1987 Cadillac Brougham D'Elegance - Who Buys A 1980's Cadillac For the Engine?

I came across this dark red beauty during one of my myriad cheap car searches the other night. You know the type of searches - the, "how much car can I buy for under $4,000" searches that usually unearth boring, soulless drecht but sometimes, like the other night, something like this 1987 Cadillac Brougham D'Elegance comes up in my net and I automotively salivate. And not for the reasons you might think of either. Yes, I'm a big fan of American luxury land yachts from yesteryear and in particular Cadillac's but I'm not usually smitten with anything with four doors - this time is no exception either. 

Y'see, I'm intrigued by this car because of what resides under it's bonnet. We see here that some sick bastard swapped out the puny Oldsmobile engine it was born with and replaced it not only with a more desirable Oldsmobile mill of the past, but one from 1971 - arguably the last year when Oldsmobile engines were still "Oldsmobile Rockets". Yeah, Oldsmobile continued to splay their OLDSMOBILE ROCKET decal on a myriad of engines through 1990 but if you're looking for real stump pulling power, 1971 was the last year the Rocket, in 350 or 455 cubic inch flavors, still "had it". And this one has been gone over and breathed on too so it's got to be a screamer launching from red lights. 

An "Oldsmobile in a Cadillac" is far from a "new" concept. Back in the mid '70's, GM fitted an Oldsmobile 350 in the Chevrolet Nova based Seville and in 1979 the Eldorado.  While owners of these cars car suffered all the ills and indignities of early fuel injection, a qualified mechanic who new how to skirt the emissions regulations of the day, could swap out the F.I. for a carburetor. Oh, ahem, let's not forget that the diesels offered in both back then was built by Oldsmobile. 

In 1986, GM finally threw in the towel on the rear wheel drive applications for its "HT4100" V-8 and replaced it with an Oldsmobile 307; above is an Olds 307 in a 1987 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. Based on the bane of any Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 fan, the Olds 260 of mid '70's infamy, the 307, which had nothing in common with the Chevrolet 307, at least had a flatter and broader torque curve than the 4100 did but it certainly was no powerhouse. It's been rumored that Cadillac used the high output 307 from the Hurst Olds and 4-4-2 in those cars but that makes no sense considering the time period. I've also yet to find any evidence of that being true either. 

However, since Oldsmobile essentially used the same block for all their engines, the swap of the Olds 307 for a 455 in this Caddy must have been a pretty clean and straight forward proposition. As if an engine swap is ever a that simple. What's more, to handle the extra oomph of the 455, no doubt our subject here had a transmission swap too. And after I had my fun stabbing the gas on it, with an asking price of a mere $3,800, this car and it's engine could make for a most interesting power train donor for my 1977 Chevrolet Corvette. P.S. - I have no idea what's going on in this picture from the ad. Bracket racing perhaps? 

Oh, she'd (The Wife) kill me if I did something like that and dreaming about it is probably way more fun that actually going through with. Something tells me too there'd be a ton of fabrication to get the big Olds motor to not only fit but to stay fastened down inside the small confines of the engine bay on "Old Unreliable" here. Certainly, though, would make my car about as unique a "C3" as there is out there and done so rather cost efficiently too. Who buys a 1980's Cadillac for the engine? I would.  

2020 Nissan Maxima - The Future Is Bright but It's Just Not Very Interesting

Who says the "three box", four door sedan is dead and buried? Well, the Big Three do considering they've all but abandoned the market. You'll see a smattering of sedans still available for sale in 2020 in domestic showrooms but if you've got a hankering for four doors and a trunk, best to go to your import store as they continue to push out a full range of them. Nissan's 2020 Maxima here is the cake topping Nissan four door sedan that also includes the Altima, Sentra and Versa.

