Itza 500 for sure!

[Al from MTS]

At least thats what people are being told when they are buying Cad engines lately. However that's NOT what folks are getting for their money.
You really need to inspect any used Cad engine you are considering. That goes double if it's just been rebuilt.
The past 10 days have been unreal with customers getting burned on Cad core engines. The show up to trade them in, and I'm the guy who gets to ruin their day. It's so bad I thought I'd share a few of the worst cases.

1. Sold as a "500". It's really a 472. Not so bad you say? How about that the 76cc heads have been robbed off of it. Instead there are a set of 368 tiny port heads bolted on this thing!

2. Customer purchased used 500. Sold to him as a good runner. He cleans it up, and puts in his truck. Starts knocking in 5 months or so. We take it apart for rebuild. Has three 8.5-1 pistons in it and five 10-1 pistons in it. It's topped off with a #250 casting 76cc head on one bank and a 120cc #493 casting on the other bank.

3. Customer buys two Eldorado 500's from his local wrecker. Gets here with a 1970 DeVille 472 and a 1977 425cid from and Eldo.

4. Customer buys a 500 powered street rod. Has a "fresh 500" in it. Just rebuilt by prior owner. Car is a flat out dog. Can't get out of it's own way.
He pulls engine and brings it to us. Sure enough its been rebuilt. New pistons and so forth. Too bad they put a 472 crank into his 500. The pistons are so far down the bore you need a ladder to get down there! How it even ran I don't know.

As they get tougher to find, I think this is only going to get worse.

[curtis73]

When I bought mine it was before I knew the finer points of where to reliably get one, so I used a salvage yard that would locate it for me. He got one from a neighboring 'yard, but called me to say that it was actually a 472 so he would try again. I made sure the builder measured the stroke on the assembly I got. At the time I just assumed it was a 500, but knowing what I know now, I'm glad I checked.

[STDog]

2. Customer purchased used 500. Sold to him as a good runner. He cleans it up, and puts in his truck. Starts knocking in 5 months or so. We take it apart for rebuild. Has three 8.5-1 pistons in it and five 10-1 pistons in it. It's topped off with a #250 casting 76cc head on one bank and a 120cc #493 casting on the other bank.
It ran for 5 months like that :?:
WOW :!: , these things are really tough. Were the pistons a match for the heads? I know a 10:1 piston for a 76cc head is quite different under a 120cc head. Vswapped is even worse. And what about a 8.5:1 piston for a 120cc head under a 76cc head? Isn't that like 13:1?


3. Customer buys two Eldorado 500's from his local wrecker. Gets here with a 1970 DeVille 472 and a 1977 425cid from and Eldo.
Well he got one good engine out of the deal. :)
The '70 472 has the 950 head and the good block.
New pistons, rods and crank and you have a 500:)

Too bad they put a 472 crank into his 500. The pistons are so far down the bore you need a ladder to get down there! How it even ran I don't know.
What's the compression ration on that mix? 5:1

[mepr]

when i bought mine it was in a running all original deville, and the guy stright up told me it was a 425. Hopefully since it ran strong and i drove it 350 miles home i dont have those kind of proplems :shock:

[Terrible One]

Yeah I was wondering about the compression of the 500 w/ 472 crank lol.

Mine came in the original Eldo that has been in the family it's whole life. Too bad it is very much abused though. Oh well, with 160,000 miles on it, cross-hatching was still barely visible when we dismantled it! I am told that these blocks had a high nickel content making them extremly strong and slow-wearing. Is this true Al?

[Andy V]

whoa that #2 makes me LMAO

I bet that thing ran rough, bet it shook the truck around good.

If the person sold it to him know what he did, that's just wrong, if he did it unknowingly then I guess I can understand....he's just uninformed and too lazy to look up the info.