OK, people keep asking (OK a couple of people have asked) about the Cadillac so I thought I might as well start a readers’ rides on it.
The story so far… A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I bought a 1984 Cadillac Sedan Deville off a chum of mine – in fact it was his wife’s daily. I hope he told her he sold it… anyway… The car was running a 4.1 V8 (the not legendary HT4100) and benefitted from LPG. So an ideal daily driver for me then.
So I proceeded to use the car for a while until one Thursday evening, not so very long ago, there was a slight “thud” noise and then the dash was lit with more lights than Blackpool sea front and the engine had died.
To be honest I did very little diagnosis on it but the general take on things is that the fibre timing gear failed and the chaff from that blocked the oil pickup which in turn starved the thing of oil and then it died. Apparently that’s quite common.
So the first thing was to get the thing dragged home by the AA. OK, to be exact the first thing to do was walk 2 miles home as I’d forgotten my mobile, but after that I rang the AA and got her home.
The next thing to do was to get hold of a replacement engine. I had considered repairing the HT4100 for all of 3 seconds and then decided to fit either a small block Chevy or a big block Cadillac to it instead. The Chevy would have been a nice cheap engine to overhaul and use, but somehow feels a little “wrong” to install in a Cadillac. The big block was the standard engine only a couple of years before mine was made and it’s the same car otherwise, so its an easy retrofit and a good boost in power. That 4100 really struggled with the girth of that sedan…
So a few wanted ads were placed and within a couple of days I was offered a suitable engine by Andy in Sheffield (who posts as Hitman on here).
The engine was a 7 litre from an early 70s Caddy, or so he thought, and was part fitted in his hotrod Pilot project but he’d since decided to go another route with that.
Neither of us were entirely sure what it was so the good folks of the Modified Cadillac forum decoded the numbers on it and it turns out to be a 1979 425 (7 litre) which is just the ticket. It also comes with a TH400 ‘box which has the Buick/Olds/Pontiac style bell housing which those of you who have been following the trials and tribulations of KevfromWales and his hot rod pickup will know that he’s in need of such a transmission and I do still owe him money for some whitewall tyres so…
Good when stuff works out.
So Andy said he’d deliver the motor and box (and a bunch of other stuff) for the cost of the diesel, good man, and the day was set for Friday after work.
Thing is I need the engine in my garage (along with the Cadillac, which now doesn’t run naturally) and my drive looks like this…
And two of those cars were non runners (Cadillac & Buick) and the last time that Buick moved was February and then Benzboy and I had to push it. Not ideal.
The space in the garage where the Cadillac had to go was taken up by this
1968 Plymouth Sport Fury, which last ran about 18 months ago. Maybe longer, I forget.
So Friday comes and its time to charge up all the batteries I can find
And start cleaning spark plugs and carburettors!
Always good to see spiders’ webs on the engine…
Easy Start FTW
Buick first then…
Oops.
Steal one off the Oldsmobile then I guess…
Oh and then cleaning spark plugs,
Broke one out of the Plymouth. I never broke a plug in my life until I bought that Cadillac and I snapped 3 on that and since then… cursed I tell thee…
Again the Oldsmobile is a donor. The Olds plugs are way shorter reach but at least its not the other way around.
Buick started after some fekkn aboot. Then promptly got wedged under a tree…
But a bit of a shuffle round of the other cars and soon got it on the lawn.
You can tell my wife’s out for the day, right?
Can’t see anything wrong with that
Now its Plymouth time. Which is like Hammer Time, except you CAN touch it.
And this is the two who need to swap locations…
This is the long dormant motor
Has it really been so long?
More webs, this time full of dead spiders…
On this one I just opened up the Carter carb and manually filled the float bowls with unleaded.
Guess what? She started third turn of the key. Nice one.
And that’s another old yank tank on the garden then
And this is the view from the kitchen window by lunchtime…
Really, I never could work out why Em always refused to ride in the Plymouth…
Just a few mag wheels to shift down to the lock up to clear some space (and a pair of slots to put in the attic…)
Then measure up the Caddy to see if it will actually fit into the garage!
Looks easy enough to push it though a 3 point turn to get it in there?
Luckily Andy then turned up with the engine and box and a couple of burly helpers, plus one of my neighbours turned up to help too.
No pictures of us struggling with stuff but it all went well easy, and the engine/box got stashed where it needed to be, as did the Caddy.
Night night, sleep tight…
Then made Em happy by getting the cars off the lawn and back on the drive. We have a “house rule” about cars on the lawn…
And so to bed…
So now the strip down of the engine starts. I need to just check out the bores and such before I get it in the car. The distributor is seized in place (fairly common on these) so I can’t get the last intake bolt out so I can’t get the heads off yet. I’m told the best thing to do is pull the sump and remove the oil pump then whack it out with a soft mallet and a block of wood or something.
For which I need to get the motor on to the stand
For which a hoist is needed, which I don’t have, but Kev might be popping by next week with one when he picks up the transmission.
Carb and all junk related to cruise control to overhaul yet
This is the dead lump.
Good lord what do all those hoses do?
White on white. Caddy looks like its in an operating theatre. Or heaven.