If the imports are still selling sedans, why aren't GM, Ford and Chrysler? Because sedans don't sell well enough here to warrant their continuing to make them. There is, however, a significant market over seas. Oddly enough, GM does so well in China that they will continue to sell the Cadillac CT-6 and Buick Lacrosse there even though they've stopped production of them here for 2020. Giving up on a market segment is a bold move for Detroit and we'll get a bell weather very soon as to how that'll go but I'll go out on a limb now and say that folks ain't gonna miss the Taurus and the Impala here in the U.S. Thank goodness they're still making muscle cars otherwise, what would I lust after? However, seeing how cars with four doors can tear up a track these days, is the demise of the muscle car as we once knew it not far off? 

I still have a hard time getting my head around sedans being a niche segment having grown up in a world where their demise was unfathomable if not inconceivable. Don't get me wrong, I hate the damn things but the problem is we're going to be stuck with cross overs that are even more appliance like than the sedans they've pushed into oblivion. Be careful what you wish for, right?

In the interest of making sedans appealing, manufacturers have resorted to making them more sports car like. For instance, this Maxima (and others) can perform at a level that shames most sports cars from ten years ago. Alright, bit of an exaggeration but I say that to illustrate a point. Thing is, where the Maxima and other sedans, "sports sedans" or otherwise,  fall down on their soft bumpers is in the visceral appeal department. I think most of them are boring at best and ugly, like this Maxima, at worst. Be honest, is there a single four door sedan on the market today, practicality aside, that you'd spring for in lieu of something with two doors? If you say yes, you've probably grown up in this age that's devoid of interesting looking, mass appeal vehicles that have only two doors and a sedan market full of cars that are remarkably good; note I didn't say good looking. What's more, you might look at sporty two door cars today like the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger and dismiss them as being for "old people".

Maybe it's just me but at the end of the day, no matter how strong a performer a sedan today may be, claiming that one is sporty is like saying diners on Long Island are classy. However, to a generation coming up that's generally ambivalent towards cars, with the lines blurred between what sports cars and sports sedans are, it's the two door muscle car that's really in dire peril. After all, if sedans continue to be made that are the track equivalent of something with two less doors, what's the point of the impracticality of the two door car? Have you sat in the back of a late model Camaro, Mustang or Challenger? It's a joke. For the most part they've always been, subjective, yeah, better looking and had more je ne sais quoi than something with four doors, but if it's just a fashion statement, again, the muscle car is in jeopardy. Dire jeopardy.

Trust me, the younger generation just doesn't give a damn about such things and if they find cars like this Maxima, which, again, I think is hideous, as sporty looking as my generation thought a GTO or Chevelle was, in ten years, maybe less, showrooms will have two types of vehicles; two passenger ultra high performance models and more practical ones that coddle and swaddle passengers out back in supreme, triple digit speed comfort.

Welcome to the future. As bright as it is, it's just not as interesting as we thought it was going to be.

2006 Chevrolet Tahoe Fuel Pump - Compound Profanity

Only in hindsight can I honestly say, "the hell was I thinking" when I even thought about swapping out the fuel pump on our 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe. "How hard could it be?", I murmured to myself when my wife and I first got an estimate of almost $900 to replace it because it was leaking gas fumes tripping the Tahoe's god forsaken check engine light. Well, the short answer is, "very, very hard" and not because it's that complicated to do either. My latest extreme DIY adventure was as difficult as it was because of rust and corrosion. Like someone with a medical problem you can't see,  looking at the body of our Tahoe you'd never know that underneath it's rustier than the Titanic.

Why would I even think about doing a job like this? Well, first off, with an estimate from a shop as high as it was, and blessed, more like cursed, with an equal dose of mechanical intuition, frugality and stupidity, I felt it my familial duty to at least try and do the job myself. Furthermore, to be honest, I really enjoy working on our vehicles and I get a feeling of deep satisfaction of "putting it to the man" by not giving him, or her, my hard earned money.

Like I always do, I started this project trying to find YouTube videos of other people who've attempted to change the fuel pump on Tahoe's, Suburban's or Yukon's. To my delight, at first, I found a bunch but the best of them are terrible. From sloppy camera work, choppy voice overs to horrendous editing, they're impossible to follow. What's more, good ole Chevrolet changed the design several times on the emissions line plumping for the gas tank and fuel pump on our vintage of Tahoe (2002-2006) so although you're watching a video of someone working on what looks just like your vehicle, chances are if you're off just one model year off you might as well be working on a different make and model. What's more, save for this guy who worked on a Tahoe with a full tank of gas, just like on home improvement shows and videos, nothing ever (seems) to go wrong. And trust me, things can go wrong. Really, really wrong.

