500 Caddy/Monte Clip into El Camino

[dogsht]

The motor mount setup would be quick and eazy to duplicate if you had one to copy from. The first set I had bent from crazy low end torque and traction. :shock: I made another set like the first set useing thicker stock. Sorry I have neither any more. kingcolbert83 has a post on this board about the Cad in a gbody. If you look it up it has some good info in it. MTS has some pictures on their site of a modified stock intake that you might want to see. You can see how they are cut out and cleaned up for performance. BTW intake, cam, whatever its very hard to move the torque far enough up the rpm scale with this motor as to not have crazy fry your tires low end torque. High velocity heads, long stroke, big cubes its going to have plenty low end torque almost no matter what you do. 8)

FWIW with a little hood braceing cut out of the center of the hood I was able to fit the carb and drop base air breather over an Edelbrock and a 1" spacer ie 4" total over stock intake under a flat hood. Thanks for shareing the pics looking forward to seeing this one come together. BTW scope out me photo album.

 

[brian]

Do you want headers? I had a set of long tubes made that I never used since i switched to a BBchevy. They were custom made with 2" tubes and ceramic coated. They are still at the fab shop where they were made. I paid $1640 for them but I'm willing to negotiate.
email me if interested [email protected]

 

[dogsht]

Its the only hard and expensive part of doing this right. (For a faster deep breathing car say a 12.5 or faster naturally aspirated full weight car) I had $700 in building a not so great set that the shop that did it for me lost money on. Ceramic coating is also extra and worth it in my experience especially for "custom" headers. The only cheap though somewhat limited ways out are porting exhaust manifolds or buying Sanderson Cad 600s and hoping you can make them fit. This can be a win win.

 

[Mike P]

Vern I’ve picked up MTSs mount kit, is that the one you bent up? If so I guess I may need to look at extra bracing or copying it in thicker metal. As far as the cleaning up the manifold dividers I have seen the articles and am debating on it. I am defiantly going to be using a 1” Phenolic spacer under the carb. Hood clearance may not necessarily the issue I thought if I go with the Monte front clip, it looks like the design of the hood may give me a couple more inches.

“….. If you look behind the rear tire the original body line is still there…..”

You’re probably right, although I chalked that up to being a reflection in the picture. I totally agree about the body line matching the entire length of the truck. It almost looks the lower edge of the quarter panel behind the tire is higher than the lower edge of the area in front of the tire. When I put a straight edge on the body line in the picture it comes to the very bottom of the fender behind the tire, meaning I could even completely eliminate the body line behind the tire. I’ll have to get out and do some measuring, but I suspect I won’t really know for sure until I actually get the Monte sheetmetal bolted up.

Darren as far as emissions testing in AZ here is a pretty good site

http://www.azdeq.gov/environ/air/vei/tested.html

In a nut shell the testing is required for vehicles in the Phoenix (Maricopa County) and Tucson (Pima County) areas. They use your ZIP code on the registration to determine this. The kicker is if you commute to Phoenix/Tucson on a regular basis (i.e. you work in those areas) you could also be required to have the emissions testing done. What happens is if a cop sees your car in the company parking lot (in Tucson or Phoenix) day after day they can require you have the vehicle tested even if you live outside the Pima or Maricopa county. They can tell if your registered in either county because the license plate tab is a different color for those to counties are different than those used by the rest of the state. The year for exemption only goes back to 1966 unless your vehicle has been designated collectable (have collector car insurance).

 

[Doober]

I just found the collectible plate on the dmv portion of AZ's site, and saw 'inspection may be required'... would this just be a functionality/safety inspection, or full emissions/etc.? How picky are they about older cars like the G-Bodies? My '81 is basically a rust bucket (can't really tell from a distance now though), and I have a feeling it may wind up failing an inspection (brakes/seat belts/suspension is fine), but I don't know...

 

[Mike P]

Arizona does not require a safety inspection, but all vehicles coming in with an out of state title/registration do require a physical inspection of the VIN when it’s registered. I'm not sure what the criteria they use on collectable vehicles however.

If your car is rusty but the drive train is solid, I think I'd go ahead and being it out anyway, Do a check on the Craig’s list in Phoenix, Tucson and Sierra Vista, most pf the cars you come across are going to be rust free and reasonably priced What takes it hard out here is the paint and interiors due to the sun and low humidity. Pick up a "new" body (with a clean title) and transfer your drive train.

Arizona can be heaven for a car guy as long as you're not in Phoenix, Tucson or your building something pre 1966. Rust free bodies, lots of car clubs, year round driving etc. Only real big down side can be the heat, one of the biggest challenges I've had here is the cooling systems especially if you plan on running AC......which can almost be mandatory.

For myself I can’t justify building a car unless I can drive it on a regular basis. A swap like the 500 into the El Camino would not be possible at all if the truck had to pass any kind of emissions testing.

 

[Doober]

That's my thought as well on emissions testing. I already have a '78 that I plan on putting the drivetrain in, but I need to take care of a couple issues with the body (1 spot on the firewall is my main concern, also a little work in the RF door jamb, pass. front floorboard, and lower left a-pillar), mainly body mounts and cleaning/painting the frame. I also have to get new fuel/brake lines for it... it's basically a shell right now, the interior needs to be put back together also.
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn11 ... ?start=all

 

[dogsht]

It was the MTS mount kit that I bent but that was several years ago before their current ownership. The bracket may be different now as Marty tends to do things right. Also I probably bent it at the track with slicks. Still was a pretty impressive piece of carnage. I should have kept it as garage art.

 

[jae]

[/quote]

This should be a great project - another Caddy-powered G.

As a side note - is that a first-gen Hemi (354/392) in the background of the picture of the Elky's drivetrain? A Chrysler Firepower?

 

[Mike P]

Yeah, the engine in the background is an old Chrysler Fire Power, it's actually a 1955 331 it's pretty much a builder/spare parts/display/coffee table/shop ornament right now LOL.

I do have a Hemi project lined up after the El Camino is done, a 37 Dodge Pickup street rod. The engine for that one is built and running, I put a short video of it on U Tube (sound quality sucks though)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5VEbByTEUc

Actually the one I really want to hear run is that old Caddy motor.