Upgrading the Cadillac 500 To Make Serious Heavy Horsepower - Detroit Muscle S8, E2 

I was thinking about a Chevy 502 or 572. But they did keep it Cadillac.

That would be too effective.

Probably should have k swapped it 😂

@@84eurospec911 k swap the world 😂

The LS is the best thing since sliced bread.

I said the same thing.

Put head studs in it but reused the stock oil pump.

Yep

Have you heard of "top end rebuild"?

@@ghost187x everyone has. When you don't know the true history of the motor spend a couple hundred dollars to make it better. They didn't even look to see the status of the motor on the bottom end.

They were Douche bags

lol yes

I do. That was the original there. They showed how to diagnose cars back in the days of OBD1 and even before. Of the time, there was a dramatic change in engineering in autos, they showed you how to work on it

@@jayyoutube8790 Sam and Dave were about fixing cars and explaining how cars worked. Not selling 10,000 dollars of parts for a project. I would watch them on Saturday mornings on TNN when I was about 13 or 14.

@@jonnygg6594 hand me that wrench pal. Ok buddy here ya are. 🤣 They were corny af, but had the knowledge. Used to watch all those silly shows on Saturday mornings back in the late 90s/2000s.

I'm fairly certain it had timing and tune issues. Did you at least replace that sloppy factory vinyl timing gear? Remember, that 'SAE net HP' was a solid 40 percent less than the engine really made-it was done to make the auto insurance industry happy, and for eco-regs. The EFI version actually made more power than the carb version-and was a lot nicer to drive. Keep a spare temp sensor in the glovebox, tho. I have a factory EFI '78 DeVille that's supposed to only have 185HP, yet from stoplight to stoplight it will embarrass all those turbo Audis that try their little pass on the right trick. They fail-and lose to a big ole' green, chrome bedecked, 4200lb American couch-mobile! It's pretty awesome.

@@Bolton115 - I remember the timing gear problems with those engines. The day I bought that car (used) from a dealer, the transmission went out. The dealer took several days to replace it. Two days later the car quit running. They took a day to fix it. Two days later it broke down again. Rinse. Lather. Break down again. Got rid of it in two weeks so never got into the timing gear issue. Those five times when it was running okay were really sweet, though. My '73 Coupe de Ville had plenty of power, though and of all the Caddy's I've had, I miss that one the most.

@@vincentjamesthequicktake1720 most places wouldn't know how to work on those old EFI systems. They can be very reliable, but the tech repairing it has to do a bit of homework. I wonder how many of these got switched to a Qjet due to bad temp sensors and a misadjusted throttle position sensor, or a faulty fuel pump circuit. Today, there is also a MAP sensor mod to allow a modern day 5v MAP sensor to work in the 1970s 9v ECU environment.

@@Bolton115 - If only I had known then what I know now. Thanks for the info :-) The prices of those today have gotten truly insane. Still, I'd rather have my old '73 Coupe de Ville back, carb, points and condenser, and everything!

@@vincentjamesthequicktake1720 yeah, it's hard to beat the older, high compression carb and points setup, at the very least because they are a known quantity for repairs. I started out with points triggered cars, and wasn't sad to see 'em go when I went to HEI.

Got a good friend at work that had a Pinto station wagon when we were both younger, much younger. He chopped the back half after a tree fell on it and named it the Pintomino. It turned lots of heads. Most likely because it looked as though it was coming toward you and away from you as far as that goes at about a 45 degree angle. Drove like shit, but it was cool!

@@thomashaley5284 should have called it Pimento Cheese

Lots of funeral homes have a thing that looks like a Cadillac El Camino...

I saw a funeral flower car a few weeks ago. Never saw one or never noticed ,I'm not sure but it was kinda neat. Basically a Cadillac Ute.

@Ed Miller Ford was in with what became Cadillac as well. That is why other than the mechanicals of it, body parts etc from the first Cadillacs and the first Ford Model A could be interchanged. Theres much more to it but its too much to list here

Cost, it's that simple. Remember, we are talking about an industry that did the math and figured it would be cheaper to let people die and settle court cases than upgrade a 40 cent fuel line. drums to disc entail a lot of cost, hence...we wait.

I'm so happy really, to see other's who see what they did and are doing. That I'm not the only one who sees these things.

Well, drum brakes are way more reliable and cheaper to maintain. You can still buy cars with (rear) drum brakes. Most trucks (+3,5 Tonnes) still use drum brakes..

