I have a 57 Cadillac that I'm considering turbocharging (yup, I'm crazy, I know). So old supercharging info should still be good. This same topic has been posted in Modified Cadillac, Cadillac Power Forum, as well as in "the turbo forums" (which one members swears I should use an LSx to accomplish this goal... I'm considering an LSx swap overdone now.. a nice swap for some like when I put one into my 87 Rx7 .. but overdone.. and not in my 57 Cad.). Anyway.. Does anyone on here have experience boosting an old 331,365,390 Cad motor? Either supercharging or turbocharging experience would be great. I'm looking for more info on the internals of these things.. no one seems to know much about them (even on Cadillac specific forums). Maybe some experience on what to look out for when increasing power and for reliability or so it doesn't just die / blowup. I haven't been able to find anyone with experience boosting one of these motors or with experience trying to go any other direction other than stock or throwing and Isky cam in it. Experience would be greatly appreciated as I've only worked on Chevy stuff. Thanks! Alex
Look here at my build which is going together sloooooooooooowly... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=803459&showall=1 You can use BBC long rods and SBC blower pistons like I am (even though mine is N/A, that's what fit). If you don't mind the pistons being a bit down in the hole, you won't need to offset grind the crank like I'm doing. I'm using a 390 crank in a 331 block, but with a 390 block it is even easier. I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work. Make sure your heads aren't cracked though. That seems to be a problem even in stock form, but who knows what the history is of some of these cars. Of course with a mild enough boost you could use stock parts. More info in this thread too if you want to mix and match stock Caddy parts to get a specific compression ratio for your application: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8282
Thank you .. thank you.. this is exactly the kind of info I've been looking for. Good to know about the heads.. I'll have to get those verified now. I'll check out your build thread too. Thanks! If anyone else knows anything I'd be very appreciative. Alex
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