cadillac 472 re/build, phase 3: doing stuff

[godlemmy]

I have a few stock intakes if you need one.pm me if your interested.

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

I have one person on a cadillac forum offering 190 for the intake. The edelbrock just isn't worth using in my situation, it only makes power in the upper RPM band and for a street car it will never see the RPMs necessary to see any real improvement from the intake. and it takes away hood clearance i need so i can use (hopefully) a stock air cleaner instead of some open element air cleaner. I want to be able to use a stove pipe so i can have warm air coming into the engine during the winter. after experiencing how an engine performs with and without one, having one helps.

if you want to buy the intake or do a intake/cash trade we can do that, PM me and we can discuss details. if you have a factory air cleaner and exhaust manifold heat shield/stove pipe i'd be interested in that as well.

 

[online170]

The edelbrock just isn't worth using in my situation, it only makes power in the upper RPM band and for a street car it will never see the RPMs necessary to see any real improvement from the intake. .

Actually its quite the opposite. The edelbrock intake does poorly after 4700-4900rpm. Its an idle to 4900rpm intake at best. Much better flowing than stock.

 

[Mike P]

As I recall the dyno tests I’ve seen for a stock rebuild (on a 500 CI Caddy) the Edelbrock moved the peak torque higher and it actually lost 35 FT LBs of torque at 2000 RPM compared to the stock intake. I suspect it would be the same story on the 472. Start making other changes like more cam and compression and it becomes a different story.

For some situations (like mine) on a stock rebuild the OE manifold is not necessarily a bad choice. Although I don’t have to worry about really cold weather (the coldest it gets around here is about 15 degrees), the added hood clearance lets me run a 1” phenolic spacer under my carburetor which makes a big difference on a 110 degrees days.

 

[online170]

+20hp though.

It moves the torque band higher, but that doesnt make it a "high rpm" intake.

Its perfectly competent down low. I guess the stocker has more torque down low still. To each their own. Mine did great on the street.

 

[Mike P]

“….+20hp though……”

True, but HP doesn’t move a car from a dead stop.

It really boils down to what the car is set up to do. When I set mine up it was done with the intention of it being able to comfortably make long trips (4000 mile + at 75 MPH) and get reasonable gas mileage and reliability in the process. I also knew that I’d be using a non-overdrive transmission. Based on that I looked at the options and they all came back to a stock rebuilt to include the intake.

Could I have made a bunch more power…..sure, but there’s no free lunch. It would be a trade off for mileage and possibly reliability. In stock form I am more than satisfied with the power it’s making and considering the displacement VERY happy with the 15-17 MPG it gets at 75 MPH with the AC on.

Don’t get me wrong 170, I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that your priorities may be a bit different than what I think the G_Body’s are.

 

[online170]

Yea I agree. In this case the Stocker is probably the way to go.




Im just trying to point out, that by no means is it a "high RPM" intake. Its supposed to be a stock replacement/improvement.

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

Machining and such will begin soonish...no exact date but soonish. I think I'll do the heads first since they wont take long or cost as much as the short block. I'm not doing anything fancy, just clean em up, have valve guides put in, maybe go with better than stock springs. I'll probably upgrade the head plugs for screw in plugs to ensure no blowouts happen. I will need new valves, I don't like the originals. They have very minor pitting where they were sitting in the guides, so I don't trust them. I may have the heads cut to use umbrella type seals over the stock ones, which eventually fall apart and clog up the pickup for the oil pump. no thanks, oil starvation is a no-no. I MAY run some 80 grit through the exhaust ports but that's doubtful.

FINALLY! I'm gonna get start on this beast soonish...lol