the latest on sailing in my garage...

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the generator died last night --- what the hell!

i open up the shop manual "63 amp delco generator"... less than 15A at idle.

what a piece of junk.

u can't run a CB radio off 15A these days.

me thinx this may be why it died ... stereo system draws like 45-ish nominal.

anywho -- lucky me found that the same case size was used all the way up to 1989 in GM pickups and other such vehicles with larger engines... they can be rewound up to 105A but i didn't feel like waiting 10 days or spending 115 bucks ebay (shipped) for one -- so i hit up my local 24 hour autoparts store (not my favorite store by any means but at 8 o clock on a sunday night beggers cant be choosers) and got an alt listed for an 84 - 89 GM pickup.

78.5 amps at 2080 RPMS... around 35 at 800 - 900 RPMS (and since i've ganked hte idle up to around 8, this works out nicely).

cost me like 58 bucks plus u normally get 20 back on the core but because my core wasn't the same (From a lesser model) i only got half that... so it was 68 plus tax came to like 74... a buck an amp aint bad... i can live with that. and its got a lifetime warranty unless you open up the casing (which i'm not gonna do)... so that's cool.

thank god it was One-Wire compatible. clock position was different but that was no sweat. just ran a 6 inch ground wire for the grounding screw and relocated it. in theory the casing would ground it, but i didn't wanna take any chances since the casing is in two parts with a plastic insulator between the front and back and hte ground screw is on the back -- the main bolts are on the front. .. u get the idea.

and yet i find more problems....

the exhaust has a hole in it somewhere... somewhere between the headers and the muffler -- i dont think its in the headers cuz when i'm under the hood i cant hear the "rice krispy / flapping / coughing" sound.

yet when i'm in the car with the door open or standing beside/behind it.. i can. has to be in the front pipes , the Y joint, or just before the muffler -- hell it might be the muffler itself but it looks all shiney and ok. i dunno... just one more thing for the mechanic to check.. my **** aint crawlin under there -- its like 6 inches off the ground for god sake.

its bad enough jacking it up to do work that's near a jack point (wheel / under engine / near rear axle) -- but to get waaayyyy into the meaty middle of the car would require two jacks, jack supports, and a whole lotta praying the wind didn't blow in the wrong direction and knock it down on top of me.

the good news is the engine itself (carb included, belts included... everything under hte hood) sounds like an "8.5 outa 10" on my "i'm happy with it" scale.

i'm gonna repalce all the vaccuum hoses to the distributor and the carb this week... that should alleviate the need for overcompensation on the vaccuum pump arm. hell i'll jsut leave it how it is though -- all that does is open up the secondaries quicker -- thus ... more balls to the wall when u hit the gas.

i'm gonna pinch every last little pony outa this sucker. even if it means making it a terrifying nightmare for my poor mother if she ever tries to drive it.... my grandfather wont care, he'll leave rubber on the street and be like "who, me... i didn't do that... musta been someone else...." .... as you hear *rumble rumble rumble* under the hood. the man has a laid back sense of humor unmatched by any.

i told him "do u think its a little loud? should i try to re-line the hood, maybe get that hood treatment dynamat makes"... he's like "I've only got one good ear, so it has to be twice as loud to sound like its running... leave it the way it is."

... i'm still lamenting these POS JBL amps... grr... i do so detest in comparison to that wonderful Xtant.

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question -- is it normal for an older carburated car to have to do the following...

1- pump 5 times, then start it (if you've left it all night... otherwise it just turns over if it was just running).

2- have to run for about 5 minutes if the engine is cold (not runing for the night and hten start it in the morning) before u can hit the gas... if u do before that it chokes up, gets shaky... generally sounds like dog poo... but if u wait about 5 minutes its fine.

???

the only thing i can think of is that the choke is temperature regulated.... and for it to set itself where hte car is happy with it, it has to be at a minimumof a certain temperature... thus taking about 5 min to warm up.

is there a way to adjust this? or could this be due to **** hoses and shoudl i just hold off on any fiddling until i've got the hoses replaced???

