Stampie (FS) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Dream big block for me is a Cad500 with ported 425 heads. Perfect street terror and an easy 450 hp for a very small investment that idles like a purring kitten.
I'm going to be stripping down a 425 here soon. Want the heads?
SOOO tempting. But I don't have anything to put a motor in right now. But I should. But I shouldn't. But I might.
Stampie (FS) said:Since Curtis is making the sales pitch for me I have a bunch of Cadillac 472/500 stuff I'm willing to get to a good home. Travis got my 500 crank as his first place trophy though.
Now you're just making the deal too tempting. What all do you have?
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
You say that like it's a valid reason. I'll put them aside for you. One complete 425, internals minus crank, air boat headers, 7 heads early and late.
I also have a complete 70 472 but that's staying with me.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
You make a compelling case, and as designated hole-poker, I have two holes to poke in it.
Where are you finding Cad engines for $200?
One could argue that if you are only shooting for 450hp, you're better off with a small block, just for the weight factor alone. A Caddy 500 was one of two engines I have seen flex my old engine stand, the other was a 6.6 Duramax.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Stampie (FS) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Dream big block for me is a Cad500 with ported 425 heads. Perfect street terror and an easy 450 hp for a very small investment that idles like a purring kitten.
I'm going to be stripping down a 425 here soon. Want the heads?
SOOO tempting. But I don't have anything to put a motor in right now. But I should. But I shouldn't. But I might.
I am confused. Is the Ranger gone already? I mean, I know you have the van, but now that you don't need a Ranger to be running all the time...
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I could have pulled two 500s from the yard here for $175 in the fall. It's not the HP it's the TQ.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The last Cad500 I bought was from a scrapyard in Kittaning PA for $225, complete with Qjet and all accessories. Admittedly, that was about 8-10 years ago.
The assumption that a Caddy 500 is heavy is just not a thing. With an aluminum intake, it is almost exactly 30 lbs heavier than an all-iron SBC. They're surprisingly light.
matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Stampie (FS) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Dream big block for me is a Cad500 with ported 425 heads. Perfect street terror and an easy 450 hp for a very small investment that idles like a purring kitten.
I'm going to be stripping down a 425 here soon. Want the heads?
SOOO tempting. But I don't have anything to put a motor in right now. But I should. But I shouldn't. But I might.
I am confused. Is the Ranger gone already? I mean, I know you have the van, but now that you don't need a Ranger to be running all the time...
So many bad ideas, so little cash
Also... smog check. Sucks.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:One could argue that if you are only shooting for 450hp, you're better off with a small block
If you don't mind spending $5000 on pistons, rods, heads, converter, and gears and end up with a 93 octane beast that idles at 1200 and doesn't make torque until 4000 rpms, sure.
That's not how I like to roll. Buy big cubes, throw some cheap parts at it, idle at 600, sipping 87 octane, and embarrassing the heck out of the small blocks with the extra torque.
Since a 500 weighs about a 30-pack of Budweiser more than an SBC, the weight part can be solved with lots of fiber in your diet and not wearing shoes.
Oh, and before you bring it up.... they actually do pretty well in the MPG category as well. The 390hp/600tq one that went into an 76 C30 dually got 16 mpg empty on the highway with a pretty heavily modified Qjet.
Complete SBC (typical 70s) weighs 575.
Complete Cad 500 with iron intake weighs 625
Complete Cad 500 with Edelbrock aluminum intake weighs 595.
Go Curtis go ... maybe I can retire on my Cadillac nest egg. My biggest regret is not putting my 472 into my K30 instead of the 454. But I have love the 472 too much to put it in something I might sell.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The last Cad500 I bought was from a scrapyard in Kittaning PA for $225, complete with Qjet and all accessories. Admittedly, that was about 8-10 years ago.
The assumption that a Caddy 500 is heavy is just not a thing. With an aluminum intake, it is almost exactly 30 lbs heavier than an all-iron SBC. They're surprisingly light.
I hear that, but I also remember the heads as being just about as heavy as 351C heads with exhaust manifolds attached.
No mention of the Ford 427 ? The one Shelby put in the 427 Cobras. Seems like a winner for nostalgia points alone.
Ford 427. Wasn't that the 'side oiler' engine?
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The last Cad500 I bought was from a scrapyard in Kittaning PA for $225, complete with Qjet and all accessories. Admittedly, that was about 8-10 years ago.
The assumption that a Caddy 500 is heavy is just not a thing. With an aluminum intake, it is almost exactly 30 lbs heavier than an all-iron SBC. They're surprisingly light.
I hear that, but I also remember the heads as being just about as heavy as 351C heads with exhaust manifolds attached.
Good GOD yes. The heads are massive chunks of iron.
I tallied the results quickly (so not scientific)
429F - 1
460F - 4
428F - 1
427F - 1
440/BBM - 3
Jag V12 - 2
425O - 1
455B - 3
454/BBC - 4
409W - 1
8.1L - 1
500/472 - eleventy quillion
Totally trustworthy tabulation.
(ok, really, 4 people included it as a favorite, I just counted my vote eleventy quillion-minus-4 times)
Looks like BBC, 460 BBF, and Cad 500 are tied each with 4.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Pete. (l33t FS) said:One could argue that if you are only shooting for 450hp, you're better off with a small block
If you don't mind spending $5000 on pistons, rods, heads, converter, and gears and end up with a 93 octane beast that idles at 1200 and doesn't make torque until 4000 rpms, sure.
That's not how I like to roll. Buy big cubes, throw some cheap parts at it, idle at 600, sipping 87 octane, and embarrassing the heck out of the small blocks with the extra torque.
