Rebuilding a Cadillac 429 engine

So now also rebuilt the distributor. The distributor body is cas iron on this machine, pretty old school and cool.

The rotor cap was worn out, see below to the right. I did not know how that looked like before. This is probably the main reason why the engine ran pretty crappy. Only ran it for an hour or so before taking the engine out. To my happiness, parts from my shelved Buick 455 distributor fit right in! Had it left over from the HEI conversion. So took both caps and the vacuum from it. Nice to make use of that.




Decided to paint the distributor body. Wanted to spray paint but only had red engine paint on the shelf. And there it is.


It was converted to Pertronix 1181 since before. Off course a magnet dropped from the ring, same as on the Buick. Glued it, minding polarity of the magnet. Then remembered I had bought a new ring for the Electra so brought that out from a box and put it on instead. Had to shim the ring to get correct clearance with the ignition unit.

The shop manual is sparse with info on the distributor. I pried off this plastic lid and there was deteriorated felt underneath. It is for shaft lubrication but not sure how to rebuild that aspect properly. Filled with cotton and poured engine oil on.

 

Cleaned and put together. Used assembly lube on the shaft.




Dropped it in and set timing. Good spark. Now it is basically only gas left to add

 

Victory! We took the Cadillac to the cruising in Lysekil this weekend and came home without issues! Sitting at the back with a beer enjoying beer(s) to the ocean view in the picture below


Quiet intense days since last post. We took the engine outside of the shop and fired it up on Tuesday. It started within like 2 seconds of cranking, no joke. Just did like a 1 minute run in the stand, secured with a chain to the front loader of a tractor. So we got feeling and decided to get it in the Cadillac. I know tractor is not ideal for precision but had not gotten hold of a hoist yet. And wanted to get going so we went for it. You see it dangling from the front loader below. The chains are put where the earth leads go to the rear of the heads, and were the distributor clamp and something else goes. Doing like so I could keep the carb and distributor on.


We had never put an engine in before and yes it was tricky. Not gonna bore you with the details. But a few hours later it was on the pilots of the gear box. Then a fun surprise. One of the engine pads was put in wrong. Sutble error. Was a real pain to fix with the engine almost in. For anyone doing this, take a veeery close look at the instructions on this page: https://tamotor.se/produkt/motorkudde-5/

Then the radiator. Pressurized it and submerged it in water. Had som bad leaks. One tube had a bad soldering at the bottom. Was hard to fix, hard to get proper acces with cleaning and solder. Took many attempts, but yeah, it is the second time I try fix a cooler and I dont really know what I am doing Got it to seal in the end.

But after that, I guess it was "just" getting starters and what not on. Fixing brakes. Aligning the hood. Etc. Me and a friend worked all Saturday and never thought we could make it to the cruising. Was also day after midsummers eve which is quiet a party around here, so energy levels was not maxed out. But we just scored one success after another. Broke the cam in at 2000 RPM for 20 minutes as per recommendations. The rebuilt carb I had bought had some isses with the threads for the air cleaner stud bolt. So popped on the old carb. Fiddled with the 3 adjustments you have on old Carters for like 5 minutes and it was already Cadillac smooth! Looked like you could balance a coin on the air cleaner. The other friends who were joining had cleaned the interior while we were under the hood. And man, car looked great! It was just the afternoon and the sun still warming. And there we sat, like 60 miles from home, looking at the ocean in Lysekil with the car running great still! It got quiet warm after some hours idling in the cruising cortege so we let it cool while eating just. While really hot, it still had 22 PSI of oil pressure which is surreal for this type of oil pump! Does it sound like a fairy tale? Thats ok, we felt so too!

 

Awesome!

 

That is GREAT News ! Super Glad for you! Glad it worked out with the few problems!

 

Thank you Very pleased myself! It has been running around 130 miles and still going strong. I consider the rebuild done now.

Some minor issues like small oil leaks around the oil pump and filter assembly, and a little coolant leak. I hope the oil leaks are covered already by some tightening. As I so far have refused to use RTV in the lubrication system, I think a lesson learned for next time is to resurface all gasket surfaces there next time.

I hope to be posting a spec with clearances etc. I was pretty careful logging the process. This rebuild took me 280 hours, from lifting the engine out to having it out on the road again. This also includes taking apart the first engine and inspecting it. Painting the engine bay and trunk was 16 extra hours. To that many hours of research and consultation can be added, as well as a few hours from helpers. If I did it again it would be a lot faster. Weird thing is it feels like it would be done in like 2-3 days if I did it again Good thing I collected numbers that tell a more realistic story Was a lot of work but a real fun experience! Will probably do again.

A lesson learned for me is that any investment with time or money that facilitates parts cleaning is probably worth it. This is such a major portion of the job. Also I will never polish crank journals by hand again, I think

 

Another adventure this weekend. We went to Power Big Meet in Lidköping which was just amazing. Here we are somewhere in town, think there is a Stepside behind us. There are these cruising rules so you can go as many people you want in the cars on the designated route. Lots of party but the designated driver is always dead sober.


There is an official part of the event which is huge, and then there are these inofficial meeting places. This is the harbor which is plenty rowdy If it were easier to upload videos here I would, place was nuts. Loud speakers pumpin everywhere. Chevy dominating this part of the classic car scene, very hyped. You see the roof of a friends Buick 1964 at the bottom of the picture though.



Another one (took my friends faces out for internet privacy reasons). Pillarless makes a huge difference I think.



Om the way home I was sitting there in the back, looking at the green summery surroundings. Then thinking about that I have scraped out carbon deposits from the piston ring land deep into the engine there in the front. And those very same pistons are indirectly connected to the rear wheels, which now pushes us to places. Was a nice feeling.

 

Om the way home I was sitting there in the back, looking at the green summery surroundings. Then thinking about that I have scraped out carbon deposits from the piston ring land deep into the engine there in the front. And those very same pistons are indirectly connected to the rear wheels, which now pushes us to places. Was a nice feeling.[/QUOTE]

Looks like a beautiful time of year there. Cadillac looks great too, Forgot the 6 window had the rear vent windows.. Very cool.

 

Bad ass!

 

Thanks! The caddy looks a bit shabby in real life but I like it. Can have people sitting on the front fender at not care Btw, it is an 8 window model and all are power windows This one might have been delivered with central lock too, there are no keyslots on the rear doors at least.

Something I really appreciate are these wood veneers in the interior. Dash etc is all leather.
Everything is pretty worn, but worn with dignity imo