Discussion
LeighW said:
rat rod said:
Leigh ,did you manage to get your Firebird home in the dry ,
Nope, it was hooping down. The wipers worked, which was a bonus... The only issue I had was trying to pull away sharpish at a roundabout, I prodded the loud pedal a tad too hard and it just sat there 'doing a one legger' (I think that's the term) going nowhere fast with a lorry approaching. Some deft prodding at the pedal and I got away in time with a lot of noise made and a bit of rubber laid, but never mind. 
I'll add an lsd to the long 'to do' list...
aeropilot said:
newsatten said:
never seen a Boss cammer in the flesh either ,
The BOSS 429 is a 'normal' cam in block ohv design. When NASCAR outlawed the '427 cammer' Ford had to go back to the drawing board to find something else to replace the increasingly less competitive 427 side-oiler against the 426 Hemi, so they basically did their own hemi conversion of the new 429 block engine, although it wasn't a true hemi like the Chrysler, it was what was referred to as a shotgun-semi, or semi-hemi.
They were crap road engines though, unlike the Chrysler Hemi, as they had to be massively detuned for road use, and they were thus a bit crap on the road. If freed up of strangulation though, they are pretty impressive.
Same must relate to the Ford's unless a wealthy collector who doesn't care.
As far as why so much? I remember going to a local custom car show and seeing a '53 Caddy convertible on show that was up for sale, I think around 13K, this was in the late 80's, they seem to be up $100K know, I don't know how that works out with inflation. A Cadillac for me would be a '64 Coupe deVille, love the way they look and the 429ci. and Hydra-Matic 4 speed.
edit: '53 convertible up to $200k now.
edit: '53 convertible up to $200k now.
Edited by sean ie3 on Monday 21st June 12:22
sean ie3 said:
As far as why so much? I remember going to a local custom car show and seeing a '53 Caddy convertible on show that was up for sale, I think around 13K, this was in the late 80's, they seem to be up $100K know, I don't know how that works out with inflation.
'53 prices are dragged up with the fact that '53 was the first year for the Eldorado, and they only made 500 odd of them, and so real one's of those are super rare, and now in the $150-300k region for an Eldorado..!!Normal '53 Caddy vert's, are as you say now in the $75-100k region of a mint original, or excellent restored example.
The '54 is my personal favourite year, along with the '49 Sedanette's.
LeighW said:
P5BNij said:
It's 'ere.....
Awesome, hope you enjoy it.P5BNij said:
I get the distinct impression that your Firebird is turning into a keeper Leigh
It sure is. In every objective way as a form of transport, it's crap, but I love it. 
- love that BOSS 429 further up the thread, what a beauty**
rat rod said:
aeropilot said:
newsatten said:
never seen a Boss cammer in the flesh either ,
The BOSS 429 is a 'normal' cam in block ohv design. When NASCAR outlawed the '427 cammer' Ford had to go back to the drawing board to find something else to replace the increasingly less competitive 427 side-oiler against the 426 Hemi, so they basically did their own hemi conversion of the new 429 block engine, although it wasn't a true hemi like the Chrysler, it was what was referred to as a shotgun-semi, or semi-hemi.
They were crap road engines though, unlike the Chrysler Hemi, as they had to be massively detuned for road use, and they were thus a bit crap on the road. If freed up of strangulation though, they are pretty impressive.
Same must relate to the Ford's unless a wealthy collector who doesn't care.
"The speed equipment manufacturer Crane Cams tested engines that were stock as manufactured, with the exception of substituting tubular headers for the stock cast iron exhaust manifolds. For the 1969 hydraulic cam engine, they measured a peak of 352.0 bhp (262 kW) at 5500 rpm. The 1970 mechanical cam engine measured better, with a peak of 366.5 bhp (273 kW), also at 5500 rpm."
Even more strange that the SCJ/CJ429 engine that replaced the FE engine series and was used in the '71 Mustang (and in '69/'70 in other Ford/Mercury series) was rated by FoMoCo at the same HP (370/375 hp) and seemingly conservatively rated as compared with Boss variant.
