In 2011 I bought a 1984 Buick Regal with a Caddy 472 powerplant. I was bored with the Skylark 350, and the body was too rough to invest money and power into it. The Regal was supposed to be a temporary distraction, so I could go fast for a while, have fun, and then sell/get back into a skylark. Well it didn't go exactly to plan. The 472 blew a head gasket. Not 100% sure why, but it had something to do with the car sitting for 3 years, with the rad only half full, and then being beat on without topping it up. Well a car with a weird power plant, and no engine is a bit hard to sell, so I decided I needed to get it going again and probably sell. This plan then got carried away into a full rebuild, and heres what happened. I think this car has now become a keeper. 1974 Cadillac 500 engine, 0.050" over (512ci). 10.5:1 compression, forged Probe pistons with mirrored chamber dish, K1 7.1" rods with full floating bushings. Custom Lunati hydraulic flat tappet cam (single pattern). 245* @ 0.050, 288* @ 0.006, .342" lobe (0.581" lift with rockers), 110* LSA, ground at 106* ICL. Installed straight up. Upgraded valve springs, lifters, and pushrods. MTS 1.7:1 roller rockers, cam button, cloyes timing set. 76cc heads ported to 270cfm @ 0.500" lift, and 200cfm on exh. @0.500 lift. 2.11/1.77 SS valves. Oil balance line, rear head coolant bypass, main girdle, and oiling mods. New mellings oil pump, ported and polished for better flow. SFI Flex plate, custom 7qt oil pan, high torque ministarter, flowkooler waterpump, bling accessories, SFI balancer, ARP studs and bolts throughout. Decked, Bored, Linehoned (multiple times), balanced and documented. No timeslips yet! Trying very hard to get an oil leak sorted out among other tuning issues. But it runs pretty good. The car has a rebuilt TH400 with a full manual Stg3 shift kit, moser 9" with 3.41 gears, holley black fuel pump, fuel cell, and is set up for 150shot of Nitrous, although the system needs to be gone through. There is a leak somewhere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7BtopOEwcI Heres a vid of it idling with open headers; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s94fjqNSsw4
This would be better posted in "High Tech For Old Iron" section. I think you would get a lot more veiws there. Good stuff!!!:TU: Derek
I don't know if I'd call it high tech, but it is bad a**. I want to build a Caddy 472/500 engine, but not go quite as extreme on the build as you (that is a nice halo girdle!), but more or less a stocker with a stump puller torque cam, a good sized turbo and the 4-6-8 valvetrain. See what kind of mpg I could get EFI'd and 4-8 displacement modes. Did I miss what intake manifold you used?
Not all that high tech, just built up. Thanks for the compliments. SilverBuick, man you've been busy! (judging by your signature). I think you only had the Buick back in 2011 when I was on here regularly. I think you have been helping a guy sort out his megasquirt challenges on the Cadillac forum with his single turbo Coupe Deville that he races in the Mile races. The intake is an Edelbrock dual plane, with the rare Edelbrock "Delete" option . Around here the non chevy stuff is rare, so the engine will get a set of 350-4 HI COMPRESSION decals. I figure they wont know what they are looking at either way. Sneaky sneaky!
Very sneaky!! And sellable! I was going to do that on the Skylark in California to pass smog but ended up moving out of state around the same time I was swapping the engine. I thought you might come back and say it was a carbon or plastic intake from the pictures. Looks sharp over all! Sean has e-mailed me a few times and I gave him all the help I could through the computer. That Caddy is a monster! I hope my HEI mod starts working for him. Actually the only thing new since 2011 is I picked up a '69 Firebird for the Pontiac straight six engine(s) I've got. The Centurion is my unsung hero that I've had since 2002 and the T-bird I picked up in 2008 (I think..). I am considering the Cadillac engine for the Centurion. There is about 70,000 miles on it's 455 since I rebuilt it and the valve guides are smoking a bit, but other wise it runs strong with awesome for Buick oil pressure, so I am in no hurry. I did pick up the 4-6-8 valvetrain from a junkyard a while back though and I hear it bolts right onto the 472/500 heads, just doesn't do well with large lift or super high valve spring pressures.
