Thread: 1939 Cadilac V8 question

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Can anyone tell me why you don't see these engines being restored like the ford flatheads and does anybody know anything about them?

If I had to venture a guess, it would be because there is little or no speed/dress up stuff available, plus they have got to be expensive to build.

I think mating one to any decent tranny would be very tough, and they were not all that powerful in stock form. A few cars, especially in the rat rod genre' have used these, but those cars usually just put them in as is, make up some whacky exhaust and intake setup, and leave them stock.

I also think they are very heavy. A few years ago we scrapped a flathead that came out of a friends 1950 Lincoln, because it was some wierd configuration, and there were no speed parts, etc. for it. I don't remember the exact cubic inch, but it was 50% heavier and bigger than the usual Ford versions.

JMO,

Don

There were speed parts made for the cadillac. From what I know, there were aluminum heads as well as 2x2 intakes for them. They were very rare and those that still exsist command a pretty penny for them. I believe they were around 345 cubic inches. I also believe that adapters for modern transmissions are being made today.

Brickman -

Don and blue57 are right. The Cadillac flatheads are heavy and they displace 346 inches. I got interested in them many years ago and was curious about their drag racing potential for what was then the "flathead class". Yeah. they were heavy but in stock form they had cubic inches all over the Fords.

The engines exhausted up and out of the valley through three ports on each bank and were piped over the top of the block and down the back. You can see the ports in your picture. Not too convenient, but a guy could make a wild looking set of headers for that puppy, couldn't he?

These were tough engines and they powered about a zillion WWII army tanks, two per tank. Blue57 mentions transmission availability. The tank engines had early Hydramatics, believe it or not. Who knows? Maybe a hydramatic out of a '49 Olds or Cad would hook right up. I couldn't say. Of course the once popular super strong Cad-La Salle three speed would work (that's what came on the engine) but those were used up by hot rodders long, long ago.

A company in Dallas had a whole yard full of army tank Cadillac flatheads at one time. My partner and I were looking at them out of curiosity one day and he said "Hey .... Look!" On each engine was what looked just like the famous big oil can size Scintilla Vertex magneto. We decided that the dealer probably didn't know what he had, so we took off a couple of them and strolled up the kid at the counter and told him we wanted to buy two of these "distributors" which he happliy sold us. We left thinking we had pulled off a great coup. Trouble was, distributors was exactly what they were. Big, heavy, and very obsolete ones.

A Caddy flathead would no doubt make a very interesting engine for a sedate street ride, but I'd think getting really satisfying horsepower out of one would be a big challenge.

Thanks for bringing the subject up!

Jim

Very cool big tracks, thats interesting to know. I don't have the engine, it's for sale at a buddy's. I find it very cool looking and the exhaust would be totally wild to say the least. Food for thought, is there still parts around I wonder?

Check out transmissionadapters.com. The have a kit to bolt a chevy trtansmission to a cadillac flathead.

Hey Brickman;
I have long been wanting to put one of these in something. I'm probably looking at running it in a custom woodie phaeton I'm collecting parts to build based on a long wheelbase and old auburn or cadillac chassis.
I have a totally rebuilt one sitting on a cradle in my garage. It too is out of a 39 caddy, a 75 formal limo, I sold a guy. The previous owner spent over 3500 on the machine work and parts 15 years ago. It was built by a shop that does race engines and I know they bored it but I can't remember the specs. off the top of my head. I did score an edmunds dual manifold a couple of years ago for around 200 with carbs. The stuff is out there just kind of limited and some of the people think what they have is gold.
I did have a 38 model 65 if i'm not mistaken sedan that ran wonderful. It had a 41 engine in it. It had quite a bit of top end and even in a 4000 lb car still went quite well I had no problem passing a newer car that was running 60, I was doing over 75 by the time I got past them. I'm more for tall gears and bringing down the revs than burning rubber around town. I think the motor has lots of potential but not for drag racing. I have a friend that does fabrication that has been itching to try and make a mechanical fuel injection for this engine. That would be wild I think. Of course lots of thought has been given to the headers. I think this could be one fine looking engine if it was all put together right.
Sorry I rambled on a bit. I was told that the 39's had a design flaw. I'm not sure what it is though. I know mine was magnafluxed before they rebuilt it.

if you have the time and money, you could call crower cams and have them make you a custom grind cam, and even make you a crank rods and pistons and such... if they already know the specs on the motor they can do it right there, if not you'd have to get your motor brought to them and they'll engineer you something specifically to your desire.... thats the one thing i love about crower over most bigger cam companies, specially since they're right down the street from me

Check with Egge's, they make pistons and other parts for a lot of obsolete engines.