Richard Holdener is gonna boost a Cadillac 500

[5one9]

One thing that I notice about Richard's engine is that it had new locks and retainers. I already had bought a set of Cad500 Stage 1 springs but since it was a budget build I was reusing the stock retainers and a set of SBC machined locks that I had laying around.

The SBC locks seem to fit correctly in the stock retainers, does someone here know any different?

The stage 1 springs arrived today. I was surprised that they came with locks, retainers, shims, and viton umbrella seals. No machining required and the installed retainers gained me 0.070” of extra clearance. I’ll need to do nothing to install. Pretty good deal for $85 plus shipping.

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

Those are CadCo, right? How bad was shipping? If those springs allow me to run a decently rowdy cam with no machine work for under a bill, I'm game.

 

[5one9]

$12 or so.

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

Well damn, looks like I've got a game plan for phase 2 of my build; CadCo springs, Cloyes Street Roller timing set, new lifters (already have,) cam (TBD,) and the MTS single plane intake. Also going to be running the Edelbrock 750 cfm carb, Sanderson headers, and MSD ignition from the initial "get it running" phase. Should be a decent bump in power over stock hopefully.

 

[Caddylackn]

This thing is nearly identical to mine. I replaced one piston and rod just as he did. Stock bolts in the rods. 552 heads. No port work on his. 393hp/545tq and they revved it to 4700 on the stock rockers. Totally cool.

Did you notice that Richard said the original heads on Richard's 500 motor from the Gremlin were 425 heads?

That Caddy 500 powered Gremlin totally dominated the $3k Hooptie Challenge with that same 500 motor with 425 heads, an Edelbrock manifold, junk restrictive headers, a mild 216 cam and a 250 hp nitrous hit. Up against a bunch of turbo LS and other turbo powered garbage. He never it ran it hard for entire 1/4 mile pass for the entire $3K challenge. He was running like mid 13s at 80 mph letting off well before the end for every race since he was so far ahead. Apparently 425 heads can make a bunch of power with nitrous on a 500. I bet that was a low 12- second car if he ran it hard the entire 1/4 mile pass. It is a shame they didn't dyno the motor with the original 425 heads.

 

[PSYKO_Inc]

Hmm... I have most of the parts of a nitrous kit sitting around minus the bottle and bottle brackets (and a 10lb steel co2 cylinder that could be modified for nitrous...) but the cast pistons had me scared to try it... But from the sound of things, the 500 Gremlin took a much bigger hit off the bottle than I would have tried and the pistons held up fine, and only ate a rod bearing from over-revving. Full disclosure, I haven't seen the video. But it's got me thinking. Even if only for the WTF-factor of a 6k lb hearse spraying nitrous...

 

[smalltruckbigcid]

The valve guide tool was available from Goodson mtg.

 

[PJ McCoy]

The valve guide tool was available from Goodson mtg.

Thanks

 

[Caddylackn]

Richard posted a new Cad dyno video last night with his own rebuilt motor. He used a 100 hp shot of nitrous. He made some serious torque, like 735 ft lbs. with only a 100 hp-shot.
He did say he will be turboing this motor soon and posting videos.

I don't remember what cam in this motor. Anybody remember what is in it? This was Freiburger's old motor, that Courtney rebuilt.

 

[5one9]

218 or maybe 228 cam

 

[smalltruckbigcid]

Listen to that dyno run carefully, something wasn’t happy down low. I’m not saying the power isn’t there I’m saying it needs about 1000 more rpm for the best results.

Sean (forget the user name) there were 3 of them at one time, had a back halved mustang with a stock bottom end 500 and a worked set of 120cc heads. That car was low 10’s all day but he went Chevy because he could get more power faster and cheaper. Anyway that car had a 250 shot on it. Ran out at 5800 everytime

 

[smalltruckbigcid]

I just saw a picture of his car...username was LuxLx

 

[PJ McCoy]

218 or maybe 228 cam

I seem to recall it being a small cam too. In th 220ish range. It's been a long wait,
PJ

 

[PJ McCoy]

Listen to that dyno run carefully, something wasn’t happy down low. I’m not saying the power isn’t there I’m saying it needs about 1000 more rpm for the best results.

