“…….I wish I had the money to install a 500 in mine but that's way out of my league……..”

One of the big drawbacks for the 500 Cadillac (and it’s smaller brothers the 472 and 425 cubic inch engines) is the cost of rebuilding one, when I did the 500 in my El Camino it was very very close to the cost of rebuilding a first generation HEMI.

All it takes to turn a 472 into a 500 is a 500 crankshaft and 500 Pistons (the 472 and 500 share the same bore size and the 500 pistons are required because the wrist pin is located lower (but that does allow the connecting rods to interchange.

While physically the same size as the 500/472s the 425s are in less demand, so cheaper.

All in all any of the engines are very reliable though, I’ve got about 95,000 miles on my 500 and it’s still going strong, uses about 1 qt of oil every 4000 miles or so, I and would still drive it cross country.

The engines are also pretty wide, but as FordyG Uncle’s car proves they’ll fit.

I know the thread has moved on a bit from the offset engine question but I thought I’d throw this out there.

Trans Tunnel by M Patterson, on Flickr

This is the engine bay of my parts car 68 Plymouth Valiant. If you look at the torsion bars which are centered in the car, you can see how far Chrysler off set the transmission tunnel (and drive train) in these cars. Of course as wide as the HEMI is it’s going to have to be almost centered in the engine bay to fit so this should be interesting.

Do I know how to pick a project or what


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