please excuse my stupid question... but what motors did GM put in the caddy's from 1955-1965? I might be starting a new progect this winter, and would like to have a Cad powerplant in it, but I know little about what motors they had. I guess my main question would be: how hard is it to get ahold of these? I know it wouldn't be as easy as picking up a SBC... do I have a decent chance of getting a period-correct motor for 'cheap'?
You can find these engines all day long. The problem you're going to have is what ****** you going to put behind a 331 or 390. Those engines have Jetaway ****** (big and clunky) that will hold upto the torque of the engines, just expensive to rebuild. If you go 64-65 you can go with a turbo 400. With a Turbo you can still by the parts from NAPA. Just me $0.02
There's a guy on the '63/'64 Cadillac MSN group giving away a '63 390 with a transmission for free... It's in IL. ~Jason
There isnt one in those years They had the 331,which was up till 55 Then was the 365 from 56 till 58 A 390 Caddy was used in 59 till 63 *63 390s are differnt from 59 to 62 models All these motor are expensive to rebuild and very hard to find performance parts What you want is a 500 or 472 caddy I believe
The '63 390 is basically like the '64 - '67 429 - same wide block. There's TONS of speed parts out there, especially for the early 390. You just have to look for them. The '63 390 and the 429 can use the early 390 intakes (which are plentiful) if modified (Cadillac widened the block - you'll have to drill some holes in an appropriately-sized chunk of steel to fill the gap - same bolt pattern, just the heads are further apart). There's also talk of the extremely mild mods to get an Olds intake to work. Check this out: http://carnut.com/specs/gen/cad60.html And this thread I started about speed parts: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144066 ~Jason
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