Hot Rods Let's talk Cadillac 331's, 365 and 390's

Davey; Found the files, 10 pages worth... send me your e-mail address by PM and I'll send them to you.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I will hold on to it then.

 

Man! That hydro is a PIG..
I had to move it from the bed of the truck to the corner of the garage.
Too lazy to roll the gmc cab and my table out to back the truck and the cherry picker would work and i took it apart to make space, so I built a small cart to drag it on to.maybe leave it there for a while.
Once I had it on the 33" tall 16"x16" cart,I felt how top heavy it was so I rolled it to the corner of the garage on to a heavy duty table.
I put the tail housing on the table and tried to lift the bellhousing side...SON OF A BITCH was heavy...had to muscle it on.

How HD was the suspension on those 54 Caddys???


Anyway. How does the trans shift selector arm work?
It won't lock forward or back just springs back to the middle position.??

 

They're not light! Easiest way to move one is to screw an eyebolt into the threaded hole in the top of the case and use an engine hoist.
There should be internal detents that keep the shift arm in position... could be something wrong there. But what you're describing sounds like the way the throttle pressure arm should act.

 

A little bit of caddy porn

 

Hey guys- great thread! I just finished putting this one together for my other roadster. 1956 engine +.040, Schneider cam (145H ground at 108). I had the valve guides re worked for the .523 valve lift and Viton seals as well as Schneider valve springs. I’m a little nervous about that much lift (523) for durability but maybe you guys can reassure me on that? I’m using SBC lifters with Smith bros custom pushrods and a PCV adapter by @CTaulbert

 

Have you busted it off yet? I’m curious about the cam…mine is similar.

 

not yet- hopefully soon! One thing I didn’t realize until I got the cam was the valve life Schneider reports is at 1.5 rocker ratio. So if you are running the 1.62 rockers you need to recalculate to get the new valve lift. If you follow Cory Taulbert on instgram you can hear this same cam in his 331 ‘33 coupe . It sounds great!

 

I used to have IG, not anymore. I do know of him as well. I have one of his PCV kits.

 

I heard Cory’s car run last year at the gathering at the rock it sounds awesome and the car is impeccable as well he is a nice guy if your running the same cam you will like the sound and it seems to run well too

 

I used the Schnieder 140H in my 390 . I was very happy with the results but just be careful with the lifters you choose, there are way too many offshore crap lifters now. I have only been using Johnson lifters lately and haven't had any problems. Isky and Crower both use their rollers but they seem to have a hard time keeping up to the demand. There is a video of my tri power 390 on you tube under Hot Rod Cadillac 390 I believe ...

 

Which Johnson? I know there are 2 out there.

 

Johnson Top line. I have used them exclusivly lately and have had zero issues. Made in USA Put them in Cad 390 and a couple of flat tappet BBCs which are known to eat cams. Super happy. I have had to pay extra $ for them but it seems to be worth it. Crower is back ordered on them But a fellow Hamber just ordered Isky's and they came in a Johnson box.

 

I had similar concern on lifters and found some old Delco NOS Chevy lifters on eBay.

 

^^^^^ You should ask Roothawg about his

 

I am hoarding them….Lumpy hooked a brother up. Garage sale lifters rule.

 

What can you tell me about those rockers?

 

They are from Ross racing along with the roller cam, lifters and oil pump

 

Curious about what Ross did with the oil pump. Rebuilt, Modified or?? IMHO that's a weak point of the early Cads...

 

This is what he told me in a pm.
He added a billet insert in the pump to increase the pressure/volume and deleted the vacuum side

 

A link to a recent thread on oil pumps.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/cadillac-390-oil-pump-parts.1203213/

 

390 in my 1950 Chevy 3100. Rockers are getting rebuilt right now. My current issue is mounting an alternator. I think I can squeeze it in there and keep the mechanical fuel pump but it’s tight.

 

I went back and forth on this. I called a lot of places and didn’t have any luck finding someone to rebuild the hydramatic. One guy was willing to take a look but it was going to be pretty expensive with no solid estimate. I finally got an adapter and a th400. It was pretty straight forward. The difference in weight is a big plus. I’m running the Cadillac rear end so I was motivated to keep the whole drivetrain. I think right now with things so expensive and transmission shops so busy and scrambling for parts it was just a bad time to do it.

 

Thank you

I was told that The engine and trans I picked up a couple of years ago were rebuilt.
I've been taking parts off the engine and indeed looks rebuilt.
I'm hoping I get lucky with the trans...I haven't opened it yet.

 

Of course, he's running 60 cubic inches less. It will sound more aggressive.

 

Here's a new one for the list.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/i-drove-7-hours-for-a-100-cadillac-engine.1269423/

 

Wondering if anyone may have some insight on this: I had my engine rebuilt. I was trying to prime it before starting for the first time and noticed the rocker arm assemblies were clogged. I removed them and mailed them to get rebuilt. I only removed the head bolts necessary to get the rocker arms off. When I put them back on can I just torque those bolts down to the required 75 lbs or do I need to remove all the head bolts, replace the head gasket and retorque them all.

 

You can just retorque and move on. At least I would…….

 

Retorque them and go

 

Just be sure that the rockers arms are correctly assembled and that you get them on the heads in the correct orientation. Doing it wrong will cause lack of oil to the rockers or oil in the wrong place which can cause the rockers to seize and bend valves and pushrods. Previous owners/rebuilders of both my Cad motors screwed this up... had to replace all the shafts, rockers and valves on both.