Original subtitles

[Music]

this is roadkill garage we're here at

the roadkill ziptiedrags hunting for our

very first win

at our own event

[Music]

[Music]

here's the saga of the car that we call

the caddy gremmy

way back a couple years ago my buddy

brian lunz and i did a show actually for

facebook

called the 3k hooptie challenge it was a

spin-off of the zip tie drags event

where we make people race cars that are

worth less than 3 000 bucks so a guy

shows up with this 1974 amc gremlin and

it's got a cadillac

500 cubic inch v8 in it all junkyard

parts

i fell in love with the car and bought

it on site

and you first saw it in episode 89 of

roadkill where we picked the thing up at

the end of the episode where finnegan

got that big white older cadillac

and then it was episode 42 of roadkill

garage where dolce and i were gonna dive

in and make it fast and i was doing epic

burnouts out there and then i over

wrapped it and it developed a really bad

rod knock and it's been rotting ever

since you can see the filth and dog

prints all over the thing so this

episode is going to be

out with this cadillac 500 and in with a

fresh one and theoretically we're going

to drive it to the zip tie drags in

tucson

i think that theory would be proven in

this episode and what happens when you

prove the theory

it becomes scientific fact that's right

how do you want to start

i would like to give it a minor power

wash job

i would suggest just using the air

nozzle and blowing everything

there's a lot of poop on there you can

uh put on a mask to protect your lungs

they used to do yesterday that's your

job all right dulcinea's gonna blow off

the poop and we're gonna roll this thing

inside and swap out that action

oh man

really freiberger should be doing this

it's his car

my mom told me not to get into showbiz

it's not all glamour boys and girls

all right fryburger check it out i've

stepped up our game considerably here

with this

i can spill much more water once you

fill that up it'll be great i actually

got this from a fan believe it or not

really stopped by with this pan saying

i'm tired of seeing you get splashed

with water

and water all over the floor i'm gifting

you this pan

and now it's going to be proof of

concept because not one drop

on floor or my person go ahead

so we're going to start disassembling

the 500 here we had nothing to do with

installing this engine in this car so

i'm sure we're going to run into some

pretty surprising stuff along the way

i guess i will begin by taking the air

cleaner off

can you pull that hose off from up top

radiator hose off

oh how'd it work uh

this is minimal debris a little bit of

coolant on the floor

wow people ask why we don't have a lift

that's a good question because

our idea of an upgrade is to have a pan

so we don't drain water directly on the

floor

[Music]

leaking goo everywhere

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that's why i like water better than

antifreeze even though it makes your

engines crack

[Music]

[Applause]

