Cadillac 331 reliability

I guess it's not a stretch to figure that but it shouldn't be so. I think $3000 to $4000 should suffice. Although starter, water pump, alt conversion, ect. will be extra.

 

The Cad is a low rpm high torque motor. Built to move a big car briskly. And get decent gas mileage. You'll never get 18-20 mph out of a CHEV powered Cad.
The Cad is the most reliable vintage motor built. I have had five cads in different cars and the only problem I've ever has was the time I thought the battery was dead and push started it and found out the reason it would turn over was three cylinders were full of water from sitting in the rain over night. Even that was a good thing, gave me reason to rebuild it with better heads and 10 to 1 forged pistons. It's probablly still running .

 

No chance of spending that little if you're going to do a complete overhaul. Machine work on the block, crank and rods will be damn near a $1,000.00 or more. Hot tank and magnaflux, bore and hone, cut the crank, machine rod ends and install new bolts, plus a machining of the mains and cam bores and installation of new cam bearings... and that's not even including a good 3 angle valve job with hardened seats. Plus the cost of new pistons, bearings, wrist pins, gaskets... shit adds up quick. And you haven't paid the person assembling it a dime yet. If any of those parts need to be replaced things will get serious quickly. Nor have bolt on parts like starter, water pump, power steering pump or alternator been accounted for.

Is my estimate on the high side? Yes, absolutely. But when you hire professionals and cover all your bases, then you greatly reduce your weak links and thus overall reliability. I couldn't imagine dropping $3,000 into a half-assed rebuild only to drop a valve, blow a hole through a brand new piston and have to do it all over again. Do it once and do it right.

 

Seems I've read here that the material in the Cad castings are superior to other GM products.

 

Chevys of the same era as the Caddy are forged rods and cranks,even the lowly 235.
Name one engine from the 50's that was unreliable in normal use...?
If it were my car I would sure keep the Caddy engine.

 

But not in the v8, right? He is comparing it to the v8.

 

Just built one for Dean of "Dice" magazine. New parts all the way through, top end and lower for around $3500. Balanced too. But maybe I'm a "Half assed" builder.

 

Yes 265s had forged cranks and rods.

 

Forged crank and rods in all Chevy V-8's until well past the the last original type Caddy engine was phased out.And I do think Gen 1 SBC' never had cast rods.
Forged means very little sometimes,ask the Ford guys about cast cranks...

 

Did you pay yourself? Last I checked professional engine builders don't work for free. So take your reasonable cost of $3500 and then add the labor rate of a pro shop and then the $6,000-8,000 cost sounds about right.

 

Indeed! I run a cast 292 crank in my race engines. Forged is better but cast will do to 500 or better HP.

It still amazes me that a guy will pay high $ for a .010/.010 steel 350 crank that was ground with no radius when a cast crank std. or re-machined properly will do just fine in a street engine. Same with the "4 bolt main" lie.

The radius is the key folks!

 

Never said it didn't sound right, said it shouldn't be that. Now that you have brought the # down to $6000 that sounds a little closer to a "Pro shop" with high overhead. Location of the shop makes a big difference in the price also, I imagine the East coast where you are is pretty high as is the Bay Area and the LA area over here on the left. Our shop is in the central valley so our prices are a little under the others. That's why people will come from LA and SF to have an engine built by us.

 

Your shop will survive the economy. The utra high end shops will also do very well, as they have a perfect reputation. The middle group that thinks the market will pay whatever they charge, might not do so well these days.

 

57Joe your right on point ......our stuff is delivered with all pumps/pulleys / ignition and carb restoration completed with the engine off dyno ...cam broken in properly /tested and tuned......

A lot of shops are delivering engines to the customer so he has to go home and finish.....the parts need bought/restored anyway so the cost will still add up to a finished running engine price
.........Vintage type engines require a lot of new parts as well as being completely remachined and blueprinted.......And they are not cheap to work on.....But any vintage engine can be built to run reliably coast to coast......a small trunk kit for emergency and you can fix anything that's fixable on the road.....same as a sbc

 

Got a 331 in my 33 coupe, would never change it. Runs and flies like a champ!


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For the caliber of service described here the price is spot on. But a SBC will also cost for all this, not as much as a Caddy but to have all this work done will definitely cost.

 

I don't want anyone to take that wrong. I was speaking of overhead mostly. In our local area of high costs, several good shops have closed up, despite cost cutting on overhead.

Tough time trying to do daily driver modern rebuilds and stay competitive with auto parts places selling remanufactured long blocks.

They just did not have enough speciality/vintage work to help with the profit margins. This is where a high end shop with a reputation for older engines comes in. Many people will ship the motor and pay extra for Nascar quality, even though the car will never see 4000rpm.

 

Oh come on every body knows that we never drove across country before 1955 when the SBC came out

Don't be a sissy! A brand new crate motor can break too.

 

I decided i'm definitely going to have my 331 rebuilt. Even if it delays the project for a while I'm willing to pay top dollar to have the best rebuilder in the country make it a reliable daily driver.
Thanks for all the input.
~Haywire
BrooklynLeather.com

 

GREAT choice, you won't be disappointed!

 

Good to hear! There are reasons why the Cad costs 2x more than the shiverlay that year, the engine was one of them.
Perhaps a photo-log or build thread of the in-progress work will be helpful to others contemplating a similar move.

.

 

That's what I was hoping to here.

 

I got my 331 about 5 years ago, freshened it up (pulled it down and inspected) looked brand new new gaskets ect and it loves it. generator did pack it in so changed to a alt
and the water pump was just rebuilt when i got it but other than that the more i drove it the better it got

 

They are great motors. Nice looking caddy coupe!