331-390 caddy engines

Metalshapes and I went junk yarding today in the 23 T roadster pickup and stopped by a friend of ours who is closing his salavge yard to see what was left. This is where that wagon came from that Metalshapes auctioned off a couple of months ago. Anyways we were poking around and we found a 331 or what we think is a 390 caddy engine. Well a screamin deal later I own it and have some questions for you all out there. here we go

1. Are the ******s turbo 400 or can you bolt a turbo 350 to it.
2. Are there any stock or conversions bell housing to put a standard behind it.
3. Are there ram horn type headers you can put on it that are not tubular.
4. Any other insight would be great.

The answer to these questions will determine if it goes into the 32 coupe or the 40 merc that I am working on now. Thanks to you all for the info.

 

the ****** is NOT a th400 or 350, it's close but off by a quarter inch at the dowel holes or bolts....the hydramatic of various flavors came behind them.

I think they had 3 speeds in the earlier 50s, probably a bit hard to find a manual setup these days.

I don't know about adapters.

how about some of the letters off the engine, so we can help you figure out what it is....should be a number stamped on the front, top edge of the right hand block. First two digits should be year, this will tell you displacement, 331 thru 55, 365 from 56-58, then 390

 

#1 those originaly came with hydro matics predicessor to the power glide
#3 old speed shops used to cast them but they aint cheap and a little hard to come buy but hey all caddy parts are pricey shoot the rebulit kit sor that engine over a grand when you can find em

 

what about intakes? do they interchange between 331, 365, 390? did anyone produce a 3x2 intake?

 

intakes all swap up to 1964 the factory made tri power intakes from 58-60. there is a company that makes an adpter to put any chevy trans behind it including a stick. they use an adpter ring on the crank that holds the pilot bearing and uses the chevy flywheel and starter.

i think the adapter hardware and starter is about $600

 

If you get the serial off the engine and post it, it will tell you what year and cid. This will tell you what trans you can use.

I wasnt clear on your post if you know it is a 390 or a 331. The 331 engines can be made to take stick with an available adapter. The 49-53 engine (331) doesnt accept any current adapters for automatics. Wilcap is working on a proto-electric auto conversion, but nothing is even in the works for 350.
I think a 350 adapter might have been made in the past but it is definately out of production. If it is a later 331 then they do make 350 bolt-up adapters. Same with 390s.


Hyfire

 

Check the tech section, or do a search. Cadillacin Markus posted a bunch of good Cadillac engine info. a year or two ago.

Most Cads came with early or late Hydro's attached, though some of the early ones could be found with sticks. Note: early Hydro, Good!, late Hydro, Bad!

The back of the block was changed in '55, so there are some interchangability issues you need to be aware of.

 

Thanks guys for the responses so far they really helped. I looked at seudesled site and think I am going with him. I will get those numbers and hopefully we can figure out what year it is.

 

http://www.transmissionadapters.com/cad_early.htm

 

Thanks Elp that was a huge help. I will let you guys know what happens in the coming weeks.

 

wilcap is the cheepest on cad adapters and use a small block mopar starter. I think they were right around 400 when i was going to order one.

 

i have a factory intake from a '64 429 if your interested.