after scrutinizing the situation here it

looks like

the engine and transmission have to come

out as a unit because

the bell housing bolts on the

transmission are right up against the

firewall you can't even get a wrench on

it and even if you could

the bolts would just hit the firewall so

zip the motor mount bolts off

gonna drop the crossmember pull

the drive shaft and pull the whole

shooting match out

as what unit okay it's on there

i'm going in fryeburger are you ready

for this yep

i need angulation okay remember once we

get some weight on this thing we still

have to pull out the motor mount bolts

right now all the way to the engine is

on them so they won't come out

we got to try and give it a mid dangle

and there's almost no way to get to the

one on the

right side yeah you got to give it a

little reach around

okay

are you having any luck oh that is just

the genius of freiburger at work

i'll just walk that bolt out with the

impact yep

oh if you can get the pry bar underneath

the bolt head you might be able to

don't bother me with all your jibber

jabber oh fry burger

so now in theory this thing should be

completely oh uh-oh

it's wedging against the crossmember you

know normally when you put the cad 500

in the gremlin it'll just swing right in

and out but for whatever reason the way

this thing is put together

the oil pan wedges right hard up against

the cross member in a way that doesn't

allow the engine to move enough to get

the transmission

anywhere so what we're trying to do now

is get the turbo 400 separated from the

engine

in the car which is also not going to be

any fun at

all now all we need to do is lower the

transmission

then remove the transmission there it's

free

it's off the engine 100

oh no something's just falling horribly

out of position

we're losing transmission fluid at an

alarming rate shocker

that's gonna be fun to get back in oh

it's capsized the transmission

i can't even look is it puking

everywhere yeah

i'm just going to completely ignore the

transmission debacle and move on to

ruining the engine at this point it's

just up and out

remove that engine

this doesn't install good no

there we go all right check this out

these are the homemade headers that the

guy did so that he could get the cad 500

in the grammy

this would have been really common in

the 50s to do what's called a

log manifold which is just like one tube

with each of these dumping into this

destroys power

this is the worst but this one here is

particularly entertaining

that was more of a battle than i

expected but here comes the tasty part

we have a brand new freshly rebuilt

cadillac 500 here came from courtney

hines at cad500parts.com he's the

specialist in these things

it is the same exact engine as a matter

of fact i didn't know that it was going

to come all upgraded with like a

complete pulley system hei

edelbrock performer intake but of course

it's all freshened up this thing has

good connecting rods in it forged

pistons nine-to-one compression

he didn't tell us what the super secret

hydraulic flat tap at camshaft is

it does have fully ported heads on it he

offers several

levels of his cylinder heads and we were

able to sort of finger the exhaust port

here and feel that they are nice and

smooth and ported

he estimates this thing is going to make

500 horsepower i guarantee that

does not happen through those headers

but now we're ready to swap some parts

over and dump this thing back in

and i gotta clean up the engine

compartment a little bit right

i got to

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

you know dolce i have a philosophical

problem with installing this cadillac

500

you do yes we did nothing to assemble

this engine

oh yeah extremely rare that we install

an engine that we didn't have at least

some part of building it's probably

going to be super reliable and fast as a

result

so when the gasket has like a tan side

or black side

and an emboss side i put the emboss side

towards the manifold

what was your rule dulsich when in doubt

metal out

all right ready to put it in yes push

towards firewall

there you go oh something is scraping

yeah forever this thing's almost in i

know

so at this point we got the engine about

halfway in it's looking like it might

actually go this isn't the nightmare the

transmission is going to be the disaster

there you go i'm on 100

how about you ah i am in like flynn

buddy

that is an install you know we weren't

actually hired for our mechanical

ability it was for

my good looks and steve's comedy so i

mean i when i was in acting school i'd

never imagined that i'd have to work on

cars

no me neither yeah

this jack doesn't roll swing her in

there

are you serious install it

okay it's hitting the firewall it's

gonna go more forward okay

ready let's go there that felt good

right

that's line

okay okay we got the transmission

mounted up but there's a whole bunch

left to do dolcich is doing the

converter bolts we have to do cross

member cooler

lines all of that stuff but i had to do

the shifter which reminded me that the

shifter in this thing

is really hokey i don't know what's

broken about it but somehow it just goes

right into reverse and i can't yeah see

how it's got no ratchet

action so i'm just gonna have to pull it

out and replace it with a racier one

[Music]

okay this is kind of a cool side story

remember the 71 plymouth satellite from

a prior episode of roadkill garage

dosage bought the thing it had a 3d3 in

it we sort of cobbled the thing together

in order to go do burnouts and stuff it

was fun

but then dulce sold the car to our crew

guy wiley here

and then he had to give him an engine

because the 383 that was in it had a

broken block

but there's a hook he told him he would

sell him the car cheaper

if he could drive it all the way to the

zip tie drags so while we're working on

the gremlin

he's out here trying to make it happen

wiley what are you doing

trying to figure out my fuel shortage

issue runs bad and

runs bad i got a fuel pressure gauge

right on the carb and as soon as i punch

it

it goes from six pounds right down to

zero oh okay and i know the fuel pump's

good so i'm thinking bad sending unit

dirty sock yeah something like that

that's it either that or it's a clog up

stream

right you don't have a fuel filter

before the pump do you i did and now i

don't okay cool

yeah he actually knows the fuel pump's

good because i gave him one off the

gremlin

let me know if you need more free parts

all right cool thanks

[Music]

this junk is installed

first second third neutral

reverse park man making progress

consistent with the quality of this

vehicle dulcing is about to stack

five carburetor gaskets and one plate on

this thing

because the linkage hits the manifold is

that the deal uh the accelerator pumps

front and back oh yeah that happens

yeah they don't intend you to have a

double pumper in the performer intake

you really like quadrajets these

cadillac engines oh yeah that would be

much better

here is an 850 holley annular discharge

so

see these boosters in the carburetor

these are different than the down leg

boosters that you would see in a normal

holley and they call them annular

discharge because around here there's

holes all around the underside of it in

a circle

like an angled

[Laughter]

there you go right install it use the

right terminology here freiburger

thanks dulce i was going straight for

the crude joke and you went to the

scientific factual information

[Music]

for some reason we can't get the starter

to crank i must have cut a wire

somewhere and we don't have time to

troubleshoot it we're trying to hustle

out of here

so i just took some speaker wire here

and what we're going to do is connect

one of these to the positive battery

terminal and the other to the start

terminal

on the starter relay run it inside and

then simply inside touch the two in

order to get it to crank

when all else fails resort to butchery

works virtually every time

[Music]

