Finally...got my '61 Caddy Coupe Deville!
- Thread starter spencurai
- Start date
JeepTJ38
AKA: THE MYTH
good thing im back then huh (still havn't changed that). Ogden is still pretty far from orem though.
JeepTJ38
AKA: THE MYTH
o man If you wanna open that can, I live in Orem and I work in Papa New Guinea. last time i added it up it was Like A 12,000 MILE commute one way so I win. Hey do you have any extra trim in that pile ? I need the piece that goes above the back window, mine has been lost since i got it and cant find a new one.
JeepTJ38
AKA: THE MYTH
sweet that would be awsome.
YES I knew that would come in handy some day.
YES I knew that would come in handy some day.
Here is another gallery of photos my brother took of the presure washing and starting.
http://gallery.zzq.org/v/kampf/PAG/Motorsports/61cadillac/body/
I have been working on getting it back in the garage today. I finally got the parking brake to let the **** go! The parking brake is like modern Cadillacs where you push it to activate it and there is some sort of fancy mechanism to release it when you take it out of park. Well this one happened to be the actuated by vacuum which means you have to be running the motor in order to release the parking brake. Well Cadillac thought ahead and put a little release lever on the side which does absolutely nothing at all whatsoever. I finally just crammed a screw driver into a hole I thought prudent and started jacking around inside, I got lucky and somehow released the thing with a resounding thud.
The next part of the day was to try and get the brake drums off...the hardest threaded part to take off this car were the spark plugs! I pulled the two bolts holding the drum to the axle shaft and slid them off with a few tugs. The shoes on the rear look to be in pretty good condition. Autozone has replacement shoes available believe it or not so I will keep that in mind. The sheel cylinders showed no sign of leakage and the boot rubber felt plenty flexible and fresh taking age into consideration. I got held up today waiting on the police officer to show up to do a stupid VIN inspection so I could get the title in my name. Cops have enough to do without bothering with VIN inspections right? Why burden them thusly? What is the purpose?
Anyway check out the new pix...
All that white stuff is paint coming off...
http://gallery.zzq.org/v/kampf/PAG/Motorsports/61cadillac/body/
I have been working on getting it back in the garage today. I finally got the parking brake to let the **** go! The parking brake is like modern Cadillacs where you push it to activate it and there is some sort of fancy mechanism to release it when you take it out of park. Well this one happened to be the actuated by vacuum which means you have to be running the motor in order to release the parking brake. Well Cadillac thought ahead and put a little release lever on the side which does absolutely nothing at all whatsoever. I finally just crammed a screw driver into a hole I thought prudent and started jacking around inside, I got lucky and somehow released the thing with a resounding thud.
The next part of the day was to try and get the brake drums off...the hardest threaded part to take off this car were the spark plugs! I pulled the two bolts holding the drum to the axle shaft and slid them off with a few tugs. The shoes on the rear look to be in pretty good condition. Autozone has replacement shoes available believe it or not so I will keep that in mind. The sheel cylinders showed no sign of leakage and the boot rubber felt plenty flexible and fresh taking age into consideration. I got held up today waiting on the police officer to show up to do a stupid VIN inspection so I could get the title in my name. Cops have enough to do without bothering with VIN inspections right? Why burden them thusly? What is the purpose?
Anyway check out the new pix...
All that white stuff is paint coming off...
JeepTJ38
AKA: THE MYTH
hey man any luck on that trim piece ?
Well I've been doing a lot of mechanical work on this car just to make it move down the road and evaluate various systems.
Here is me starting the car after I did the carb rebuild. It had been sitting for a few weeks but it fired right up.
[YOUTUBE]vJ9UWUi9jNk[/YOUTUBE]
I went through and inspected the brakes...I have one grabbing somewhere because I didnt' adjust them, just bled em and made sure they spun free. I also replaced all the rubber in the fuel system and blew the lines clean after I dropped the tank and flushed it. I found the inner portion of a gas cap in the bottom of the tank, it looked like someone lost the key once upon a time and had to pry the tank off by breaking it in half. I also rebuilt the carb, changed the plugs, oil, and flushed the cooling system.
The transmission doesn't work well and neither does my spare according to the guy I bought it from...looks like an adaptor and a 700r4 are in the works for me if I think this engine is worth saving. One of the lifters wasn't pumping up so I changed the oil and added a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil and the lifter pumped up after about 2 minutes of running the motor. It pulls strong but the damned transmission just can't pick up what the motor's putting down.
[YOUTUBE]URMjkQj-Go0[/YOUTUBE]
I have one more video but youtube isn't digesting it properly...
Here is me starting the car after I did the carb rebuild. It had been sitting for a few weeks but it fired right up.
[YOUTUBE]vJ9UWUi9jNk[/YOUTUBE]
I went through and inspected the brakes...I have one grabbing somewhere because I didnt' adjust them, just bled em and made sure they spun free. I also replaced all the rubber in the fuel system and blew the lines clean after I dropped the tank and flushed it. I found the inner portion of a gas cap in the bottom of the tank, it looked like someone lost the key once upon a time and had to pry the tank off by breaking it in half. I also rebuilt the carb, changed the plugs, oil, and flushed the cooling system.
