Not sure if this should be in "Engines" or "Transmissions", but will a cadillac 500 bolt to a chevy trans? preferably a th350/400? and if it will is there anything special I have to do to mate them?

"The basic 472 and the later 500 engines both use a standardized Buick/Pontiac/Olds/Cadillac bellhousing pattern, so a Turbo 400 automatic will bolt right up to the back of the block as long as the proper Cadillac flexplate and torque converter are used"

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...gine_Knowledge

so i dont need any adapters or anything then?

Nope. The TH350/400 are what GM used with the 500ci originally.

sweet deal.

Thanks Guys

Big engines, but HEAVY BASTARDS!!!

its going in a demolition derby car haha.. An 88 Crown Victoria... IM gonna have some fun.

Cadillac use the BOP bellhousing pattern. You'll need a TH350/400 that also has the BOP pattern or one with a dual pattern. A Chev transmission will not fit on a Cadillac.

OHhhhh Ok Thanks for the heads up. Gues I better start lookin Eh?

The 500ci is only about 70 lbs more than a sbc If you top it with a aluminum intake, it's nearly the same weight as a gen1 sbc

from a website

"The 78-84 caddy "de-ville" chassis is the same as a Chevy Caprice. If you can score the frame pads and motor mounts from one of these, you can practically bolt a big caddy into any GM chassis that had a SBC in it."

It's common and easy to yank out a bad Caddy engine and drop in an Olds engine in it's place. You can also do the same thing with a GM 6.2 diesel. Find an old GM pickup that originally had the 6.2 diesel. It probably has a Caddy or Olds engine under the hood now.

The factory Caddy intake is a bad design. Air flow through the carb has to travel upward to the intake ports in the heads. An aluminum intake is a big improvement in power but greatly restricts hood clearance.

The Caddy valve train is also very poor. I can't handle much over 5000 rpm.

For demo derby, a small low compression SBC is the way to go. Build it with dish pistons and smog heads to get the compression as low as you can. That way when you lose your cooling system, the engine will take a lot longer to overheat. Good demo derby racers normally have an engine in the 6-7:1 compression ratio range. Just enough that the engine will still run but not make a lot of power and heat.

Demo derby isn't about power. It's about survivability.

Wasn't the 6.2 and 6.5 Diesel based on the Olds V8 block?

The Olds 350 diesel was. Worst piece of junk GM ever tried. I don't think the 6.2 or 6.5 were ever offered in a car. They're truck engines.

I dont know if this is even legal but ethanol and even E85 burns significantly cooler than gasoline and should help out in that area as well.

I have seen one or two street driven alky style cars with no cooling system to speak of. The drivers say that it's a challenge to maintain temps high enough while cruising to allow the motor to operate well.

Legality depends on the demo derby rules. Most of the time, the rules deal strictly with safety. No glass, doors chained closed, holes in hood for fire extinguisher access etc. Other rules usually include fuel cell and battery inside car. Sometimes the rad can be installed inside the car also.

Alcohol runs very cold. My engine makes around 850 hp and I use a rad from a Pontiac Firefly. Some alcohol drag cars use a tranny cooler for a rad. At the starting line, I can usually get up to 145*. At the finish, it's around 180 and by the time I'm back to the pits, it's back under 145.

Guys that built low compression derby car engines do it to be competitive all season. After a race, if the car is completely totaled, they'll pull the engine to drop into the next car for the next race.