1966 Cadillac

[XSRCdesign]

I passed up on a 4 door 66 a good long time ago and have kicked myself ever since. This past year I scaled back my daily driver to a pickup and decided I'd look for a new toy next year.

Well, I kinda fell on this a little early and couldn't pass it up, 1966 4 door Calais. Fresh 429/th400 in it. California car that spent a little time in Idaho.

Fresh off the truck after its 2100 mile trip home

[XSRCdesign]

The first weekend, I took it to my buddies dad's and we gave it a good once over. In the process I replaced the front airbags, one of the compressors and rewired some of the sketchy wiring for that. Also replaced the front wheel studs, checked all the brakes (look brand new) packed the front wheel bearings and also addressed a few other items like radiator hoses and vacuum lines.

[XSRCdesign]

Right after that ( and this lovely picture ) a power steering line blew and I had to park it. When they stabbed the motor in there they only replaced some of the lines. So I have fixed a few of those now.

[XSRCdesign]

The good news, the car is pretty solid, the frame and floor plans are in great shape. And that engine was replaced recently as it was communicated. The interior is in pretty damn good shape and the paint is passable for a good while.

The bad; it's a solid 6 foot car, it's obviously been repainted ( a while ago) and some of it needs a little TLC. I have a lot of little things that need addressed but not till after the big one. The car has developed a really bad misfire in the #2 and 8 cylinder and we are spinning around in circles trying to diagnose it. I'm pretty confident it's something external since compression test, and pulling the valve cover haven't yielded anything alarming. Probably going to rebuild the carb this weekend and convert the distributor from a points setup to a pertronix ignitor setup.

[chino63]

Very nice! I like it alot.

[EeePee]

Holy shit! That's awesome, Andy!

[XSRCdesign]

Originally Posted by chino63

Very nice! I like it alot.

Originally Posted by EeePee

Holy shit! That's awesome, Andy!

Thanks dudes, hopefully I get it running how it should be this weekend and I can start tackling some things. It's a fun car to cruise that's for sure.

[Mike Flea]

Beautiful!

[XSRCdesign]

So I borrowed a carb today to be able to keep the thing running long enough to check a few things, got the timing and dwell set, and confirmed the carb sucks. The misfire was still there, but it ran well enough we were able to determine a leak at the intake gasket.

So a new carb was purchased, some gaskets and a few other bits. And we have this... It may look like a step backwards but while I wait for some .87 cent 1/8th inch npt plugs to arrive im still technically moving forward.

[XSRCdesign]

Well, I threw a edelbrock carb on it, and a whole Pertronix ignition. Car starts up like a champ, and no more fuel spewing everywhere. But unfortunately it still had a horrible miss...

We did a leakdown test on all cylinders, was less than 10% across the board, until we got to the #3 cylinder. Spiked to 95%. Bingo we found where to look.

Unfortunately this was what we discovered when we stated looking closer. That exhaust valve is sitting a good 1/4 lower than all the others. Weird cause it still operates.

[XSRCdesign]

So we ripped the head off and found this... Valve stuck open, specifically the #3 exhaust valve

[XSRCdesign]

Took the spring off and found a seal was eaten for lunch.

[XSRCdesign]

Took that out and found a badly worn valve guide and some metal fused to the valve itself. Looks like I'll be calling some machine shops Monday.

[XSRCdesign]

Got the heads back, time to put it back together...

[STANG KILLA SS]

nice bro! that valve seal looks just like the crushed ones i found in the camaro.
great car and project. looks like you jumped in with both feet and making it all right.

[XSRCdesign]

Yeah, there is a lot of stuff I knew I had to do, but I haven't got to that yet

[XSRCdesign]

Finally!! It runs like a champ.

[XSRCdesign]

Did some exploring today, tore the dash apart so I could get the gauge cluster out and figure out why none of them were working.




Figured out where my speedo needle went... I think I was able to save it though


I was able to get the temp and fuel gauges to sweep by grounding them out, so that told me I needed to look elsewhere.

I had to go pick up some bulbs to replace all the ones in the dash since it was apart. While I was there I ordered a replacement temp sensor.

Started digging through my manuals and I remembered a wire hanging off the back of the car when I got it. Turns out that leads to the top of the fuel tank. Now i just need to find the other side.. Worst case I'll run a wire back to the gauge.

[62PYRO]

Good to see you getting the bugs worked out.

[badhoopty]

...that is a hella cool automobile.