mopar is a horse of a different color I've built a few Mopar max motors 514 all aluminum Indy heads 440 source crank rods n Pistons with the 7.100 rod with the big Chevy rod bearings and ground crank T n D full roller rockers 879 HP 4500 Holley dominator by TMP carbs it flows Almost 1700 cfm with weber power plates it was in a 21 foot pickle fork with a jet pump it goes 106 mph Can you say HANG ON
They didn’t give cam specs🤦🏻♂️. Watch Richard Holdener. He did a couple of videos on the 500Ci; that caddy with its good compression and head flow can make well over 700hp N/a. It was also making more torque than horsepower which shows it had a very mild cam in it
@@bri-manhunter2654 basic stock 500 with a decent cam will make around 300 hp and 400 ft lb of torque add headers and a decent intake and 450 hp 500 ftlb of torque... I need one of these in my hi-top ex uhaul 30 ft bob truck the big question is what about the tranny to fit this in???? It is originally a 454
MTS helped me with my 1973, 472. Basically, a stock rebuild with an Edelbrock manifold and mild cam. It was .030 over with 8.5 to 1 CR, and made 365 HP, on 87 octane, at 4800 RPM.
It doesn't take much to breath life into these monsters - they were so neutered in the 1970's and 1980's that if you just put a decent cam into them and let them breath they will easily pull all kinds of HP but especially torque
Went 10.09 in the 1/8 in a completely stock 1970 4 door hardtop 472 with single exhaust. All you could really hear when it was coming down the track was wind and the ol quadrajet moaning. Everybody had fun hot lapping it never even offered to overheat drove it home.
My Grandfather always had a Cadillac when I was a Kid in 60s/70s he always told me if they were to make a Cadillac race motor it would be a monster well you guys have done that this is way cool and nice job
I won't support a company that discriminates against white men for the purpose of employment. I'm so sick of this antiwhitism, and I won't tolerate it anymore.
As a fellow southerner I can tell you with confidence that when you hear a southern gentleman say "shoooooot", some good things are about to happen lol
Between the guy in I do Cars tearing them down and you guys building them up, I finally sort of begin to fathom how my truck engine works and why oil is so key.
Heh, yeah and it made all of about 250HP :-D They even offered the Twin Six, a V12 version of the same 60 degree V6 that they made into that big V8. There were some cool things about the design, but the low compression ratio (7.5:1) tiny valves and poor breathing let it down. I have the 351cid version of this V6 in an old school bus.
. 090 over and look at how much beef there still is between the cylinders! It would be great to see a weight-saving, yet stout, crankshaft and see that monster rev!
Could you explain I got a 500 I'm gonna try to rebuild after I get a few hundred thousand miles out of it and try to get the most basass motor I can what is important when it comes to rebuilding and getting cams and all that
@@shakinbottles Explain what? More cam = more power? 248 duration on a small block is a radical cam, choppy idle, good power up top. On a 500, a 248 cam has smooth idle, good power though out the RPM range.
as a little kid growing up in the 80s my folks bought a used 1977 caddilac sedan deville 4 door with a 472 big block . when we moved to the branson area in 89 and the car got parked because the suspension and wiring started to take a crap . my dad had a plan to yank out the working motor and tranny to drop in a project 72 Chevy Nova . well that goal got shit canned and the car got hauled off for a couple hundred bucks 🙄
There was a guy on the east l think his name is Kevin brochard that made a kit to drop 472 500 ci caddy engines into gm G bodies. Supposed to do 12s with stock 500
@@gmac8852 They make a kit for G bodys and they fit well. A stock high compression one will run 13s in a G body while shifting at 4500rpm with 2.73 gears. They must get valve springs and rocker arms to rev past that or if you put more cam in them.
Agreed, im all for unusual powerplants but the BB chev is a drop in ,readily junkyard available, and will supply the same power numbers, or more, for much less money.
You can get a 454 for dirt cheap. That caddy will set you back a lot more, and the aftermarket just isn't there unless you want to spend thousands to do what you can with a budget big block Chevy.
I’m sitting here thinking about swapping out my 500 for a 350sb. After watching this video I would like very much to do this to it but, then I remember that I’m always at the gas station with this 500😊. I get under 10mpg now. If I do these upgrades I’ll probably get 2mpg.
Because bone yards primarily have been taken over by scrappers looking for a quick buck - they no longer care about selling parts - especially for older cars. I just sold a bone yard my 2000 ford taurus with the HO 3.0 32 valve engine and the just crushed the whole car for 3600 lb at $0.10 a lb - that motor and transmission were worth 3 X that - the factory aluminum rims were worth $100, the never wrecked body parts were worth $1000... They scrapped it for $400 along with who knows how many classic cars - Caddys were all crushed decades ago by these bastards
@@V8_screw_electric_cars Exactly - take our heritage at every chance - stupid people never see that we are in a constant war with big government. They hide it behind platitudes, but the truth is that these older cars are a BIGLY part of our history...
I have a 70 Eldo. Apparently the stock intake is poor because there is no hood clearance. Maybe EFI would give you more. The Eldo has a complex FWD trans.
Fantastic Cadillac 500 cu inch combo 👌 😅 Would 800 hp be attainable with this Engine with a bigger cam & compression ??? Thx 4 uploading 😅 Robert Australia 🇦🇺
I think they misspoke when they set initial timing at 31*.....I think he meant total! Also, them heads flow enough air for 700+ HP and that cam is the bottleneck in this engine and maybe the carb also, try a dominator! That MTS guy didn’t look too happy sitting next to the dyno operator!
