Hi all , wonder if you can help me out with this little mystery ? I've just got my hands on another flathead Cadillac V8 (I'll post up the full story on this soon , promise) and whilst discussing it with fellow UK rodders someone was kind enough to post up a scan of the relevant pages from the book of Hot Rod Magazine ; First Twelve Issues (Not trying to rape copyright here , but the book is getting on for $100 on Amazon !) . Anyhow , amongst these pictures (Stated in the mag as being of a Flat Cad rod) were these ; Now to the best of my (Admittedly limited) knowledge all Flat Cad motors had 6 exhaust ports not the 8 that are indicated by these pictures . Also to the best of my knowledge the only major difference between the Cad and LaSalle motors was the displacement (346ci and 322ci respectively) . So what's going on with the car in the pictures ? Did the LaSalle motor have 8 ports and that is what is under the hood of this car ? Is it a Cad motor with un-siamesed (If you follow) exhausts ? Or is it something different altogether (Such as a modified Ford V8) ? Looking forward to your replies , Ratty
HaHa! That pic has been posted several times, and discussed. All caddy and Lasalles had 6 exhaust ports, as they are the same block, with different bores. That engine simply has a 'faux' exhaust, or is split at the center exhaust port.
As Einstein said (I'm paraphrasing, I can't find the actual quote) "The world is like a watch sealed from us that we cannot see how it really ticks. We can only watch the hands go round and make theories"
True, but look at the pic. The exhaust are not evenly spaced, the center two are closer together. I think it's safe to guess that either one of the center exhausts are fake, or both center exhausts run out of the center port on the top of the engine.
38Flattie , that was the other option I didn't post , didn't want to believe our ancestors were telling porkie pies ! Like I said I couldn't see how there could've been an 8 port Cad motor , but I'm not that up on the LaSalle engine , thanks for your response ;-)
Ratty, I had a dig around on gopogle, and came up with some stuff. Check my reply on the meltdown, But one candidate might be 31 La Salle. Mart.
Ratty, it's always possible that it isn't even a Caddy, but I've seen that pic several times. Every time, it was claimed that it had a flatcad, with a Burrell 2x2 intake. I guess we'll never know for sure!
I imagine that he was trying to help the engine breathe better, by splitting or "Y-ing" the center exhaust pipe, as 38FLATTIE said. I don't know if that would actually accomplish much though, considering that the center exhaust is still restricted by its narrowest passage. Cool roadster...I always love seeing the Cad-powered rods with the pipes exiting up high.
Here's what I found; Google is your friend: 31 lasalle I aint saying it's the engine in the cars shown above, but it does have similar finning like the lower one, if only th HC were visible in the pic. Note it has an Aluminium block??? Mart.
Mart, It is possible it's that motor, and that someone made a 2x2 intake for it. My vote would be the later, 322 or 346 for a couple of reasons- the 2x2 intakes were available. The 1931-33? 353 was 95hp. The 322 were 125, the early 346's were 135, and the later 346's pushed 150, due to higher compression heads. It's one of those mysteries we'll probably never know for sure. ...but I bet we all agree, that it's a helluva cool ride!
Here's what I've got by the way ... ... and here's where its going (Yes , I know thats a different engine , I'll get to that when I post a project thread)
My bet would be on whoever made the headers "Y-ing" the center siamesed port into two pipes. I've seen the same thing done several times on hot rodded Olds 303 and 324 engines.
Ratty!!i thought you sold the project last year!? but velcome back in buisiness! the neat little hotrod is owned or was owned by Don Berg..it was sporting a 34 cadillac engine -palle
Yep! Ratty, check out www.flatcaddy.com, if you are planning any motor mods. Here is a good info thread on these mills: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=332457
Great to see the magazine spread. So It's a 34 Cad motor. I'm guessing that both Cad and LaSalle had 4 ports up to a certain year, then went to the more familiar 3 port design. This has been interesting. Good Luck with the project Ratty. Mart.
I have pics of the Bob Wright roadster under construction, but don't have permission to post them. The engine has 8 exhaust port, the heads do have HC cast into them and the intake is custom made.
Wow Jimmy , thanks for sharing those pictures , loving the front cover too ! Mart , well searched out mate thanks ;-) Hey Palle , long time no chat ! Yeah , been an up and down couple of years but I've got my car back and as you can see a new motor too , gonna be a while before there's much more progress as I've decided to do it right from the outset so need to earn the readies to pay for more goodies . Not still got those ugly assed worthless Edmunds bits cluttering up your workshop have you ? ;-)
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