A friend of mine restored this car, yes this basket case is being restored and is almost finished. It is a 1938 Cadillac V16! One of 204 built! Unfortunately the V16 is long gone. I am daydreaming about how to return it to V16 power. The previous owner had a Buick Straight 8 in it, then when that died he put a Chevy 350 in it. The 350 is still in it, a 180hp 350. I was thinking it would be cool to build a V16 for this car. Cadillac made the V16 from 1930-1940. But, in 1938 they changed it from OHV to a flathead to save money. They actually only sold about 250 V16s from 38-40 (mostly in 38) so they probably lost money designing a new motor. Long story short, finding a 1938-40 V16 is virtually impossible. However, I heard that WWII tanks used 2 Cadillac flathead V8s. In fact, with all the war surplus you can still get these motors fairly easily. I was thinking it would be awesome to build a Cadillac flathead V16 out of two flathead V8s. Does anyone have any idea how this can be done? How do you connect the crankshafts? If I ran two 6 volt starters off a 12 volt battery would that keep it from putting to much twist on one end of the crank? This is just a daydream at this point, I don't know the future of this car. I do know that it is rough enough to drive, unlike the rest of the V16s which are stuck in museums. Daydream with me...
With enough money and time anything can be done. I think multi engine pulling tractors (the ones that usually have 8 nitromethane big block Chevys) would be a good place to start to see how they tie the engines together. If it were me I'd find a 500 Caddy motor and build it up with a little help from these guys: http://www.cad500parts.com/. :Brow: :Brow:
Thats what I was thinking too. Keep it all Cadillac, it at least deserves this much. Run the 500" while keeping a eye out for a replacement V16
I will post some pics of my dad's V-16 project here-I'm visiting for thanksgiving and will get some pics tomorrow. The blocks were prone to cracking so extra ones are few and far between! They look wild because they are a 135 degree V- and they are flatheads... prior to 1938 they made a v-16 that was a 45 V, very tall and beautiful while this one is kinda swarthy looking in comparison. I like the 500cid idea, but my dad had thoughts of 2 LS1 engines mated together :eek2: Ted
According to the Callaway page, this engine generates 550HP at 10,000 RPM. Pretty much the opposite RPM range of what you'd want for your car. (But the picture is pretty cool anyhow) http://www.callawaycars.com/callaway/main/contentpages/v16news.htm Personally, I think a 500 motor is what you want - low RPM, smooth-running motor. That's a cadillac feeling. (Would it fit to the bellhousing?) BTW Welding two V8s together is not a simple thing. I would be very worried about harmonics. -Bob C.
The Sherman tank Cadillac engines ran in reverse direction anyways. I'd go for the 500 Cad engine until a real V16 became available.
I agree that the 500 Caddy engine would be best until a usable pray: ) V-16 could be found. Regarding the Sherman tank engines, The M4, M4A1, and M4A1 (composite hull) models used the Continental R975 radial engine. The M4A3, M4A3E2, and M4A3E8 used the Ford GAA V8. Neither engine produced over 500 HP. Only a handful of the nearly 50,000 Shermans built used different engines. The M4A4 used the Chrysler A57, the M4A6 used a Caterpillar diesel radial, and the M4A2 used a GM diesel. Production for these three totaled maybe 250. But, Cadillac never produced an engine for the M4 series. They did produce engnes and drive trains for the M5A1 and M24 tanks.
You could change that by just changing out the camshaft. My friend was thinking of putting in a 500 cad. He has a 55 studebaker truck with a 500 cad in it. He was thinking of swaping the chevy into the stude and the cad into the cad.
Cool, I would love to see those pics. IMHO Don't swap out that motor! I think its silly to ruin an original car for performance. Its not like hes going to be racing it. It always drives me nuts when I see Buicks at car shows and people swapped out the Straight 8 for a chevy. An OHV Straight 8 is so much cooler! Plus, who drag races a complete 30s car! In the case of this Cadillac I figure the original V16 died in the 40's or 50s. Since the 38 Buick 90 series used a Straight 8, and the motor was fairly common back then, the owner decided to use one instead of rebuild the V16.