Try reading the manuals and looking at a flow path diagram for the fuel delivery. Once you understand everything about them, you can truly tune them yourself. With a rebuild kit and minimal tools you can usually fix any carburetor issues on the side of the road.
@@jasonhooey5677 Pretty hard for a carb to match EFI when it comes to fuel distribution, mixture control at part load, etc. Depends what you want, carbs are simple and cheap and work more or less just as well as EFI if you're only interested in winning drag races. But if you're after accurate mixture control under all conditions, easy cold starts, fuel economy, passing emissions, that last 0.5% of possible power output... then EFI is where it is at.
I miss my '78 Fleetwood Brougham. If I find another one that's in good shape, I'm giving these guys a call and it's going to get some extra power, and lots of it. Don't care about gas mileage, I just want a heavy cruiser that is ridiculously overpowered.
Honestly if you drop some modern tech into one of these engines you can probably improve the fuel economy AND the power at the same time. In particular with EFI you could add some compression ratio and timing without having to run special fuel (Without ITBs or very carefully designed manifolds carbed engines usually have some cylinders running lean and some rich, and your compression/timing is limited by the leanest cylinder) while also improving your economy. Also those alloy heads have a modern looking chamber that probably does a lot of good for economy and power compared to what was available in the 70s and 80s.
Cadillac motors are a boutique motor while mass production has driven the cost of GM big block parts down so Cadillac horsepower is more costly than GM horsepower. FYI All Cadillac 500 motors from the factory are 502 inches. My "57 Coupe DeVille has a 502 inch Caddy motor in it, giving it luxurious grunt.
I went and looked on their website.. holy balls is it expensive. You could build two gnarly big block chevies that would eat this thing alive for the same cost.
@@USARAY1947 No, they're 500cid. 502 was the EPA engine emissions control designation for this block, that's why the 472 cars also say GM 502 on the emissions label. But yes, they are boutique in that it seems spendy to put one together-but the payoff is you only have to do it once and the reliability in real world usage is stellar.
The caddy company Albuquerque New Mexico sales all you need 472 Chevy Silverado pickup 1987 puts the third chunk out of the 70s rear wheel drive Cadillac car transmission and motor they sell a kit look up the caddy torque monster build out of hot rod by Dick Miller
5:10 if GM didn't design the 1970 engine to spin pass 3,000 rpm. Why did it make peak hp at 4,400 rpm? 6:17 why are you putting gasket sealant on top of a gasket?
That engine would be a total riot in a 75-76 coupe de ville! with a turbo or nitrous it could embarrass some muscle cars. 10 or 11 sec 1/4 mile runs in that huge land yacht
The caddy Engine was actually inside of the chevette I still have the Hotrod aricle.They also did caddy hack,cad camaro,cad nova,and cad corvette to name a few.
It has weak cast rods. I would'nt over rev it. Still the 70 was 400 HP then it dropped every year. When racing my Eldo I have found to let the automatic do the one -two shift then maybe hold it a little longer in second. More gears would help a lot.
That intake is to much for the street it's nogood untill it gets in to the 5000 rpm area and is nogood for torque or gas milage below 3000 rpm I had one I swapped to to the performer and a Qjet carb I'm almost at 600 HP 644 torque
This is a very old show but i still love to watch these old power block shows. I want to see the full race 500 on the dyno... what are the limitations to this engine? Love big caddy BOP big engines as well.. they where the easy way to get easy power into anything with a trip to the right junkyard.
Stock conrods are junk. Stock crank is good. Stock heads low performance as well as stock intake. Stock exhaust not too good. See the Cad Co. I thought with all the money spent it would do better.
What we learned about caddy motors in 1985 and up They suck in stock form, they lack power Heavy rotating weight Heads need loads of porting Won't run on pump gas with early heads on later block Q jets suck Force induction will wake these dinosaurs up Valvetrain blues are present They coast way more then chevy bbs The blocks are awsome in strength due to a thick bore and hight nickle content 4 bolts not needed Cam choices were limited to regrinds back then A few failed from oiling issues Don't use the rear sump with long pickup The p rods bend easy Don't use the cast rods go with modded olds 455 rods. The height won't fit under the hood of most cars. Put the motor in a very lite car. Don't expect much out of a Na engine on pump gas. Bloodviking
Well, think about it for a minute. Literally millions through the 80s got powered with small blocks, and then the Northstar thru the 90s was like a 4.7 (? I genuinely don't recall). So, yeah. Not all Cad V-8s are Big Blocks.
The aluminum heads have the valve's too close to each other that makes burned valves in 5 years and aluminum causes whorpage when overheated and carries like tooth decay
Watching the episode it is obvious that the narrator can speak normally (which is nice to listen to). So why is it that he has to snarl like one of Arsenio Hall's characters in Coming to America in the introduction (which is toe-crinching to listen to).
the biggest GM motor ever put in a production like a truck was a 637 cubic inch big block it had 5 and 1/8 inch Pistons with a two and three quarter inch stroke
@@CJColvin It wasn't a BBC like a 454. It was an 8 cyl. version of the 60 degree V6 debuted by GMC in 1959. Sturdy bottom end let down by dinky valves and poor breathing. But it did make a lot of torque and last a long time.