nice

fun time making the grammy look like a

race car

i bought some super cheap wheels for

these things these are from summit

racing

and i think the rears were like 99 bucks

each they're really cheap they're from

vision wheel i got a 15 by four in the

front

15x7 with four inch backspacing in the

back i got a 25 inch lightweight drag

tire on the front and a hoosier

street legal slick in the back that's 27

by 10

50 15. now we're gonna have to drive it

to tucson

on some uh radial rollers i put on the

back

we'll bring our slicks with us and then

it's gonna look super cool

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

i hope it runs good it's got oil

pressure are all the lug nuts tight

yup it definitely does not like to run

good cold

no but we didn't give it a super tune

[Music]

roll into it in first gear

[Applause]

wow we got to change the seating

position i don't remember complaining

about that last no

let me see if it'll it'll launch you

just have to give it a little rpm

uh it's spinning them no

it needs squirter it's got 250 cc pumps

on it already

somehow they're not working maybe it has

a slow cam or something

man it takes off pretty good okay that

part is fantastic

this thing has so much torque it's

incredible

i'm looking at the tachometer me too i

shifted at 4 000 last time

oh you did i'm scared i don't think you

ever had her wide open though

had to be careful that went to 55 i know

what we're talking about is that i

killed the last cadillac 500 by

over revving it and developed a rod

knock these things have a bad oiling

system and cad company modified this one

i don't know how

but we still don't completely trust it

he said 5500 i think i'm sticking to

five i just don't

you know we don't want to risk it we're

already like down one 500 cubic inch

cadillac engine

maybe the caddy grummy is every bit as

great as we remembered maybe it's even

better now

except for the seat position and the uh

terrible

off the line fog yeah

[Music]

okay that was kind of frustrating you

saw us go for a test drive and i was

super whiny about a couple things the

seat solved by reclining it it's not

great it's good enough

then there was the engine bog that was

really getting on my nerves

so steve and i talked through it a bunch

we were looking at the carburetor

we were thinking maybe it had some dirt

in it we were talking about the uh

squirters in it and maybe how it wasn't

getting enough fuel or maybe too much

fuel

and then we started to look at the

ignition timing and what we saw

is just like some weird nonsensical

action on the distributor advanced curve

that was telling us

that something was wrong with the old

hei distributor in the engine

now i don't blame the guy we got the

engine from he told us he was giving us

a bunch of used parts

and so that's why that distributor was

bad it was old heis get something wrong

with the module and

you just can't solve it it's a mystery

we solved it by putting in the

distributor out of our old

engine dulcets jerked it out while i was

uh removing the old distributor we

slapped it back in we set the timing

hunky dory i'm so convinced that this

thing is fixed that we're gonna go out

there and

verify it with some burnouts and some

fun

and then we are going directly to

hitting the road

for tucson

[Music]

this is one car you want in a straight

line before you stab it yeah

it's so short

yeah the pistons brings the tires loose

at will

it has a hair of a hesitation a little

bit but if you launch

it off the converter i think he can get

a pretty good

hole shot yeah i think so

we're ready

yeah okay that might have been the

greatest distance we've ever done

i admit i was dragging the break that

might have been the easiest burnout that

we've ever done

and i was making sure it was only 4 500

rpm i saw that you see me checking the

test oh yeah

i just fear the cadillac oil system do

you think you can maintain wheel speed

and a steady state burnout after a

second gear shift from a brake stand

oh yeah oh well i've got to see it

[Applause]

you convinced yeah that was pretty neat

all right ready to go to tucson for the

zip tie drags

i think we're proven we're road ready

for sure

the gremlin is returning to its natural

[Music]

[Applause]

home

signing vehicles is always a part of our

events

which is weird to me but i appreciate

these guys a lot

we made it to the kickoff of the zip tie

drags here at irwindale speedway in

california

now we actually had the crew tow the

gremlin down here

because we were all scattered yesterday

but now we're actually gonna road trip

it all the way to tucson your prediction

my prediction yeah pure success

you know how i know how you're driving

okay

so we got about a hundred cars here

everybody's lining up right now and

taking off

and uh we're gonna jump in with the pack

and hit the road and hopefully make it

it's on you oh there's no problem at all

what could go wrong

[Music]

where's our final pressure free burger

are you serious i'm having palpitations

now

i was so excited about hitting the road

for tucson and we got no oil pressure

steve had this thing running fooling

around getting ready to go hooting and

screaming and revving

and now it has no oil pressure at all

remove the line off the back of the

gauge and squirt it into

that bucket right there

okay we got to take it off the other end

we tested the oil pressure by taking the

line off the back of the gauge and it

didn't squirt oil so now we've got

the gauge line off the back of the

engine i'm just gonna crank it

i'm not even gonna start it and it

should puke

nothing seriously it literally has no

oil pressure

how is that possible let's hook up

wiley's gauge

i hate these nylon lines i was so proud

of our

copper line until i realized it filled

us yeah

that is still zero

fuel pump's not on dude that showed zero

the whole time

it doesn't have any oil pressure okay

i'm

maintaining a remarkable amount of

composure yeah i was gonna mention that

but

in fact there's an inner rage burning

[Laughter]