They also gloss over very important details of the process leaving me to hope and poke on my own. For instance, what was I to do if I couldn't get the "quick release" fuel and evaporation lines to release? What if nuts and bolts are frozen in hard to get to places? What do I do if I can't get the fuel pump out of its locking ring? What if the fuel lines break off? Little things like that that aren't so little when you're in the midst of the project and you can't move forward. What's more, you're so far into the project that you would have no other choice but to call a tow truck and have the thing dragged to a shop to finish the project you can't complete. Such are the real world trials and tribulations of a hard core do-it-you-selfer.

I experienced all of these problems and more in the five days over two weekends it took me to get this project done. And much like surfing the net or, ahem, blogging, time rockets by at a pace that's ten times the speed of regular time. I felt like Rip Van Winkle after spending what I thought was maybe a couple of hours wrenching away only to discover it was more like six. Combine the myriad issues I had with rust particles gently cascading my face and falling down my shirt and it was no wonder I took my horrible habit of "compound profanity" to another biblical level. I hope to god no one heard me.

I was nothing short of flabbergasted by how badly corroded the fuel pump was. Yeah, I know, it's fourteen years old but you'd think GM would have placed it in some sort of protective cocoon up and away from the elements but, no. It's generally exposed up there to everything mother nature has to offer up here in bucolic, road brine loving north east Ohio. And, of course, like on many vehicles, there's no way to access the fuel pump from inside the vehicle via a trap door; you have to "drop" the fuel tank. At least on our Tahoe the gas tank isn't blocked off by an axle or structural cross member you have to "drop" first. No wonder so many cars and trucks go to their final resting places because of a bad fuel pump.

Ah, there she is. Just look at that thing. Now, aluminum does not rust, per se, but it does corrode. So it might as well rust as far as I'm concerned. And our fuel pump was so badly gunked up that the large pipe on the pump that deals with recirculating gas vapors back to the tank was leaking thus triggering the check engine light. What's more, the main fuel line from the tank to the fuel line of the engine was so badly crusted the quick release wouldn't let go and I had to break it to release the whole tank.  Then I had to yank the fuel line out of the connector and that, in turn, compromised the "o-ring" that seals the line up. Yeah, we're talking gas lines here so a quick jaunt down to Auto Zone for a fix wasn't in the cards. I got it back on, eventually but holy cow what an ordeal.

Then there was the epic battle of getting the pump out of the tank. Once again, rust, oxidation and the creeping crud threw everything they could at me in their attempts to get me to call a tow truck. Somehow, someway, I got the pump out of the tank, the new one in and despite a relative dearth of before photos illustrating where everything goes back in place, I got everything back in and hooked up. But wait, there's more. Of course.

Upon the first "turnover" of the engine the damn thing wouldn't start. The. Hell. Amazingly, I was concerned but not panicked and I remained clear headed enough to deduce that the fuel pump was starved for fuel with the rear of the Tahoe still on my Rhino Ramps. I had only poured about two gallons of gas in, yessir, I had drained the tank while it was out so it would be less heavy when I put it back in, and with it being at an angle, all the gas I poured in went to the down end of the tank. I jacked the Tahoe up enough to pull the ramps out, waited a minute or two and, voila, the old beast started up when the fuel leveled out in the middle of the tank. What's more the check engine was off. No drink or drug comes close to the feeling of deep and warm satisfaction I got when it started.

My wife had a coupon for an oil and filter change at the shop that diagnosed the fuel pump problem that made my changing it myself not worth the hassle so within a week I dropped it off for them to do it. They recognized the our Tahoe and the tech behind the counter said to me, "you really need to get that fuel pump taken care of". I coyly smiled and laughed when I said, "oh, I did. And I did it myself". His mouth dropped when I told him that and he said, "Wow. You did that yourself? That's quite and undertaking".

Yeah. I'll say.