The transmission doesn't work well and neither does my spare according to the guy I bought it from...looks like an adaptor and a 700r4 are in the works for me if I think this engine is worth saving. One of the lifters wasn't pumping up so I changed the oil and added a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil and the lifter pumped up after about 2 minutes of running the motor. It pulls strong but the damned transmission just can't pick up what the motor's putting down.
[YOUTUBE]URMjkQj-Go0[/YOUTUBE]
I have one more video but youtube isn't digesting it properly...
JeepTJ38
AKA: THE MYTH
how is the cady coming ? Yea its snowing and cold but maybe you found time to work on it.
Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
swwwweeeeeeeeeeet
Well I've not gotten a lot done over the winter but I have done a lot of digging into the drivetrain on this car and have decided to give the pirate salute to keeping with tradition. I pulled the valve covers off the running motor and found copious amounts of metallic debris greeting me with an ever so menacing twinkle. By any logic and reason the motor runs but needs a rebuild before I destroy something serious. After digging into my spare motor to figure out what the "knock" was.(as described by the old man I bought the car and parts from) Unfortunately we found the crank was snapped just after the number 2 crank journal. It appeared as if the motor had continued to run for some time after the crank snap because the bearing journal was worn almost through to the bearing cap bolt hole. Number two engine trash.
I ended up selling the two motors to a guy that has a small V-8 museum in his house in town. He collects one from every family and sub-family of American V-8 which he restores, paints, and installs on custom motor stands for display in his private collection. Every so often he pulls each motor onto his custom made dyno and runs the motor to circulate the fluids and generally annoy the neighbors. Anyway I am out of the Cadillac motor business so now I turn to alternatives.
I measured up the Chevy small block I have in the garage and what do you know? I will be able to run a GM drive train with no special adapters and I can build it for pennies on the dollar compared to the caddy. I can have reliability, power, and modernity all rolled up into one.
The plan:
84 350 SBC bored .030 over
383 stroker kit from speedway with Hypereutectic pistons
Vortec heads
Edelbrock Tri-power intake with 3 Rochester 2G carbs and Finned aluminum air cleaner.
Finned aluminum valve covers
Reasonably lumpy cam but not too radical so I can maintain some sort of civility and gas mileage.
or
I will be into the motor a little over 2500$
I am also going to put a york air compressor on the motor for my airbag setup...now if I can just get enough time off work to get anything done....
I ordered the heads and rotating assembly for my motor today...it was a bit pricey but relatively low budget compared to the alternative. I am following a build on car craft's website http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0412_powerful_small_block_383_engine/index.html of their 383 on a budget. I will do just about everything they did except for the intake setup. I should exceed all the stock torque and horsepower numbers of the stock caddy motor by plenty. I did use the Wheeler vortec heads because they are redesigned to tackle some of the weak points of stock GM castings which are prone to cracking. I also went for the better valve springs so I can use the 1.6 ratio rockers for a high lift cam. This wont be a race motor so I am not worried about putting race type gear on it.
I ended up selling the two motors to a guy that has a small V-8 museum in his house in town. He collects one from every family and sub-family of American V-8 which he restores, paints, and installs on custom motor stands for display in his private collection. Every so often he pulls each motor onto his custom made dyno and runs the motor to circulate the fluids and generally annoy the neighbors. Anyway I am out of the Cadillac motor business so now I turn to alternatives.
I measured up the Chevy small block I have in the garage and what do you know? I will be able to run a GM drive train with no special adapters and I can build it for pennies on the dollar compared to the caddy. I can have reliability, power, and modernity all rolled up into one.
The plan:
84 350 SBC bored .030 over
383 stroker kit from speedway with Hypereutectic pistons
Vortec heads
Edelbrock Tri-power intake with 3 Rochester 2G carbs and Finned aluminum air cleaner.
Finned aluminum valve covers
Reasonably lumpy cam but not too radical so I can maintain some sort of civility and gas mileage.
or
I will be into the motor a little over 2500$
I am also going to put a york air compressor on the motor for my airbag setup...now if I can just get enough time off work to get anything done....
I ordered the heads and rotating assembly for my motor today...it was a bit pricey but relatively low budget compared to the alternative. I am following a build on car craft's website http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0412_powerful_small_block_383_engine/index.html of their 383 on a budget. I will do just about everything they did except for the intake setup. I should exceed all the stock torque and horsepower numbers of the stock caddy motor by plenty. I did use the Wheeler vortec heads because they are redesigned to tackle some of the weak points of stock GM castings which are prone to cracking. I also went for the better valve springs so I can use the 1.6 ratio rockers for a high lift cam. This wont be a race motor so I am not worried about putting race type gear on it.
1969 CJ-5
AZ Native
- Location
- Whiteman AFB, Missouri
Thats awfull shiny!
Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
I like everything but those centerbolt valve covers.... I'd use those adapters, so you can run regular SBC covers. 
Carry on!
Carry on!
If the adapters didn't cost as much as a set of valve covers I would consider it. I think I am going to pull some unique out of my hat and find some cool fasteners for the center bolts...maybe spikes or maybe really tall billet flowers or pretty pretty pinwheels!
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
That's a dollar-smart, healthy & powerful, yet bitchen-looking combo Spence! I love the triple deuces! I like the idea of Vortec heads, a 383 and the intake. Cool stuff!