.... i wouldn't wanna see what this thing would be like in the winter... yikes. take 20 minutes to warm up probably (thank god me only drivey drivey in the summer.).

Jstas

Ah, what the wonders of fuel injection have done for drivers! Boy have the spoiled the unknowing!

YES! Carbed cars HAVE to warm up and they get real bitchy on a cold morning! See, unlike teh pressurized fuel injection systems, carbs have float bowls that have to fill up. What happens is, the carb bowls will remain relativly full through out the night but the fuel in the line to the float bowl will drain back down without the pressure of teh pump throwing it back up there. So, in the mornings, it stumbles because the pump has to pump fuel all the way back up and it takes a little bit to build enough pressure. The pumping action you are experiencing is just normal for a carb. Some people say to push it in and hold it but that doesn't always work. I say, do what ya gotta do! Any way you look at it, it's pretty much normal. Especially for a mid 70's GM.

Secondly, that choke, if it is electric, is temperature controlled. It will operate and choke down on the engine to limit the amount of air coming into the engine. It causes a slightly rich condition which helps combustion and makes the engine reach operating temperature. Modern cars with all the fancy computers don't need that. So, if you want to run the Caddy, go out, start it up, make sure it';s gonna stay running and then go back inside, take a piss and wash your hands like a good little boy. By the time you get back out to the car it'll be all ready to roll somewhere. Granted, you won't be able to gun it from the dead stop after starting it but you'll be able to get on it a bit without flooding out the engine and stalling.

Jstas

Oh yeah, tell your grandpop that is he wants loud, he should get a custom exhaust bent up with an X-pipe and a couple of zoomies or cherry bombs! Now you're talkin loud!

Either that or a pair of Flowmasters. You'll make more power with it too. Especially if you get real headers because I do believe that you have manifolds that only look like headers. Any competant exhaust shop should be able to do it with ease.

C-Man

LOL. You just described my old Cadillac to a T. That really brings me back.

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[[[So, if you want to run the Caddy, go out, start it up, make sure it';s gonna stay running and then go back inside, take a piss and wash your hands like a good little boy. By the time you get back out to the car it'll be all ready to roll somewhere.]]]

hahahahahahaahaha....

that's gotta be the funniest **** i've read since the rollerskater with a black and blue ****... lmfao.

goddamn carburator.

anywho -- coolness -- plates go on thursday with any luck (yes 2 days away.. yippie dippie slap my ****) -- gotta get the hole in the exhaust fixed anyway -- how much does a flowmaster run pricewise... or any other decent aftermarket exhaust with "real" headers as you say.

and ya from the looks of it.. the same piece of metal where the spark plugs go in extends down with the exhaust outs. looked odd to me.

i replaced all the vaccuum hoses today -- helped get that "happy with it factor" up to about 90%

couldn't find anyone with a gasket for the rear diff... closest one was in pittsburgh -- wouldn't mail it to me... so i used silicone RTV gasket compound normally used on engines and let it set up and its curing over night -- i'llput the gear oil back in in the morning.

good news is i put that magnet on like u said, drove her up and down the driveway a few times over hte last few days -- not one fleck of metal shaving anywhere in the fluid or in the diff... its clean as a hell.

finally got the audio TUNED properly -- sounds good... could use some more bass -- 8's aren't my style... but it'll do.

the **** news is my mechanic quit!!!!!! i was all pissed off and the manager at pep boys goes to me "well christ he didn't die, he just moved across the street to firestone!" -- so i called firestone, they do all the same work pep boys does except rebuild transmissions... so i've got me a new shop...lol.

find a good mechanic -- follow him around... they're hard to come by.

so i guess its destination LE's over the futuras -- i've no desire to let little johnny walker who just go outa the local vocational "skewl" work on it.

ughhh.. what else -- ah hell that's abotu it -- i'm friggin done... i've done too much work for somebody who's about as mechanically inclined as a seven thumbed toad.

sntnsupermen131

get a rice burner...they have cool looking tips for them in crutchfield!
lol
couldnt resist...
flowmasters are the most beautiful sounding exhaust systems ive ever heard..plus they increas hp and gas mileage
not sure of prices...www.flowmaster.com
you said it was a h-pipe?
thats bad ****
when i get my new truck...in a couple yrs...im putting flowmasters on it...i love em...dont have em now...but man...they perdy
-Cody

Jstas

Well, what I do is I pull the wheels I'm getting new tires on and take them to the shop and drop off the wheels. That way, nobody but me drives my vehicle. Most places hate it but I don't give a damn. tires do not need to be installed by a tech to work. Just put them on the rims.

