Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

If you have any experience with a 472 or 500 Cadillac engine in a performance application tell your story.

i've done the whole deal.

Built a JY low CR 500 with a ported set of high CR heads and custom cam. Ended up with 12.5 CR and the motor lasted about 3 miles before it blew the head gaskets.

Built a high dollar 507 with olds rods KB 10.5 pistons custom cam, ported heads, potter shaft rockers, went 12.0 at 110 mph and blew a piston.

Built a higher dollar 507 with forged pistons , potter rods, the eldo steel crank, ported heads, shaft rockers, blew head gaskets all the time. Also i ported through a set of heads so they were paper thin and broke when the engine started running.

Spent about $20,000 for 3 engines in 2 years to go 12.0 once at the track in my 81 malibu. Finally dumped it all and built a 489 BBC that went 10.87 NA first pass and cost about $9,000 and last 4 years before i hurt it with a bad fuel solenoid on a nitrous system.

Only way i would do a caddy again is to pull a good running motor out of a wreck, put on an intake and nitrous and have fun.

Dave Brode will have lots to say on this topic!

This one will run

Jon,
Not sure what you are looking for or want to do. Have you tried talking with MTS they make or did make an after market Alum head.

Stan

SchmidtMotorWorks wrote: ↑Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:37 pm If you have any experience with a 472 or 500 Cadillac engine in a performance application tell your story.

Absolutely great air boat engines.

Stan Weiss wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 10:57 am Jon,
Not sure what you are looking for or want to do. Have you tried talking with MTS they make or did make an after market Alum head.

Stan

Just curious, my 11 year old wanted his own engine and chose a 472 he found on craigslist.
So far, he has it mostly dissembled, it looks like a better engine than I expected it to be.

Just looking for ideas for what he could do with it.

Walter R. Malik wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 11:04 am

SchmidtMotorWorks wrote: ↑Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:37 pm If you have any experience with a 472 or 500 Cadillac engine in a performance application tell your story.

Absolutely great air boat engines.

Yah, I read a few forum posts about using them for that.

Doing this for your 11 yr old;

He's got 5 years to figure a way to keep head gaskets inthe motor, lol!

A good friend from Buhl, Idaho. I first saw Larry race this car at OCIR in 1983. It has always been Cad powered

https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/a ... 73867.html

Alot of the stuff i mentioned above was self inflicted due to being inexperienced and having no help. They can be an ok engine once you fix the weakness's. The valvetrain is junk if you put any bigger cam or springs on them. Headers can be difficult and exspensive.

Personally, unless your putting the engine back in a Cadillac it came from, it's kind of a waste. You spend a lot of money to fix the issues mentioned, that you could put into a 454 Chevy. Build a low buck 496 using a scat cast crank meant for Stock length rods, some speed pro hyperuetectic Pistons, or kb's. The factory oval ports that came on the core are better than stock caddy heads,. Every other part is way cheaper to buy. You can make 600 hp easy for not much money. That's my opinion. For $7-8 k, you could build a 500 caddy, and make a whopping 475hp and 550 tq. For half that, you can build a budget 496 that will make 600hp and similar tq for half the money. And it will be more reliable

Scrap that, you already have it. I didn't read that part

SchmidtMotorWorks wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 11:23 am Just curious, my 11 year old wanted his own engine and chose a 472 he found on craigslist.
So far, he has it mostly dissembled

He's two years ahead of where I was. Got a salvage yard '49 Cad V8 when I was 13.
Excellent learning experience, both mechanical and social, since the block was cracked and
I got cheated out of paper route money.

I've built several, as well as Dave Brode as mentioned before in the thread

which year 472 you working with? closed chamber or open chamber heads mostly the differences.
there's a lot of sub-par aftermarket parts for them, at lofty prices.
the stock stuff can be very reliable, everything is heavy duty and I'd argue better made vs. other GM stock parts from same era.
basic procedures with a larger valve, larger cam, better intake/exh and they can make surprising low end torque
stock valve sizes keep the engine very airflow limited.

there's some combos for bottom end that can lighten it up a good bit...bore can go +.080 or .100 so you can have a ~500 inch deal using 425/472 crank that will be happy turning a bit higher...but getting enough airflow to it costs a lot.
for low buck, the stock heads and a better intake can take it to 5500-5800 and broad power. Gear/convertor accordingly.
IMO once you try to make it do more than that it gets real expensive and makes more sense to change platform.