Omega Owners Forum

Newbie Area => Newbie Welcome Area => Topic started by: Doug Chase on 05 December 2010, 22:47:41

Title: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Doug Chase on 05 December 2010, 22:47:41: Hi All,

I thought I'd drop in and introduce myself since I've been surfing around here learning stuff for a while. Looks like a good forum so far, and I'm happy to have found it.

At the beginning of June this year I bought two '97 Cadillac Cateras. I got a gold one with 67k miles and a dead engine, and a black one with 134k miles and a dead transmission. Both are very good cosmetically and both had leather interior. I planned to fix them both, keep the black one, and sell the gold one.

(http://www.chaserace.com/forumphotos/caddy/DSCF8597~720.jpg)

I rebuilt the transmission in the black one and drove it for several months and several thousand miles, then two weeks ago it slid off the road during a teenage snow driving lesson. Oops. It doesn't have much mechanical damage from this, but the whole left side of the car is wrinkled up.

(http://www.chaserace.com/forumphotos/caddy/DSCF9179~720.jpg)

I recently started working on the gold car. The previous owner said it came to him with a bad head gasket, and it also had low oil pressure, and then it had developed a cranks but won't start condition. When I got the car it would crank forever without starting and the cranking sounded a little uneven. The other day, before a real compression test, I did a "crank and listen for unevenness" check. After cranking for about two seconds and thinking to myself, "this doesn't sound uneven at all", the car started! Odd, indeed.

It has a bit of a knock and I currently believe this to be a connecting rod. It also appears that a previous owner has bypassed the oil cooler by cutting off the lines right above the oil filter and looping a piece of rubber hose between them. This leaks pretty significantly when the car is running. I have a feeling that I'm going to discover more and more the farther I dig into this motor.

That brings me to the change of plans. I believe at this point I'm going to transplant in the motor (and freshly rebuilt trans) from the black car, then sell or part out the black car.

So that's my story so far. I'll be asking some more specific questions about the engine swap, but wanted to drop in here and introduce myself first.

Doug
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Dishevelled Den on 05 December 2010, 22:49:57: How do you Doug, welcome along. :y :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: The Red Baron on 05 December 2010, 23:26:17: welcome to the forum doug :y, a bit of an oops with the off roading eh. :o
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Doug Chase on 06 December 2010, 03:10:04: Quote
welcome to the forum doug :y, a bit of an oops with the off roading eh. :o

Yep, that wasn't quite the intended path of travel. Oh well, lessons learned all around.

Thanks for the welcomes, both of you!
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: smithpa7 on 06 December 2010, 07:32:28: Hello Doug, welcome to the forum :y :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Jimbob on 06 December 2010, 07:35:52: Hello & Welcome :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Welung666 on 06 December 2010, 08:05:39: Welcome to OOF Doug :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Omega_Dan on 06 December 2010, 08:15:39: A warm welcome to you Doug :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: dbug on 06 December 2010, 08:35:13: Welcome to OOF mate :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: 2woody on 06 December 2010, 08:58:06: which bit of Washington ? - one of my favourite places

and welcome by the way
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Seth on 06 December 2010, 09:08:33: Welcome bud! :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Kneepad on 06 December 2010, 09:10:00: Hello Doug, welcome to the forum. :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Lizzie_Zoom on 06 December 2010, 09:38:17: Hello Doug and a warm welcome to you! :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Elitenut on 06 December 2010, 10:30:40: Hello and welcome to the Forum. :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Jusme on 06 December 2010, 10:46:42: Hi Doug, and a warm Welcome to the OOF.. ;)
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: sandune on 06 December 2010, 12:31:01: Hiya Doug welcome aboard.Hope your plans works :)
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: mindaz on 06 December 2010, 13:18:24: welcome Doug ;) and good luck in your project :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Elite Pete on 06 December 2010, 14:44:21: Hi Doug and welcome to the forum :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Cliffo B on 06 December 2010, 16:18:41: Hello Doug,A very warm welcome from over the water, good luck and keep batting on with that Catera :y :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Doug Chase on 06 December 2010, 17:49:01: Quote
which bit of Washington ? - one of my favourite places

and welcome by the way

Generally, I'm in the greater Seattle area. More specifically, I'm in small town called Duvall about 30 minutes from downtown Seattle.
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Mr Skrunts on 06 December 2010, 18:15:30: Hi, welcome to the forum. :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: PhilRich on 06 December 2010, 18:48:41: Hi Doug & welcome to the OOF :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: 2woody on 06 December 2010, 22:33:01: Quote
Quote
which bit of Washington ? - one of my favourite places

and welcome by the way

Generally, I'm in the greater Seattle area. More specifically, I'm in small town called Duvall about 30 minutes from downtown Seattle.

funny that - I stayed for a couple of days in Snohomish just last year.
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Doug Chase on 07 December 2010, 04:11:17: Quote
funny that - I stayed for a couple of days in Snohomish just last year.

Yep, that's just up the road. Small world, indeed.

Doug
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Doug Chase on 07 December 2010, 05:03:35: I dowloaded some more photos tonight, and here's a pic of what happened when it fell over on its side.

Engine swap began today. Details here: http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1291593033 if you're interested.

(http://www.chaserace.com/forumphotos/caddy/DSCF9228~720.jpg)
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: maria on 07 December 2010, 11:27:34: Hello Doug and welcome to the forum :y
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: RobG on 07 December 2010, 13:04:47: Hi and welcome to the forum :)
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: jonnycool on 07 December 2010, 22:26:07: Hi Doug, welcome to the forum :y

Jon
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: Ploppy on 08 December 2010, 22:44:51: Welcome to OOF ! :)
Title: Re: Two Cateras and a change of plans
Post by: CyNick on 09 December 2010, 16:21:19: Hi and welcome to OOF! :y