Besides, tell your buddy you want Futuras and he should be able to get them. Especially if you get other work done. Firestone will still get paid for the labor. You'll just have cheaper Futuras. Then again, it's up to you. I think the Futuras would look better. I saw them on a 77 Buick today and they looked pretty good with the raised white letters and all.

As far as the exhaust goes, it can get expensive. But lucky you! It'll be cheaper than you think! What I would do for now is leave the manifolds and catalytic converters there. They will be expensive to replace. Maybe save that for next summer. This summer, grab a couple of Flowmaster Delta Flow 50 series. Not as noisey as the 40 series Flowmasters and they won't drone as much. I would get 3 inch inlet and outlet pipes for the 500 cube motor. It's gonna be a bit of an overkill right now but in the end it'll pay off. Get the from the catalytic converters back and take it to a shop to get them to custom bend some pipe. The mufflers will run you about 75-100 bucks and the pipe and labor will probably be another 300 or so.

That will give you half an exhaust system and next year, when you go for headers and new high-flow cats, you can get 3 inch collectors and cats and have an exhaust system that will support any other power mods you want to make.

Headers will probably run you about 450 for that Caddy and they may be hard to come by. Cats will be 225 a piece but install labor may be cheap because of all the room and half the new exhaust is already there. So save that for later.

As far as future modifications go, you can get a new intake manifold and carb for about 200-300 bucks in most cases. Add a better air filter, an MSD ignition system and maybe a new distributor, wires and plugs and you'll probably gain a good 50 horses over stock. Replace the cam and heads with some higher flowing stuff and you'll most likely be making somewheres north of 400 horses and 600 pound feet of torque. You can probably get all of that done for less than 4 grand. And since you are going to park it in the winters, you'll have what, 9 months to work on it knowing the winters in Buffalo!

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actually its 11.93 months of winter... we get 3 days of no snow.

well -- there are no catalytic converters.... there is just pipe going from the engine to a Y splitter... then out to the muffler... then out the **** of the car.

supposedly while many pre 1980 cars came w/ cats... u dont legally have to put them on if u dont want to.

somewhere over the rainbow i intend to do just about what you've described... i'll end up waiting till after next summer tho -- money's gotten tighter than a drum.

i gotta actually LOOK at these tires in person to decide.. u make a good point.. dont matter who does the damn tires -- just matters who does the alignment.

intake manifold and a holley 700 someting odd cfm carb is like 600 dude... but alas -- eventually i'll dig one up.

how hard is it to do exhaust? Borla says they make systems specifically guaranteed to FIT oem routing and they give u all teh hangers and **** you'd need to bolt her up. i'm just wondering if u have to weld that **** or if it bolts together.

other problem is... there's not room for two mufflers under there... there's room for one slightly larger one with two inlets and two outlets, but not two.

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and the 1970 headers to revert back to the 400 hp style are about a grand. ... maybe i can steal some from a boneyard run by somebody who doesn't know what he's got.

Jstas

Well, I know that places like Summit and JEG'S have combo kits that come with a carb, intake, gaskets and air filter. I picked one up for a 302 for less than 300 bucks. Even a Caddy 500 still would be less than 500. If you pay 600, you are seriously paying too much. Somebody is ripping you off. A stright up Holley 750 4 barrel will be around 200-250 bucks. An intake manifold will run you about the same. You could probably hit a swap meet and do it for ALOT less. I will look around if you like, I can probably find a 750 4 barrel with electric choke and vaccum secondaries for less than 100 bucks. A manul choke I could pick up for 50 bucks that needs a rebuild and a NEW electric choke conversion kit is something like 40-50 bucks and universal to all Holley carbs.