one which may reveal itself at any

moment

in a fit of uncontrollable anger and

and pain and anxiety let's take a valve

cover off that one's easier this one's

got brake lines in the way

everyone is gone except us oh perfect

did it great oh look

okay now we know why you have no oil

pressure so there's a push rod missing

here

completely so is this one it was running

on seven cylinders

two push rods fell out of it which means

it kicked the lifters up which is why it

has no oil pressure

see the end of this one is completely

chewed up right there

so the cadillac 500 is now junk and uh

we'll be walking to tucson we can ride

with wiley we could ride with wiley

that's what's gonna happen all right

boys buckle up

[Music]

and we made it to one of our favorite

drag strips in the world tucson drag way

for the road kill

zip tie drags we kind of did it in

shameful fashion though no i know i

heart felt shame actually it was shame

here's what happened we rode with wiley

and the 71 satellite for a while

but we looked at the google map we're

like we're never gonna get here in time

and there was like a thousand plus fans

waiting to see us here

so we hopped in the video van and we

cannonballed and we got here and we had

an awesome night it was great people

pouring beers down our throats

blind women and song it was amazing and

we're like how are we going to end this

episode dull sich and then we realized

we've got the disgusting and the

vanishing paint

i've never taken the disgusting down the

track anywhere of any kind

i don't know what's going to happen but

i know i'm going to beat you in my car

because you're going to be driving the

vanishing paint oh either way it's your

car

right i win either way all right let's

run them all right

[Music]

yes i wanted to be in the caddie grammy

but i got to tell you i am super excited

to take the disgusting down the track

for my very first time

it's got a 410 inch small block it's got

an american powertrain 5 speed 373s

detroit locker

and i've never taken it down a track so

i'm going to build up the excuses right

now and tell you

don't ridicule me when i either bog it

off the line or spin the tires and when

i granny shift it

because i don't know how to launch this

thing and i don't want to break it but

i'm going to beat dulce anyway

i get to raise freiburger and one of my

favorite cars the vanishing paint

challenger

under the hood a 360 mopar small block

hopped up but nothing crazy

transmission just a 727 torque flight

automatic nothing special there

in the back a nine inch forward rear end

with 3-0 gears now that's going to hurt

me here because

i'm only going to go through the quarter

mile using first and second gears

i'm pretty sure it's going to be enough

to take out freiburger in the disgustang

wish me luck

[Music]

all systems go i'm super excited to race

this car i hope it goes quick

i really really do i can't even make an

estimate because i don't know what's

going to happen here

[Music]

all right i'm waiting on fried burger

and this big burnout

[Applause]

okay burnout worked good

[Applause]

so

[Applause]

[Applause]

yeah this guy's fun

i'm gonna get good at this someday the

stick

makes it yeah man i left piling that

time and spun the tires but

this thing doesn't have any traction

device has been no slapper bars no cal

tracks

none of that 160 degrees tons of oil

pressure

disgusting rule

[Music]

aha dulcing that was awesome i mean i'm

happy i won did you see i went 12

21. i really wanted to beat you but

there is no way

that is the faster car for sure well i'm

just super stoked that this went 13-19

yeah to run that at 3 500 feet of

elevation with this is great

and it tells me as i think i warned you

that car will go 11.99 oh it will you're

around 12

20. 12 21 and 112 wow yeah nothing

scoops i can get that thing

we may have blown up the caddy grammy we

may have driven here in a minivan but

you know what

this zip tie drags is another giant win

let's go hang out with some fans let's

do it

boom boom boom

you may see gremlin failure all i can

see

is disgusting win running low 12s at

altitude and the vanishing paint

also stout below 13 but i have to admit

the gremlin did snatch defeat from the

jaws of failure

as a matter of fact i think it's

becoming the new roadkill rotson

never failing to fail but after we got

this thing home after the ziptiedrags

was over

we did tear it apart we found out what

went wrong with that cadillac 500 and it

wasn't the engine builder's fault

and it wasn't even our fault you want to

find out what happened you're gonna have

to look for it on an

upcoming episode of roadkill garage

because

we fixed that junk

[Music]

really this is just a precursor the real

episode is

about the road trip and and the zip tie

drags event

this is the precursor well i guess it is

because the real cursing is about to

begin

yeah i don't know the history of donuts

but i can tell you this this is a

custard-filled donut

i'm going to consume the entire

custard-filled donuts and then

i'm going to proceed into a diabetic

seizure

hey steve yes i'm going to have to

handle something for you now

give me away with me those are my own

titanium scissors i know i

use those on my hair

[Music]

you