Since a 500 weighs about a 30-pack of Budweiser more than an SBC, the weight part can be solved with lots of fiber in your diet and not wearing shoes.
Oh, if you want to go that route.
I was thinking cam and headers on a $600 LM4. (aluminum 5.3 from a Ranier/Envoy, mostly Gen III bits so not worth as much as the Gen IV based aluminum engines) Not sure what they normally trade for, but I picked up a brand new LS3 Camaro oil pan and pickup for $120. Might have been $80, don't remember.
It also depends a LOT on expected use, I know. I like smaller lighter cars, where a poor-accelerating large displacement engine would feel pretty logy. However it'd be PERFECT for a truck or fullsize car where the name of the game is an engine built like a draft horse, not a race horse. Heck, some of the cars they were found in natively were heavier than trucks. I think my friend's '73 S&S Superior hearse weighed over 7000lb. Commercial chassis + S&S's legendary overbuilding mean I think it was the only chassis to even start to tax the 472.
Y'know, I should probably shut up about the LM4 until I've bought and pickled a couple for future use. L33s used to be cheap until people realized that the 5.3 blocks can be overbored to 5.7 size.
Jag v12...
That's 3 now.
jharry3 said:No mention of the Ford 427 ? The one Shelby put in the 427 Cobras. Seems like a winner for nostalgia points alone.
Supposedly a lot of them actually got 428s.
Big nostalgia cred but not much else. Ford raced 427s until they had the 429, which in many respects was a betterfied Chevy. (No short/long intake ports, no seriously asymmetrical head bolt pattern, no distributor on the wrong end of the camshaft...)
A lot of the reason the 385 series engine gets no respect was that it came out at the end of the performance era, and Ford being Ford, they reserved the really good bits for rare models or race-only stuff. Chevy cranked out the good parts like sausages, and for the most part stayed the course with a single design. In the late 60s you could buy a 289/302, 351 Windsor (mostly a grunt motor for Galaxies), a 351 Cleveland (engineered as a Mercury project for the Cougar and Montego), a 427 FE, a 428 FE, or a 429.... and there were varying levels of each! 351C had completely different everything depending on two barrel or four barrel, 428s had Drag Packs, etc.
The Boss '9 was a force in NASCAR... but was even rarer than the 426 Hemi, was not drag raced as extensively as the 427 SOHC (mainly because drag racing was the only place it was accepted), and NASCAR killed 7 liter engines shortly after they came out anyway. So it was a little like the Ford RS200 and Group B: Really promising but showed up to the party right before the authorites shut the party down 
The goofy combustion chambers/valve positioning in the plain jane 385s allowed for lower hoodlines and also increased combustion efficiency. I was able to regularly return 24mpg with a smogger 429 in a 4800lb Thunderbird.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Pete. (l33t FS) said:One could argue that if you are only shooting for 450hp, you're better off with a small block
If you don't mind spending $5000 on pistons, rods, heads, converter, and gears and end up with a 93 octane beast that idles at 1200 and doesn't make torque until 4000 rpms, sure.
That's not how I like to roll. Buy big cubes, throw some cheap parts at it, idle at 600, sipping 87 octane, and embarrassing the heck out of the small blocks with the extra torque.
Since a 500 weighs about a 30-pack of Budweiser more than an SBC, the weight part can be solved with lots of fiber in your diet and not wearing shoes.
Oh, if you want to go that route.
I was thinking cam and headers on a $600 LM4. (aluminum 5.3 from a Ranier/Envoy, mostly Gen III bits so not worth as much as the Gen IV based aluminum engines) Not sure what they normally trade for, but I picked up a brand new LS3 Camaro oil pan and pickup for $120. Might have been $80, don't remember.
It also depends a LOT on expected use, I know. I like smaller lighter cars, where a poor-accelerating large displacement engine would feel pretty logy. However it'd be PERFECT for a truck or fullsize car where the name of the game is an engine built like a draft horse, not a race horse. Heck, some of the cars they were found in natively were heavier than trucks. I think my friend's '73 S&S Superior hearse weighed over 7000lb. Commercial chassis + S&S's legendary overbuilding mean I think it was the only chassis to even start to tax the 472.
Y'know, I should probably shut up about the LM4 until I've bought and pickled a couple for future use. L33s used to be cheap until people realized that the 5.3 blocks can be overbored to 5.7 size.
I'm finally drinking the LS kool-aid these days. I was a hot rodder back when getting 500 hp from a SBC was a pipe dream. Now you can take an LM4 and boost it to 750 hp without even taking off the valve covers.
yupididit said:Jag v12...
That's 3 now.
Smart ass 
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
My former employer was commenting that LS engines were going to put his machine shop out of business.
A lot of why I don't like them is that there's no.... can't think of the right word. Romance? Poetry? Gentlemanliness? It's a big fat easy button and after years of 500hp SBCs being a far off pipe dream, it just seems so uncouth.
Time marches on, I suppose.
GM 502 was a staple in the marine world for a while. Built to take the wide open throttle situation that is pretty standard for boats.
Give us a little more context. Gambler and big block dont really go together since it is more of a rolling wreck-burning man derby than a race. Power does not seem to bring any benefit to the experience. You certainly dont want to put a lot of $$ into this, so guessing it has to do the job fresh out of the donor with whatever gearbox is already stuck on the back?
Was helping a friend try and get his 460 ford running last night; that thing is HUGE but with a C6 on the back is a pretty basic package that can be stuffed into anything with little supporting cast of mechanical or electrical support.
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