Also, don't count out true duals yet. You would be surprised at what a talented exhaust guy cold rig up! You should see some of the creative work that has been done on local Lightnings! Things like mufflers mounted one above the other or mufflers with offset inlets and outlets and pipes flowing past them on either side. I have seen some ingenious rigs. Don't count it out yet.

Oh and let me look around. I can probably find aftermarket headers that will out flow those stockers from 1970 and do it for considerably less. Infact, I think Doug Thorley makes a set of street legal headers for teh car and does it for less than 600. I'll have to look.

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you're just an overflowing resource of autmotive knowledge!

lol...

hell if u feel up to digging, go for it... cant' promise you i'll plunk down the $$ just yet, but it'd be good to know where and what i can get.

thanks dude!

Jstas

Well, a quick search on yahoo.com yeilded about 21,500 hits on the search items: cadillac 500 engine parts

A few good sites on the first page alone. Don't know prices though. But they do have part numbers whic is important because then you can take those part numbers and search for them specifically. Reall narrows down your search and makes it more effective. Especially if you are looking on a place like eBay.com which is the world's swap meet. But you know that already.

Jstas

Oh, BTW, from Jeg's:

Edelbrock Performer #2115 Intake Manifold for 472-500 cube Caddilac '68-'76

Also, look here:

Edelbrock Performer 1411 750 CFM carb w/ electric choke

About halfway down, JEG'S part number is 350-1411

Manifold is ~$251, the carb is ~$275

Total ~$526 and that is JEG'S retail. You can probably find cheaper.

Also, here you have a set of Sanderson block huggers:

Sanderson Block Hugger Caddy 500 CI headers

They are ~$275 from that website right there. So for about 750-800 bucks, you could have your intake, carb and headers. Then all you have to do is grab your Flowmaster 40 or 50 series Mufflers and find somebody to bend you up a set of pipes. Those prices at JEG'S are a little high. Summit or maybe a local speed shop might even be cheaper. But 60 bucks a muffler isn't too bad. So there ya go, I've spent less than a grand already and you'll probably pick up a good 30-40 horses with that!

One more place to look is Performance Automotive Warehouse. The have alot of stuff at decent prices and last I checked, they had alot of parts including cylinder heads and cam kits for Caddy 500's. Might be worth checking into too. Call them up to get a catalog. They aren't the best of pleasantness though so be prepared.

Also, a good place for knowledge looks to be here:

Cadillac Performance Board

Howzat for some info?

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thats *jaw to floor* a LOT of info....lol.

if i can swing the headers when i get the exhaust done early/ mid next week, then i shall.

the carb/intake's gotta wait unless like u said i can hunt around and find it mucho cheapo in late this summer.

thank you so much for the info and all the help you've given me through dickin around with this car.

u're an invaluable resource... like a talking chilton's manual...lol

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question about intake manifold....

why do i or do i not need one?

i mean it LOOKS like the mount where the current carb bolts down to is like a welded part of the engine... like its one piece... maybe its not but from a glance it looks it.

the new manifold would go over that? or in place of that?

and what would be the big difference between bolting down the new carb straight up in place of the old one and bolting it down to a new manifold ??

Jstas

Well, the new intake manifold will flow much more air. That is the biggest limitation you have. You carb and intake manifold were purposly put on there so the engine would build low end torque without throwing too many emissions.

The new manifold has larger port openings and will not only flow more air but it will do it smoother and quicker too. The new carb would give you a hole big enough to fill that intake properly. It'll also waken that engine up. If you went with a cam kitand new heads or old ported ones, I'd suggest a bigger carb. But right now, headers w/ dual exhaust, that carb, intake manifold and a new ignition system, you'll see one hell of an improvement.

Engines are air pumps. That is an overly simplified way to look at it but it is the very basic idea. But, an engine, in its basic idea, is an air pump. The more air you can move through teh engine, the more power you make. Bigger engines, by default, flow more air and therefore, by default, make more power. The whole deal behind hot rodding your engine up is to increase the efficiency at which your engine moves air. To do that, you optomize intake and exhaust holes to work the best at getting air in and spent exhaust out. The faster you do that, the more power you can make. Problem is, an engine is inactuality, a simple machine. It is a complex system of simple machines that work together. So, the machine itself can be optimized but so can the way it interacts with its environment. So there is theory out the wazoo about it all and that is where the guys who do performance tuning can make big bucks. They understand all that stuff and can optimized your system for it's top performance at a given state. In otherwords, they are paid to make your engine combination to run at it's best performance possible.

