Thread: 500 Caddy/G Body Swap

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When I bought the 83 I had planned on just using it for a parts car for the 84 so a title wasn't really all that important to me. Now that it's being built I'm going thru the process of getting good paper on it so for now the big hold up is the title. I should have a title in a few weeks but for now I'm not going to be putting and time or money in the body until that is resolved. Worst case is I can't get paper on it and I'll have all the 500 swap stuff done and ready to put in a G Body when I find another one that I like (with good paper).

This weekend I found out more about Cadillac pulleys than I think I ever wanted to know. Neither of the engines I have had a complete set of pulleys and brackets but I figured between the 2 I’d have enough to make it work. Want I wanted was run AC and PS with an HEI and no smog pump. Once I figured out that things weren’t lining up I went to a buddy’s shop who has a few Caddies sitting around. That’s when I found out that Cadillac ran the water pump off the smog pump Fortunately he also had a 70 Caddy sitting around that doesn’t use a smog pump so at I knew what to look for…..and to make it better the local wrecking yard I’ve dealt with for years happened to have a 70 that still had the pulleys and brackets on it.

I have the bracket on order to use a Sanden compressor on the 500, but it hasn’t come in yet and I wanted to make sure the belts would line up and clear the HEI. The 70 Caddy runs a dual belt setup on the AC/PS and I've read where a few guys have run into interference when upgrading to the HEI.

Being a bit impatient I started looking at the stock A6 compressor bracket on the 472 and figured out that with a little clearancing (basically opening the saddle portion where the compressor sits and enlarging the bolt holes slightly) it would work on the Sanden. It fits so well I may just go ahead and build some rear brackets and use it instead. Every thing clears and the belts all line up so that part is figured out.

So at this point I now have the engine mocked up, a transmission and rear end ready to put into the body one I get paper on it.