:TU: Love the old Caddy V-16's! Probably the smoothest running engines I have ever seen! One of my Father's friends and fellow CCCA club member didn't live far from us when I was a kid, and he pretty much only restored V-16 Caddys. I was surprised the first time I saw a bare block by how small the cylinder bore was. You see these huge cars, and what appears to be a huge engine and you assume. Smoothness and torque was the goal. Marmon also made a V-16, but it was no where near as refined in my opinion. I think I would ditch the Chevy just because it is plain wrong, and go with any year Caddy V8 until a good 16 can be found. Maybe a period correct V-8? Glad to hear he will drive it! I can't stand the attitude some have that these great cars shouldn't be driven at all, just looked at. He probably knows this, but that Caddy is considered a full Classic by the CCCA. .
Dad is totally into the CadillacV-16, he has been rebuilding and doing some small mods for drivability...OK, he has installed a his own roller cam and is going to use a couple Holley 2bbl carbs, custom pop up pistons...and he has already put the Gear Vendors OD unit in... He is a "retired" engineer ou: I wiil put up the pictures Saturday, I'm an a dial up here:error: I made him promise that anything he did could be undone. So far so good. I'm a little worried about the suspension mods he's been proposing! Ted
A roller cam is pretty cool! I'm not against updating old motors, I just think the motor should at least look and sound similar. Hell, I don't even know how to adjust breaker points, every car I have had has immediately been converted to HEI. I've always wanted a 38 Buick with a straight 8. I was thinking it would be cool to design multi-port injection for a straight 8. Since inline motors have problems with fuel distribution I think it would be cool to fix that problem but retain the stock style motor. This particular Cad 16 was owned by a guy with a big family out here in So. Cal. He would buy old limos to carry his family around. He was kind of an Okie (no offense to Oklahoma members) and a shade tree mechanic. The city made him clean up his old cars and my friend actually paid 5k for that beat up hulk. I don't know what its worth now. He found all the trim and hub caps, etc so I would say its worth 20k+ once its painted. It has the original interior too.
A fellow named Frank Morris in MT built a '51 buick 8 with twin turbos; intercooled and port fuel injection. He also has a beautiful 57 Caballero with 425 and 2x4's. Word has it he had a very fast Stage 1 race car in the 70's too. I haven't met him personally but we do have some mutual acquaintances. You can couple 2 v-8's with a "machine coupler." It looks like 2 sprockets side-by-side with bolt-flanges that would attach to the crankshafts after adapters are made. The sprockets (and hence, the engines) are held together with a double-link chain. Tom McMullen of Street-Rodder magazine fame built an Austin with 2 SB chevies attached that way. He drove it all over Southern CA according to one of his articles. He said it would lift the LF tire if he revved it hard....
Finally got my pictures out of the camera! good grief. Anyway, this is the '38 V-16 with the Nagel Rollercam.:TU: Pistons: also Customized
Wow Ted thats amazing!!!! Now imo the caddy 501 was junk. If you were to go with a caddy engine I highly reccomend the 1969-70 472 ci. No polution at all, and it made around 345 hp from the factory. The 501 was a smog engine probably making 220-240 hp. And you'd have to take all the pollution crap off. Also the 425 of later yrs were even better than the 501. My second car was a 70 and it could spin the wheel for a week!!!! This is the engine that got me into hp to begin with!!:3gears:
I was thinking it would be cool to build a V16 for this car. speaking of "building a v-16", several years ago there was a boat manufacturer in the Pac NW that built a 430ci engine by coupling together two Buick 215's, front to rear. of course it was an all aluminum, one off custom casting. they had it up on ebay. what does the Caddy displace?