Edited by roscobbc on Monday 21st June 14:56
rat rod said:
aeropilot said:
newsatten said:
never seen a Boss cammer in the flesh either ,
The BOSS 429 is a 'normal' cam in block ohv design. When NASCAR outlawed the '427 cammer' Ford had to go back to the drawing board to find something else to replace the increasingly less competitive 427 side-oiler against the 426 Hemi, so they basically did their own hemi conversion of the new 429 block engine, although it wasn't a true hemi like the Chrysler, it was what was referred to as a shotgun-semi, or semi-hemi.
They were crap road engines though, unlike the Chrysler Hemi, as they had to be massively detuned for road use, and they were thus a bit crap on the road. If freed up of strangulation though, they are pretty impressive.
Same must relate to the Ford's unless a wealthy collector who doesn't care.
so now not seen a cammer or a semi hemi
Great looking car the 69-70 Fastback , my personal favourite it terms of road presence etc, love the 70's Boss Trans Am cars, they just look great from all angles,
LeighW said:
It sure is. In every objective way as a form of transport, it's crap, but I love it.
Yep, so true, but back when i used them as every day smokes, they were great , drove better than most of the normal crap on the roads at the time, So i guess 45 years later and they still makes us smile is testament to these hugely flawed , but loved dinosaur's
You wait till you go out in the snow! now that is fun
newsatten said:
rat rod said:
aeropilot said:
newsatten said:
never seen a Boss cammer in the flesh either ,
The BOSS 429 is a 'normal' cam in block ohv design. When NASCAR outlawed the '427 cammer' Ford had to go back to the drawing board to find something else to replace the increasingly less competitive 427 side-oiler against the 426 Hemi, so they basically did their own hemi conversion of the new 429 block engine, although it wasn't a true hemi like the Chrysler, it was what was referred to as a shotgun-semi, or semi-hemi.
They were crap road engines though, unlike the Chrysler Hemi, as they had to be massively detuned for road use, and they were thus a bit crap on the road. If freed up of strangulation though, they are pretty impressive.
Same must relate to the Ford's unless a wealthy collector who doesn't care.
so now not seen a cammer or a semi hemi
The BOSS 429 also didn't use conventional head gasket either, there was a groove channel around the chamber and it used an 'O' ring type gasket arrangement.
newsatten said:
LeighW said:
It sure is. In every objective way as a form of transport, it's crap, but I love it.
Yep, so true, but back when i used them as every day smokes, they were great , drove better than most of the normal crap on the roads at the time, So i guess 45 years later and they still makes us smile is testament to these hugely flawed , but loved dinosaur's
You wait till you go out in the snow! now that is fun
aeropilot said:
newsatten said:
rat rod said:
aeropilot said:
newsatten said:
never seen a Boss cammer in the flesh either ,
The BOSS 429 is a 'normal' cam in block ohv design. When NASCAR outlawed the '427 cammer' Ford had to go back to the drawing board to find something else to replace the increasingly less competitive 427 side-oiler against the 426 Hemi, so they basically did their own hemi conversion of the new 429 block engine, although it wasn't a true hemi like the Chrysler, it was what was referred to as a shotgun-semi, or semi-hemi.
They were crap road engines though, unlike the Chrysler Hemi, as they had to be massively detuned for road use, and they were thus a bit crap on the road. If freed up of strangulation though, they are pretty impressive.
Same must relate to the Ford's unless a wealthy collector who doesn't care.
so now not seen a cammer or a semi hemi
The BOSS 429 also didn't use conventional head gasket either, there was a groove channel around the chamber and it used an 'O' ring type gasket arrangement.
I've marked it up to show what they meant by a shotgun or twisted hemi head.
On the Chrysler Hemi, the valves are at 90deg to the crank, where as the BOSS429 the valves are not at 90deg to the crank line as can be seen (hence the twisted hemi name) and you can see the edge blocked zones circled in red, that mean it doesn't have a full circle hemi shape chamber, hence the shotgun hemi name. However, this was for the production street engines, as the race spec engine had this metal removed to create a normal hemi chamber shape.