@@ferdi93ferdi Cheaper to maintain? What kind of maintenance do brakes need? Anybody can change pads. Drums full of springs are a pain in the ass. Discs feel way better than drums, too. Reliable? So long as a brake line isn't rotten (and that could happen with discs or drums) what's the difference in relaibility? You ever hear of someone doing a drum brake conversion? And yea, heavy trucks all use drums, but that's a bit apples and oranges, don't you think? Sorry to carry on, but I hate drums.

I didn't realize that.

I agree, that goof with the glasses and beard is a putz.

A kitchen with 2 cooks makes for bad dinner.

Back before GM "corporatized" the engine designs in the late 70's (Chevy 305's and Olds 307's in everything...) Each division had its own engineering dept and permission from corporate to go their own way on the design of the engines. As you stated since Chevy made the low cost entry level cars the engines (at least the SBC) were designed to be lower cost since the overhead on a Chevelle was lower then an mid or upmarket Olds Cutlass Supreme, Buick Skylark, Pontiac LeMans (these three were a Chevelle body style with luxury trim and more refinement - to include the engines) The BOP cars had higher profit margins which back then allowed their engineering depts to make higher quality engines - higher nickel content, closer tolerances, novel applications like the TH425 "Unitized Power Package" front wheel drive setup used in the Olds Toronado and Cadilac Eldorado; and the GMC Motorhome once the divisions were required to "share" their engines with each other. Note that Cadillac never shared their innovations with the other divisions; no 472 in an Impala - although many a Cadillac ended up with that famous Olds 350 Diesel and some had the 305 SBC (lots of pissed off customers in that era lol) My cousin has a 1970 Chevelle as "bare bones" as you could get... 307 SBC with two barrel, manual drum brakes, no AC, manual steering, bench seats and AM radio. A 1970 Cadillac Coupe Deville had power everything standard - note that the 472 series engines are easily identified by the AC compressor mounted to the intake manifold with the radiator hose doing a fancy bend around it. This was done since ALL Cadillacs have AC, standard on all - not an option. The 472 was designed to rev low and produce torque to drive all those accessories and be able to move that 5000+ pound beast into traffic and have power on-demand with no harsh noisy revving. Later on with the Malaise era emissions and fuel economy requirements power was way down... 190HP 500 and the 368 (5 inch bore centers, 10.5 inch deck height for 368 smog-choked cubic inches? Not to mention the one with the Radio Shack cylinder de-activation and then that horrid HT-4100 which most V-6's of the time had more power.

ever heard of a power washer and doing it outside????????????

Or I'm sorry, that southern "droll".

Hey ima disabled vet with a 75 Eldorado looking for some simple upgrades I can do without breaking the bank? Thanks in advance

@@se7encapadon there is quite a few on line places. There was or is one in Mexico actually that does nothing but Caddy engines. Look on line. As far as performance wise. You can do a cam, intake, header's, and bore it 30 or even 40 over and make dam good power. Power nation or Horse power tv did a one a while back look this up on RU-vid. Should be able to fined to give you some pointers. These engines are not cheap. But, it depends on how much you want to get out of it also. The engine I had, I had about 5,000 in it. I got 800 horse out of it.

@@MrMan-ol4ic thanx a lot fam 👍🏾

Hopefully people don’t listen to that advice, and they bend with their knees, hips and back equally as to distribute the weight across their body evenly and not just put the load on their back.

@@T0YCHEST have you ever heard of sarcasm, because that's what it was. A joke

A quick trip to the doctor will help you understand

Just saying "lift with your legs" is such a stupid statement, it's not that simple

@@alejandroherrera5271 first of all ur not him so stop sucking up to him by giving his remark the benefit of “its sarcasm its a joke” when clearly it has no merit to be remotely funny.

Nah; “Last Ride.”

Needs a Deadhead sticker in the rear window.

People think a hearse is creepy, but honestly if anything is haunted; it's an ambulance.

Did you look over your shoulder when you floored it and look for spirits 😁✌️✌️

@@MrTheHillfolk It was sort of creepy at night, but the all girls had a love hate relationship with it. I didn't keep it long, but I'll remember it forever.

Exactly I was gonna post that they didnt even touch the rings. Its simple no or weak compression= Power loss and oil consumption. Going this far and not doing it thouroughly is foolish

@@renj6531 That's kinda what I thought.. I mean geez, not even ball honing the holes and throwing new rings at the factory pistons, mayhaps a set of rod bearings while they're in there?

