Caddy powered Transit!

[dieselhead123]

Just a little project lads, might take a while to come to fruition, but I thought it wise to start a thread.

Recently this little beauty landed in my yard;



It is a V8 Cadillac engine with 3 speed auto box!
It is complete and supposed to be a runner, we have yet to confirm this.

It has found it's way into the engine bay of the Surrogate Mother, some of the bulkhead and the heater box had to be removed
Engine mountings have been fabricated;



The long term plan it to install it in a Mk5 3.5t chassis cab together with a Jag IRS also sitting all sad in the yard.
The wheelbase of the chassis cab will be reduced to that of a swb but still retain the larger train weight of the 3.5t model.

This will provide us with an LEZ compliant tow truck and a useful yet compact pickup for collecting larger engines and other supplies.

I would be keen to talk to any of you that have any experience/knowledge of these engines, spark plugs are all new to me

TIM

[oldyellar]

yes,yes and double yes , love a good build looking forward to the progress

[MinorMatt]

Not a vw engine then?

[AlanN]

Dont know what year that engine is, but we have two 50's Caddys in and I was supprised when Goeff was tuning one of them at 450 rpm quite or what, its still like driving a battleship thou

[Keef]

hmmm .... V8, twin wheel short wheelbase with a flareside back, now where could you get one cheap and fairly close

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Transit- ... 3a7dc757fb

Just a thought Tim

[dieselhead123]

Not a vw engine then?

Trust you to spot that

Still a bit unsure of the engine size, at least a 425ci though.

The engine fit will be a challenge for me, (I will have to purchase a spark plug spanner ), but the bit I am really looking forward to is the installation of the IRS.

Ever since the days when every months 'center spread' in CC had a Ford Pop with a Jag IRS, I have wanted to fit one of these, I do think that the 'open' chassis of a chassis-cab will make it fairly easy to achieve.

As much 'measuring' and 'thinking' has been done that can be prior to installation, the IRS will be widened, stud adapters will be made for the rear, we can then use Landrover alloys and commercial tires so as to retain the rear axle load, it will remain a class 7 mot.

The intention is to leave the cab area fairly standard, it will be a working truck, but having looked at the chaps on the forum that install Mk7 fascias in Mk6's, it would be nice to get a Mk7 fascia installed, if only to provide a suitable place for the auto transmission selector.

Hopefully this thread will yield some useful ideas and inspiration from other forum members prior to starting the project.

Comments please gents.

TIM

[dieselhead123]

hmmm .... V8, twin wheel short wheelbase with a flareside back, now where could you get one cheap and fairly close

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Transit- ... 3a7dc757fb

Just a thought Tim

Now that would be a good idea

Now in my watch list,

Thanks mate,

TIM

[g-man]

Not a vw engine then?

thats what i was thinking at 1st

[dieselhead123]

Well,
today we won the flareside body, kindly located by Max.Print for the sum of £33

Looks like that is what will be going on the back, at least for the initial build.

Thanks again to Max.Print, cooperation and assistance in what the forum is all about

TIM

[BigMonty]

33 squid for a flairside body. That's a bargain and a half. Well done.
As for a v8 swb. That would be way cool. If you put an lpg kit on it it would almost be practical

[Luke]

£33 makes mine at £51 seem a bit steep

looking forward to this one

[vanmanloki]

awesome, i look forward to watching this progress.

being from canada i've had my share of caddys, and other V8 beasts, and there is nothing like the growl from a V8 twin exhaust.

my dream project would be to put a mustang 5.0L V8 in a swb.

who knows, after following this thread, i might just get brave enough to try it

[dieselhead123]

Just a little update lads.

We picked up the Flareside body kindly identified by Maxprint from the eBay seller in Croydon for £33
It is in good condition, the ally sides and back are undamaged but some of the plastics are a bit poor, still a good buy though.

Got the engine back in the Surrogate Mother to enable the gearbox mounting to be fabricated;


Glad Imageshack works as Photobucket appears to be 'on one'



Sorry that the picture is a bit dark, but I have managed to use the original gearbox mounting, rotating the crossmember around 180degrees and moving the front fixing into the chassis back onto the rear chassis fixing, re-drilling the chassis for the other fixing towards the rear of the van.

It has been decided to lower the engine by swapping the engine mountings from left to right, this will drop the engine by 52mm and fit a 'front bowel sump pan', this will come from a front wheel drive Cadillac Eldorado which uses the same engine block!

We have the front part of the Caddy prop shaft, but with the additional length of the gearbox, (compared to the Mt75), the front prop shaft joint is further rear than the center bearing mounting, so a single piece prop will be produced.

Other interesting ideas are to place the gearbox dip stick tube through the gear leaver hole, it is quite close, perhaps fitting the Mt75 gear knob to the dip stick. That should confuse 'unauthorised users', since there will be NO clutch pedal

We did have the engine running, sort of, on the floor, the manual fuel pump was working well but the carb appears to be a little 'gummed up'. With a small amount of fuel tipped into the carb we managed to have some flames from the headers

More to come

TIM

[tlsjk]

yes,yes and double yes , love a good build looking forward to the progress

x2

[MinorMatt]

I think you need to put an MT75 on it Tim...