Ogier's Caddy BB swap

[krue]

Greetings,

Hopefully this will provide some level of help for anyone wanting to do this swap. The benefits are big block power without the price of a bigblock Chevy.

Older Caddy's are practically being given away. I bought a 1974 sedan deville for $400 and drove it home.

To do the caddy swap, you will really want to buy the whole car. The main things you will need from it are:

1) Engine
2) transmission (th400 longshaft)
3) power steering pump
4) all mounts (engine and trans)
5) radiator
6) Alternator harness

You will also need a rear sump pan from a FWD caddy with either a 472 or 500. All rwd caddys have front sumps and they won't clear the crossmember.

I used the factory exhaust manifolds and made my own exhaust system with duals that exit just in front of the rear tires.

You will need to move the factory motormounts forward in the truck.

Cut off the factory fan but keep the flange that bolts to the waterpump(this keeps the pulley from flexing and breaking). You will have to buy an electric fan or move the radiator forward about 2 inches. I opted for the fan.

The driveline will have to be shortenned. I think I took about 6 inches out of mine but I am not sure.

You will also have to cut holes in the chevy motor mounts to accomodate the caddy mounts.

When I did the swap, I took the front end off the truck to install the motor and trans. This makes the job a bunch easier in the long run.

I will add to this in the morning when I am thinking more clearly.

Ogier

[krue]

Mike Files added this:
If you have a engine tilt there is no need to take the front end off just the hood. There are Caddy performance places like Maxium Torque that has special motor mounts to install motors easier. Good info you provided, I just wanted to point out that anyone that puts a Caddy motor in a truck should check main berring clearance. The center thrust in Caddy has a closer tolerance than Chevy and tend to wear out sooner. I made this error once and had to pull out after one week because of a main berring. I found that the 71 -76 500 ci runs well on pump reg. gas. The earlier 472 with higher compression 10.25-1 needs high grade fuel to run proper timing with out spark knocking. After 70 the 472's also run great with more torque than you ever felt with any unmodified Chevy engine. I am not knocking Chevy just sharing info I have learned. Keep on trucking!