Normally I would agree with you but I've had a couple of these motors and even with a hundred thousand plus hardly any cylinder wear. They're balanced from the factory to run smoother than a normal big block . When mines tuned tits I can hardly tell it's running and I have dual 2.5 inch Glass packs. Plus how many high mileage hearses have you seen? And it was probably driven nicer than an old lady to church.

Go watch Richard Holdener’s dyno videos. Super interesting stuff

74 eldorado. I want it done

Those are made for mooring boats along the river.

@@timsharpe3498 wow , what a jerk , was that really necessary ?

@@RANDOMNATION907 Did I hurt an engine’s feelings?

Cutting torch is quicker. If you tried to remove the the bolts holding it in you'd be spending hours trying to get them out of the bushings if it is a rust belt vehicle.

Best kind for boost, already cleranced ; )

Why close chamber, open chamber breaths better?

The cadillac gurus say the 425 heads don't seal on the 472/500 and vice versa???????????????????????

We like em to for our air boats we run direct drive so horse power is what we gotta have we really only use the 1970 or older motors takes less money to get the power were looking for the older ones were supposed to come with 400 h.p.but we have found a few we knew were making more then that the last one we bought was right out of the car a March 1970 hadn't ran in years I was shocked to say the least when I got the distributor in timed wired high rise four barrel long tube headers Holly 750 and she fired right up and ran real good not even a lifter ticked in it damn ran good but my brother wasn't happy so I changed the cam lifters springs relapex valves replaced guide seals ported heads and intake new even better carburetor fired it back up broke the cam in for 20 minutes at two grand and damn she's got some power now haven't had it checked but I'd bet she's pumping out 550 h.p.

@@ineffable1129 they need the compression

@@calvinlayport3127 0

Yes , no. Way over rated power numbers dude !! Many people have rebuilt these engines to factory specs and put on dyno. They got 323 hp and 500 torque on a 1970 engine 10.1 compression. I drove these caddys for 24 years straight. I had several and built the transmissions and differential you name it. I forgot more than you will ever know.

@@Iceman_777 500 In 1970 Cadillac fitted a crankshaft with a 4.304 in (109.3 mm) stroke, increasing the total displacement of the engine to 500.02 cu in (8.2 L). At its introduction, it was rated at 400 hp (298 kW), SAE gross, and 550 lb-ft (746 N⋅m) of torque. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_V8_engine

@Darknamja Says a guy who drives a Honda.

Cool story

I had a few clients who were in the undertaking business, back when I was a mechanic. Man, those guys were the funniest customers-they were always killin' us with those jokes! I guess you gotta have a wicked sense of humor in that line of work.

i worked in a city bus garage a guy refused to work on a bus cause it squashed someone there was still guts stuck in the brakes & duals i told him see it's all pink on the inside LMAO

@@briannotafan3368 I would work on it if a crash investigator determined the cause and a hazmat team took care of the body parts.

indeed!!

Even the 352 or 390 intakes were nut busters.

@@bobseagraves1743 They are the same. I swapped a 428 for a 390 in my 67 Galaxie.

Keyboard Warriors

They do some pretty stupid shit, most of this is such a waste of money and way more expensive than they seem to pretend. Plus why would you waste all that time cleaning the exterior of the block by hand, take all the top end off, leave the old worn out bottom end, and throw on $10k worth of heads and shit? It's just stupid.

the hosts aren't the one's doing the work. i am 99% sure someone else is building these cars and the hosts are in front of the camera for key moments. how can you do this all day and not get dirty?

@Lassi Kinnunen 81 Im fine with that as long as the show is free to watch on yt

@@Chris-yy7qc m

@Ed Miller Guess that isn't an "all Ford salvage yard" is it?

@Ed Miller You've clearly missed the point.

stuff a ford under it! .... if this car was a ford, I'd say stick a chevy 14 bolt under it! heh,

Many of the GM truck axles shared the same wheel cylinders as the Commercial Chassis cars too.

They come from the factory with a 12 bolt

@@diduck6878 Wrong. It's a proprietary Buick, Olds, Pontiac design but still does not share any of its internal parts. The axles are entirely different thickness and splines. The carrier and ring and pinion are uncommon.

Pretty sure an ambulance station wagon or some commercial chassis gm car's had The five lug Dana 60

junk the 500 if your gonna do something do it rite the 1st time

Maybe they are hoping that it will blow and then they can do it right and put an LS in it!

@beetlebuidler5882 ls swaps are cool but not everything needs to be ls swaped. I’d recommend only thinking about doing an ls swap if the stock engine is trash. These old Chevy engines are nice and pretty simple/bulletproof. Especially the 350