The beauty of teh aftermarket is guys who knew how to tune teh engines, went into business making parts that came with a "general" tune to themand sold them to the general public. Through reasearch and development, they can optimize a part to give the best performance over the widest range of possibilities possible. That is what companies like Edelbrock, Holley, MSD and Flowmaster do.

So understanding that, the intake manifold and carb are going to make a bigger hole thatworks better than what you have now to get your mountain of a motor the air and fuel it is currently starved for. Feed it some of that air and fuel and give it a way to get rid of it's waste quickly and it will make more power. Much more power. I'm saying 30-40, maybe 50 horses but knowing the way mid 70's smogger cars respond to the simplest things like a carb, manifold, headers and a new cam, you will probably see closer to a 75 horse increase. Add a new cam, lifters and valev springs and that number goes up. Put on aftermarket heads and for just under 4K invested in the motor, I woud not be surprised at all if you saw 400+ almost 500 horses out of that beast and that is conservative. That is how badly the stock stuff flows.

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u know u had me all goin there.. all hepped up and chargin like a bull...

then i read "and with just under 4k in the motor" and it all died.

lol.

exhaust is going on tomrrow or monday. depending on how busy the local flowmaster dealer is

however i've found out from my local state DMV that the car did come with a catalytic converter and the **** are gonna have to put it back on if i want an exhaust job.

nor am i allowed to do a dual exhaust... its gotta be the same **** that came on the car -- but i can use whatever material i so desire -- hence i cannot get new headers unless they're OEM replacement or OEM, and while i can use whatever pipe i want and whatever muffler and cat i want, i'ts gotta follow OEM routing. else they'll pull my registration when i go for inspection and i'll be fined for "Tampering" with the exhaust.

wtf -- how **** is that. i see cars with this **** all the time... and i've got a car that's past the NYS 25 yr limit, thus making it unnecessary for emission inspection. yet i'm still in a sling.

i gotta find a way around this that doent' involve me doing it myself.



hey regarding carb/ manifold -- what's the work in that? is it just bolt on? i wudn't have to weld or remove anything that's welded would i????

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by the way -- before a stroker kit, with simply altering how it breathes and gets fuel... many people on the net have claimed 375 - 425 horse outa this engine... stroker kit up to 570cubes and they're claiming well over 550.

the last engine i heard of that did 550+ was the Hemi 426... they came outa the box with "Ratings" of 4's but reality of 450 to 550... nobody figured out why two engines could roll off the line, one after the other, and the first one would do 450 and the second one 550... some dude, i dont remember his name, did some sick research into it and (your statement about an engine being an air pump reminded me of this) came to the conclusion that it was all in how it breathed... if one was put into a car with a 650 cfm carb, and a single pipe exhaust and the other was in a car with a 750 cfm and a dual 3" pipe out with no mufflers, it was obvious what was gonna do what, and i guess some of hte stock **** from those days varied even in the same model car... you could get a charger with a single or a dual and varying types of fuel input depending on month/year of production.

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well theproblem with the exhaust turned out to be a problem with the front pipe after the "joining" of the two front outputs. rot hole in it.

the guy says he'll repair it without putting a cat in but if we want a whole new front to back he'd have to put a cat in...

so for 75 bucks i'm stuck with a normal exhaust, but a cheap repair.

so mondya morning he's bending up the pipe and slappin on 4 monroe sensatrac shocks for 180 installed -- which is cheap compared to sears -- they wanted 225 installed for the same stuff.

anywho -- what i've decided i do want, once i get the mechanic to tell me nothing else is wrong with it... is a new carburator.