You can see the groove in the head for the 'O' ring gasket, marked A.
aeropilot said:
sean ie3 said:
As far as why so much? I remember going to a local custom car show and seeing a '53 Caddy convertible on show that was up for sale, I think around 13K, this was in the late 80's, they seem to be up $100K know, I don't know how that works out with inflation.
'53 prices are dragged up with the fact that '53 was the first year for the Eldorado, and they only made 500 odd of them, and so real one's of those are super rare, and now in the $150-300k region for an Eldorado..!!Normal '53 Caddy vert's, are as you say now in the $75-100k region of a mint original, or excellent restored example.
The '54 is my personal favourite year, along with the '49 Sedanette's.
at some time along with the other 100 cars on my list.
sean ie3 said:
As far as why so much? I remember going to a local custom car show and seeing a '53 Caddy convertible on show that was up for sale, I think around 13K, this was in the late 80's, they seem to be up $100K know, I don't know how that works out with inflation. A Cadillac for me would be a '64 Coupe deVille, love the way they look and the 429ci. and Hydra-Matic 4 speed.
edit: '53 convertible up to $200k now.
Those 63/64 Caddy's seem to get overlooked and drive so well if a good one,edit: '53 convertible up to $200k now.
Edited by sean ie3 on Monday 21st June 12:22
Had a 64 convertible around 14 years ago sold it for £18,500 ,don't think it's worth
much more on todays market but cars prior to that seem to have almost doubled in some cases.
'48 and '49 were interesting years fro Cadillac (and their enthusiasts) - '48 was the last year of the old, tried & tested flathead 346 cu in V8 and '49 was the first year of the new 331 cu in OHV engine. The flathead was a very heavy, quiet and low revving engine - OHV was the 'future' of the V8. These were unwieldy vehicles with only the option of a 4 speed hydramatic - no power steering, so many (very heavy) turns lock to lock. Both years were 'Landmark' cars - '48 the end of an era - '49 the start of a new era.
roscobbc said:
'48 and '49 were interesting years fro Cadillac (and their enthusiasts) - '48 was the last year of the old, tried & tested flathead 346 cu in V8 and '49 was the first year of the new 331 cu in OHV engine. The flathead was a very heavy, quiet and low revving engine - OHV was the 'future' of the V8. These were unwieldy vehicles with only the option of a 4 speed hydramatic - no power steering, so many (very heavy) turns lock to lock. Both years were 'Landmark' cars - '48 the end of an era - '49 the start of a new era.
Was offered a 49 fastback with after market power steering ,never drove it so not sure if it was any good or not,Power steering was standard in 53 so a coupe or convertible would be perfect thank you.
Sort of regretted not buying it as it's still on the list,bought a supercharged Falcon Sprint instead ,chalk and cheese i know
but with my eclectic tastes i love all cars of all ages. alas no hope for me or the rest of us :
The Cadillac '48 sedan I owned for a short while amazed me with its performance - OK, so 90 mph top end is not exactly quick in a 4100 lb car with 150 BHP @ 3400 RPM but it was the flathead's torque of a mere 283 Ft-Lbs @ 1600 RPM. You could actually feel each cylinder firing if accelerating hard at low speed.............
roscobbc said:
The Cadillac '48 sedan I owned for a short while amazed me with its performance - OK, so 90 mph top end is not exactly quick in a 4100 lb car with 150 BHP @ 3400 RPM but it was the flathead's torque of a mere 283 Ft-Lbs @ 1600 RPM. You could actually feel each cylinder firing if accelerating hard at low speed.............
Won't say no to a 48 ,never driven one but with the 49 onwards having the new generation enginethink i would get the best of both worlds ,When i had my 10 yard 51 manual coupe a buyer offered
me a deal with a mint low mileage 56 post saloon and some money so i did a deal, met him at the services
and as soon as i saw the 2 cars parked together i knew i done the wrong thing, went for condition instead
of style, couldn't wriggle as i'd gone to Birmingham to see the 56 but it wasn't till i saw them together i knew
i'd made a mistake, both cars were black but the saloon looked such a tank in comparison, drove it home
and advertised it straight away having no love for it
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