Cadillac Rescue

Reviving a ’60s 390 Cadillac Engine

- Evan Perkins

Sometime in the early ’50s, inside a dimly lit mechanic’s garage, a pushrod was rolled between grease-stained fingers. “I’ll be darned,” was uttered through seasoned lips as a technological advance that would soon carry through the 21st century was observed for the first time: the pushrod. Today, we’re spoiled by overhead valves that move huge breaths of air and tickle 8,000-plus rpm with relative ease, but when the standard performance hardware of the day was a flathead engine, that simple, effective pushrod had to seem like a wild leap into internal combustion future.

Cadillac’s first entry into the overhead valve world was a 331ci V8 launched in 1949, and it was a huge leap in automotive innovation. Those 331 cubic inches quickly grew to 365ci, and then 390ci as America’s passion for pushrod-activated power swelled.

Advanced features such as shaft-mount rockers, an improved oiling system, and five bolts per cylinder clamping the head in place allowed these early Cadillac engines to pave the way to performance.

It wasn’t long before hot rodders figured out the merits of the Caddy. They were quick to add blowers, cams, headers, as many carbs as would fit, and send their Caddy-powered machines to the salty lanes of Bonneville and hallowed grounds of early drag strips across America.

We at HOT ROD thought it would be a welcome break from the monotony of LS big-block and small-block builds to put together something from the past, our past—an engine that helped shape the modern mills that power our hot rods of today. So we found a Cadillac 390 core and got to work.