| Re: [GMCnet] shocked and amazed [message #109458] |
Wed, 22 December 2010 16:00  |
Gary Casey
Messages: 448
Registered: September 2009
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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Yes, the Seville was based on the Nova - really just trim upgrades to make it
into a Cadillac. But it was quite a nice car compared to the Nova. Driving one
would not give you a clue that it was a Nova. But I don't recall that the
engine was anything but a standard Olds 350. We used a lot of Oldsmobiles for
testing and what made the engine a "Cadillac" was the intake manifold, which was
very flat, without any runners at all. I was so convinced that GM had a bad
design that I started a project to design a EFI-specific intake manifold. By
the way, I would think the Seville intake manifold would bolt right on the 403,
making it easy to convert to port injection. Turned out the simple bathtub
design was pretty good and we gave up trying to make it better. Yes, that was
the time of the corporate engine debacle, but I think the bigger "problem" was
Chevy small blocks showing up in Oldsmobiles and Buicks. Somehow, selling a
Nova as a Cadillac didn't bother anyone, but putting a Chevy engine in an
Oldsmobile did. Go figure. As I recall, the Olds engine in the Seville was
painted Cadillac blue, but I don't remember - that and a lot of other things
:-(.
Gary Casey
""Another anecdote from history: When we at Bendix were developing the fuel
injection for the Cadillac Seville (about 1976) we tried to abide by GM's
"rule"
of no rubber fuel lines on top of the engine. We were able to do away with the
short rubber hoses that Bosch used between the rail and each injector, but to
get rid of the rubber line between the pressure regulator and the rail we would
have to pay Bosch some big bucks for tooling.""
Ah yes--the famous Oldsmobile engine in drag debacle. Actually that Seville was
an X car (aka Nova) with an Olds engine with specific Cadillac heads on it.
That's what sparked (no pun intended) the huge lawsuit about GM cheating
Cadillac cutomers with Oldsmobile engines. That's when GM decided to go to
so-called corporate engines and paint them all black. The car itself was quite
nice and became somehwhat of a collectible.
--
Bob de Kruyff
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