Time will tell.
More later.
Much later...
The story so far… A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I bought a 1984 Cadillac Sedan Deville off a chum of mine – in fact it was his wife’s daily. I hope he told her he sold it… anyway… The car was running a 4.1 V8 (the not legendary HT4100) and benefitted from LPG. So an ideal daily driver for me then.
So I proceeded to use the car for a while until one Thursday evening, not so very long ago, there was a slight “thud” noise and then the dash was lit with more lights than Blackpool sea front and the engine had died.
To be honest I did very little diagnosis on it but the general take on things is that the fibre timing gear failed and the chaff from that blocked the oil pickup which in turn starved the thing of oil and then it died. Apparently that’s quite common.
So the first thing was to get the thing dragged home by the AA. OK, to be exact the first thing to do was walk 2 miles home as I’d forgotten my mobile, but after that I rang the AA and got her home.
The next thing to do was to get hold of a replacement engine. I had considered repairing the HT4100 for all of 3 seconds and then decided to fit either a small block Chevy or a big block Cadillac to it instead. The Chevy would have been a nice cheap engine to overhaul and use, but somehow feels a little “wrong” to install in a Cadillac. The big block was the standard engine only a couple of years before mine was made and it’s the same car otherwise, so its an easy retrofit and a good boost in power. That 4100 really struggled with the girth of that sedan…
So a few wanted ads were placed and within a couple of days I was offered a suitable engine by Andy in Sheffield (who posts as Hitman on here).
The engine was a 7 litre from an early 70s Caddy, or so he thought, and was part fitted in his hotrod Pilot project but he’d since decided to go another route with that.
Neither of us were entirely sure what it was so the good folks of the Modified Cadillac forum decoded the numbers on it and it turns out to be a 1979 425 (7 litre) which is just the ticket. It also comes with a TH400 ‘box which has the Buick/Olds/Pontiac style bell housing which those of you who have been following the trials and tribulations of KevfromWales and his hot rod pickup will know that he’s in need of such a transmission and I do still owe him money for some whitewall tyres so…
Good when stuff works out.
So Andy said he’d deliver the motor and box (and a bunch of other stuff) for the cost of the diesel, good man, and the day was set for Friday after work.
Thing is I need the engine in my garage (along with the Cadillac, which now doesn’t run naturally) and my drive looks like this…
And two of those cars were non runners (Cadillac & Buick) and the last time that Buick moved was February and then Benzboy and I had to push it. Not ideal.
The space in the garage where the Cadillac had to go was taken up by this
1968 Plymouth Sport Fury, which last ran about 18 months ago. Maybe longer, I forget.
So Friday comes and its time to charge up all the batteries I can find
And start cleaning spark plugs and carburettors!
Always good to see spiders’ webs on the engine…
Easy Start FTW
Buick first then…
Oops.
Steal one off the Oldsmobile then I guess…
Oh and then cleaning spark plugs,
Broke one out of the Plymouth. I never broke a plug in my life until I bought that Cadillac and I snapped 3 on that and since then… cursed I tell thee…
Again the Oldsmobile is a donor. The Olds plugs are way shorter reach but at least its not the other way around.
Buick started after some fekkn aboot. Then promptly got wedged under a tree…
But a bit of a shuffle round of the other cars and soon got it on the lawn.
You can tell my wife’s out for the day, right?
Can’t see anything wrong with that
Now its Plymouth time. Which is like Hammer Time, except you CAN touch it.
And this is the two who need to swap locations…
This is the long dormant motor
Has it really been so long?
More webs, this time full of dead spiders…
On this one I just opened up the Carter carb and manually filled the float bowls with unleaded.
Guess what? She started third turn of the key. Nice one.
And that’s another old yank tank on the garden then
And this is the view from the kitchen window by lunchtime…
Really, I never could work out why Em always refused to ride in the Plymouth…
Just a few mag wheels to shift down to the lock up to clear some space (and a pair of slots to put in the attic…)
Then measure up the Caddy to see if it will actually fit into the garage!
Looks easy enough to push it though a 3 point turn to get it in there?
Luckily Andy then turned up with the engine and box and a couple of burly helpers, plus one of my neighbours turned up to help too.
No pictures of us struggling with stuff but it all went well easy, and the engine/box got stashed where it needed to be, as did the Caddy.
Night night, sleep tight…
Then made Em happy by getting the cars off the lawn and back on the drive. We have a “house rule” about cars on the lawn…
And so to bed…
So now the strip down of the engine starts. I need to just check out the bores and such before I get it in the car. The distributor is seized in place (fairly common on these) so I can’t get the last intake bolt out so I can’t get the heads off yet. I’m told the best thing to do is pull the sump and remove the oil pump then whack it out with a soft mallet and a block of wood or something.
For which I need to get the motor on to the stand
For which a hoist is needed, which I don’t have, but Kev might be popping by next week with one when he picks up the transmission.
Carb and all junk related to cruise control to overhaul yet
This is the dead lump.
Good lord what do all those hoses do?
White on white. Caddy looks like its in an operating theatre. Or heaven.
Time will tell.
More later.
Much later...