[1957plymouthhemi]

In the process of building an 84 El Camino I picked up another one as a parts truck. Well you know how that goes....the parts truck is not too bad and I'm kicking around the idea of dropping in the 500 CI Caddy motor I have laying around. I've found the engine mount swap kits on line and have a TH400 from a 69 Pontiac and will probably stuff a 9" under it.

Anyone actually done the Body swap and have anything particulars I need to look out for?

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

Tho I have never done that body style. I have done several 500's into full size pickups. The only problem is the oil pan. You have to use a rear sump pan and pickup. Available from hot rod Caddy dealers.

[1957plymouthhemi]

My inderstanding is the El Dorado pan (which I have and is rear sump) will work. Not so?

[M&M CUSTOM]

The El Dorado was a front sump pan for the front wheel drive car, the Deville and others were rear sump, you want the rear sump pan, pickup tube, move the dipstick to the proper hole in the block, and might want to consider changing the oil pump to one with a better angle to clear things. There were 3 different oil pumps one tucked down pointing at about a 45 degree angle to in front of- and under the crankshaft pulley, the next one pointed almost straight toward the front of the vehicle at a 45 degree angle, and the other pointed more outward away from the engine at a downward angle.

You might also want to do some mock-up measurements to make sure the valve cover and brake booster housing will not be too close for comfort or even touch. I had 1/2 inch between the booster and valve cover in my 1982 C-10 in my photo album, and the 4WD I messed around with had tons of room because of a body lift. I have seen this very swap you are asking about on the internet in searches I did before my swap, but never really got in depth with it because it didn't exactly pertain to my particular swap.

You might also want to add an elbow at the very least to move the oil pressure sensor upward and forward for bellhousing mating surface clearance, as well as ease of connecting the wire once the engine is installed.

One thing that will help you dramatically over my swap, headers are more readily available, but you still might want to keep the cast iron manifolds, first off they don't make a header as tight to the block as any manifold (you need all the clearance you can get), and they last many times longer as well as really don't hinder performance until you really start putting money into the 500.

If you need a different oil pan for the rear sump, you can directly swap one off a later 368 or 425 Cadillac big block engine, same thing with the timing chain/water pump plate, which just might be pitted enough to want to look at anyway. I was in the works with a company years ago to make aftermarket timing chain covers, but that just fizzled out with a lack of communication on their part. If the cover is too pitted, you can either braze it to fill the pits (heating it might warp it), or get a brass sheet metal sized to fit behind the water pump and epoxy it in place after you make all the proper holes for the water pump bolts and water passages.

One last thing, the later model motor mounts are similar to Chevy pieces, and will actually bolt to those mounted to the frame in a Chevy application, you just need to move the frame mounts forward 3.5 inches, and toward each other so the bolt holes are something like 3/4 inches closer together than the Chevy measurement.