i mean when i just did the plugs / wires / distro, it went from taking 15 pumps of the pedal and two clicks of the key to start the car..... to, if i had been running it the day before, no pumping of the pedal, or one pump, and one turn of the key, and it didn't hesitate, ti didn't give me ****... it just ran good.... then i pulled the carb apart and its giving me an attitude -- takes 5 or 6 pumps before it'll start and sometimes when i shut her down i key it off but the engine doesn't want to shut off -- it gargles, chokes up, and i gotta return the key in order for it not to go haywire on me, pump the gas once, and then re-shut it off.

seems to me i fked something up with it -- and i'd like to just get a bolt on and go carb for cheap that'll do the job well, give me a nice smooth preformance and not involve having to get a new manifold... but would give me the option to get the new manifold later when i came along more money.

can that be swung for 100 bucks? u were sayin at a swap meet it could... do u feel up to finding one that you felt was worth it, would do the job, and last, and be bolt on and go?

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oh -- and we tooled it around for about an hour and a half yesterday -- runs well-- pickup is a little funny sounding but im sure its the hole in the exhaust -- its weak as hell on horsepower but when going straight up a hill it seems to not lag one bit.

it really does drive like a boat. its hilarious -- it literally floats and has just as **** control as a boat...lol.

TrappedUnder Ice

I just have one comment...2 words:


MONEY PIT!




HAVE A LOVELY DAY vinnie

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spent just under 200 bucks so far.... 275 for exhaust pipe and shocks...

about 900 for a full brake job, trannie drain/fill, and new tires...

that's 1375...

3 grand for a paint job.

4375 -- that's not that bad dude.

throw in another hundred or whatever for a new carb. the only money pit part abotu it is paint.

oh ya -- about 800 on audio. woop de doo -- i think its worth it. i love the car. fun as hell to drive.

oh ... here's a virtual "twin" of my current carb...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33550&item=2423283629

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well i've got one last ditch attempt before i go and hunt down a new carb...

this guy named "**** mikey" is sposed to be like a wizard with 70's carbed motors... and he supposedly can install an entire 4 cylinder engine all alone (with a cherry picker) in under 90 minutes (computer **** and all).

so we're gonna see what he can do...lol.

Jstas

Well, that Quadrajet you have, that's ~725 CFM. The way you were talking, I thought it was a smogger 600 CFM which is too small for that engine. But if you want something bigger, you are going to need an 800-900 CFM carb.

But carbs are finicky. It's not going to start without pushing the gas pedal down at least once. You have to open the throttle so fuel can get into the carb otherwise, it'll just keep turning over but never firing. Carbs are like that, that's how they work. They can be a real pain sometimes but that comes with the territory. A new carb isn't necessarily going to fix that. If you rebuilt the one you have then you basically have a new carb. The carb itself doesn't wear out. What you replaced with the rebuild kit only wears out.

As far as getting a bigger carb goes, I was only mentioning that because, like I said, I thought you had one smaller than that. You can just grab a new intake. You don't necessarily need a new carb. You may need a mounting plate adapter though. However, there is no such thing as a bolt on and go. The carb has to be tuned when you put it on the engine. Each engine is different and requires custom tuning. If you want to keep fussing with it, get yourself a manual on carb tuning. They are out there. Otherwise, bite the bullet and get someone to fix it up for you. But the quadrajet should be just fine for you for now. At least until you go hot rodding it.

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ya there were two Qjet's for big block GM -- one was 725-750 the other was 800.

this is the 800.

see i think i bought a POS rebuid kit tho -- it came with seals, bobber and the brass screw down input... but no float, no metering rods...

hopefully **** mikey can get it right.

edelbrock makes performer series carbs that if u tell them the engine / year / make / model, they'll set the carb at the factory to be dead on with factory settings for the carb tha tcame with the car... it may not give the absolute best performance but they're guaranteed to be bolt and go or your money back.

only problem is 270 bucks for a 650 cfm. -- 325 - 350+ for a 700 or 750. that's wayy overboard.

this dude in east bumble-fk california said he'll rebuild it (www.carbsunlimited.com) for 190 bucks including shipping. that would include new choke, all new bolt ons, new metering rods, new seales, new float, yada yada.

i dunno tho -- god this sucks.