I went back and watched again. Maybe it's my hearing, but I couldn't hear anything odd. Would that put to much stress on the rod bearing? Cause damage? I have this feeling that thi gst went bad, usually he posts stuff quickly.

 

[Darius]

WELL.....Holdener blew the sucker up!

I've been waiting for months, .... for that? Hell, talk about disappointment.

What, no intercooler, no E85 or racing gas as with countless other engines? I wonder what head gaskets he was using. Hopefully not the ones from David Freiburger. If budgets are/were that tight I would have fronted the money for a set of head gaskets.

This is the funkiest time of the year for many of us to get projects worked on. The weather sucks in most of the country, the pandemic doesn't help wherever you are, money is tight, ... so pick any other negatives you want to finalize this rant: Why was it OUR engine that seems to have been treated as the red-headed step child?

The above is just one man's frustrations showing. Sorry. I'm sure that Richard has had other brands show less well than they might have. This engine was built over in New Mexico by those with Cadillac experience so it's safe to expect that attention was given to the details. So, what the hell happened? Inquiring minds want to know. Builders of other Cadillac big blocks would love to know. Hell, my 18 years project NEEDS To KNOW. It all begs the question, why???

For those who may be reading this, please forgive me but I keep coming back with edits. This one involves the "other" Cadillac engine that was boosted in New Mexico with a ProCharger. That engine not only lived, but excelled! It was also subject to 9 pounds of boost, but really showed it's stuff when improved exhausts headers helped expel the hot gases. It has me wondering if the back pressure from the small turbo, combined with likely higher cylinder pressures due to a smaller camshaft, might be the culprit. Anyway, take a look at the horsepower and torque numbers provided by the Procharger engine.

d

(No offense intended to any red-headed step child living or dead.)

 

[Psychoholic]

@Darius I am 100% with you! I have waited for MONTHS to see him do his normal series of events with the turbo and was immediately disappointed when he put that child's toy sized turbo on it. I'm now realizing that my combination is probably going to make far more torque than I was expecting and will need to upgrade more driveline components. As a red-headed step-child I do not take offense at what you said.

Pretty sure you could put that turbo in the inlet of mine.

I hope he only blew a head gasket and nothing more painful than that.

 

[richie49]

Was those runs on the dyno starting past the top torque readings?
Richar richie49

 

[Caddylackn]

Blowing two head gaskets at once seems to me to be extreme pressures within the cylinders. I am thinking the blowoff got momentarily stuck or something and this happened after letting off at 10 psi. Or maybe the boost limiter was messed up. He did say he removed the electronic boost controller to put a manual boost controller on. He also had hot side leaks, as you could see coolant dripping out of the hot side piping after he blew it. At least he can never use that K24 turbo again if water got in there.

I bet he has two bent rods as both those two cylinders were completely full of water. I hope the crank is okay.

If he wanted to run a small turbo, he should have run two of them.

 

[Psychoholic]

I'm curious what the A/R was on that wee lil turbo. He probably had so much back pressure that the motor was choking itself to death. Combine that with an additional .68 atmospheres of pressure and it's no wonder a motor without head studs puked out a head gasket and probably hydraulic bent a rod (like @Caddylackn said).

I love me some RichardH but I feel like this was one of the worst tests he's done. It didn't have his normal sense of thoroughness to it.

 

[5one9]

I'm pretty happy with it. 200hp and 275tq on a low performance engine and 9.9psi of boost. Imagine 15psi on a 500hp engine.

Calculator says 350hp and 9.9psi gets you 585hp. Not horribly far from his 540hp, about 8% less.
Start out with a 1hp per cubic inch 500hp engine and add 9.9psi, gets you 836hp. Subtract 8% and you still have 774hp.
Decent cam and ported heads and 550hp and 15psi, gets you 1,111hp. Subtract 8% and you still have 1,028hp.

He chose the cheap route (which we all new in the beginning) and blew head gaskets and I'd be willing to be he would have hurt nothing else had those gaskets not blown.

What I got out of it was this, with my '57 F100 'junk parts' build, if I were inclined to put 5.5psi on it, it would easily make 500hp and 700tq+ and last forever even with regular head gaskets. Not bad at all. I'm satisfied with his results.