Putting a big motor in a little car has long been a tradition of hot rodding. The first and most obvious transplant was the Ford v8 into a model-a. The dr...<P><P>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Check it out... Now you can comment directly on the posts from the homepage blog... If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about this new feature.
First I've ever noticed that the Caddi engine has siamese exhaust like the Ford flathead 8. At least that's what I see in the pic.
The cubic in. to weight is still hard to beat if you're on a budget. I used early Old's in the ol days because speed equipt. was cheaper and more available for the Olds. I did build a 365" Cad for my 55 Nomad in the 60's. Couldn't keep the 265 in one piece back then. Later, Ron
Have a 390 cad(looks just like the first OHV ones) waiting for my A Tudor right now. Will post pics along the way. Shane T.
My freind Frank has a Duece highboy roadster powered by a '49 Caddy V8 mated to a '49 Merc 3spd overdrive. The V8 has two Stromberg 48s atop a polished Edmunds dual two barrel manifold and chrome valve covers. Beautiful power plant. The car gets driven. It has been on the road just under a year and has been driven to VLV, LA Roadster Show, CHRR, Duece Days and Big Three Swap Meet.
im pretty chuffed as ive just secured a '59 390 cad for my 28 A sedan its got a 2x4 detroit racing equip. manifold and carbs in the box of bits too....
Cadillac and Stude look very similar, unfourtunatley nothing interchanges easily. Here's my Stude 289 that I have put over 45,000 miles on since I put it in the A. Who says you need a SBC to be reliable. TZ
My buddy is saving a 1951 Cadillac engine for his Model A roadster project. Love those valve covers when they're chromed!!
Wow that's a picture of my engine. It is very cool to link between the blog and here, I could never find the related threads when it interested me before.
Great trip down memory lane,ran a 331 Cad in my '47 Ford more door in 1964.Made it from S.D. to Colo. 3 or 4 times.Not bad for a high school kid's first swap.
GM and Chrysler for one reason or another have had Ford by the ass since the `50's. Soon the entire Ford fleet will be bastardized. Betcha Henry and Edsel would never have dreamed how this was gonna turn out after having such a good start with the Flathead. They went from the speedkings to zero almost overnight. If you're a Ford fan this can be painful.
The Tommy Foster Roadster This caddy motor was bought brand new from the caddy factory in Detroit 1952... Tommys nick name is the Godfather of the crate motor.. He worked in the auto factories in Detroit and had the hook up on getting a crated 331...He also made all the adaptors to hook up the Cad to a Top loader Ford trans...The intake is a Detroit Racing 2X4 for a boat that he also had to alter to work right on his roadster...I got to talk to him for a bit at the GNRS...This car is one of my all time favorites...
Way cool feature Ryan ! Now if/when are you getting away from VB ??? I'm still trying to figure out how you get people's personal info (for chasing down bad sellers/buyers) though.
Below you will find pictures of Dick Kroeber's Hot Rod A. The Rod has some kool history behind it....... Donn Lowe built this 1930 Ford Model-A coupe for himself in authentic 1950's style and nearly finished it, but never quite got it on the road. Donn built the car in East Coast style: channeled over the frame, but not chopped. Workmanship is typical Donn Lowe high quality with great attention to detail; the underside is as clean and complete as the rest of the car. Nearly finished, the coupe sat outside for several years before being spotted by Donn's friend, Gary Minor. Gary had wanted a Model A coupe since his high school days, grasped the opportunity and bought it from Donn. Little was required to get the car running, however, among a few other things, the original WCFB carbs had become unusable from being exposed to the elements for so long. Gary adapted late model Edelbrock carbs and got the car running. The bored and balanced '53 Cad engine sports a roller cam and was fresh when the car was finally put on the road. A Vertex magneto fires the plugs and makes the engine an easy starter as well as a strong puller. Donn fabricated necessary adapters and clutch linkage for the '68 Mustang three speed manual transmission. A Jeep top loader shifter moves and mixes the gears. The car ran fine on the oversized carbs, but they required step-down adapters to fit the smaller "footprint" of the intake manifold, and compromised the originality and "period-perfectness" of the rest of the car. After a couple futile attempts at "farming-out" to get the original carburetors rebuilt (evidently, nobody remains who can work on old style carbs), they were finally made workable by the current owner and with some additional "tweaking", work well. About the only concession to modernity is the addition of an electronic speedometer mounted in the period hot rod style chrome housing (actually, an old headlight housing) located on the exterior cowl. Traditional scallops on the original red primer are intended to add to the 50's hot rod style. Not intended for sustained high speed, the coupe is a great driver for back roads and around town. The 1950's era Ford pickup 9 inch 4:11 gets the Cadillac engine winding a little too tight for high speed freeway and/or interstate travel. Remember, this is a real '50's hot rod, after all... I forgot to mention that the motor was originally in Nicholas Schlouch '39 Ford convertible. The original late 40's built custom was completely resored by Donn Lowe. Happy Trails, Mick
The almost completely ignored Lincoln V8 was on the scene in `52. These can be classy as well. Probably don't mean shit but here's an example...
These are probably some dumb questions, but are there still parts avalible? Does anyone make adaptor plates for manual transmissions? For all that showed their cars... VERY NICE.
Just a thought but is any particular year the Caddy to have ??? Been thinking about one for a project i got lined up. Steve.