Back to Main Page	The Cadillac Story
	At Schrader’s, we recognized the 500 cubic inch Cadillac V8 to be an incredible street motor 10 years ago. It’s the biggest displacement regular production motor ever made, features 5” bore spacing, perfectly square bore to stroke ratio, nodular iron crankshaft and very high nickel content in the block and head castings. With just a few carefully placed modifications you can end up with a totally streetable torque monster that puts most other domestic V8’s in it’s price range to shame. Our 509 inch crate motor weighs slightly less than a cast iron headed small block Chevrolet and makes more torque at 1500 rpm that a mild SBC does at 3500. Plus it has the distributor in the front for easy swaps. We offer a crate style, ready to run 509 inch 9.0:1 Cadillac motor that’s designed for the street performance builder who’s looking for a simple torquey alternative to the sea of SBC’s and SBF’s at a comparable price. Our 509 inch Cadillac crate style motors are currently priced at $3995 outright with no core charge. Our crate motors start out as seasoned 1970-76 Cadillac 500 cores. They are stripped and sent out for inspection and machine work. Cranks are machined to their next oversize, usually .010/.010 as these crankshafts are massively strong. All of our blocks are bored to .040 oversize for 509 cubic inches. We use Keith Black hypereutectic pistons and Circle Power cast iron rings for quick seating and long life on the street. The short blocks are assembled using only high quality Clevite 77 rod and main bearings and Durabond camshaft bearings. The factory flatback timing set is upgraded to a Cloyes True Roller and the factory aluminum bodied oil pump is replaced with a Melling cast iron body pump. Our crate motor uses the 1973-76 open chamber 120cc cylinder head for 9.0:1 compression with the flat top KB piston. They are shot tumbled and tested, then given a full three angle valve job. The heads are assembled using street performance valve springs (100 pounds on the seat/265 open) and vastly improved performance locks and retainers. We replace the stock style hard plastic valve stem seals with umbrella style Viton rubber seals. Due to the very high nickel content in the head castings there is no need to install hardened seats. We use CMD camshafts in all our motors and you get your choice of four camshafts. Since our motor is intended for street performance use only your choices range from a mild street performance cam to a hot street performance camshaft with a lopey idle. All these cams will work fine with a stock converter and make enough vacuum to run your brake booster or other vacuum powered accessories. Finally, the entire stock rocker arm setup is trashed in favor of a shaft rocker system manufactured by Rocker Arm Specialists. With billet stands and a one piece hardened rocker shaft the valve train is tied together eliminating one of the few real weak points this motor has from the factory. All of our crate motors are topped off with an Edelbrock model 2115 dual plane intake manifold. In addition to saving a considerable amount of weight it’s hard to beat this intake for performance up to 5000 rpm and 500 horsepower. We include stock style tin valve covers and a front or mid sump pan at no extra cost, and we also include a new Flow Kooler water pump and a new windowless flexplate. We have lots of options available including ignitions (HEI, Points style, Pertronix and Joe Hunt Magneto), carburerators and fuel pumps, flywheels and pilot bushings for manual transmission setups, brackets, pulleys and custom paintwork. After final assembly all of our motors have their camshafts broken in on our in house test stand. After a final inspection and baseline tune they are ready to be delivered. This is the only combination we build and sell. You can buy a much higher performance 500 Cadillac based motor from other vendors and those are really a testament to their hard work and devotion to this powerplant. But we believe that dollar for dollar you will not find a better value out there in any crate style pushrod street performance V8. Please contact us for more information or to order your Schrader’s 509 Cadillac crate motor today.

Back to Main Page

The Cadillac Story

At Schrader’s, we recognized the 500 cubic inch Cadillac V8 to be an incredible street motor 10 years ago. It’s the biggest displacement regular production motor ever made, features 5” bore spacing, perfectly square bore to stroke ratio, nodular iron crankshaft and very high nickel content in the block and head castings. With just a few carefully placed modifications you can end up with a totally streetable torque monster that puts most other domestic V8’s in it’s price range to shame. Our 509 inch crate motor weighs slightly less than a cast iron headed small block Chevrolet and makes more torque at 1500 rpm that a mild SBC does at 3500. Plus it has the distributor in the front for easy swaps. We offer a crate style, ready to run 509 inch 9.0:1 Cadillac motor that’s designed for the street performance builder who’s looking for a simple torquey alternative to the sea of SBC’s and SBF’s at a comparable price. Our 509 inch Cadillac crate style motors are currently priced at $3995 outright with no core charge.

Our crate motors start out as seasoned 1970-76 Cadillac 500 cores. They are stripped and sent out for inspection and machine work. Cranks are machined to their next oversize, usually .010/.010 as these crankshafts are massively strong. All of our blocks are bored to .040 oversize for 509 cubic inches. We use Keith Black hypereutectic pistons and Circle Power cast iron rings for quick seating and long life on the street. The short blocks are assembled using only high quality Clevite 77 rod and main bearings and Durabond camshaft bearings. The factory flatback timing set is upgraded to a Cloyes True Roller and the factory aluminum bodied oil pump is replaced with a Melling cast iron body pump.

Our crate motor uses the 1973-76 open chamber 120cc cylinder head for 9.0:1 compression with the flat top KB piston. They are shot tumbled and tested, then given a full three angle valve job. The heads are assembled using street performance valve springs (100 pounds on the seat/265 open) and vastly improved performance locks and retainers. We replace the stock style hard plastic valve stem seals with umbrella style Viton rubber seals. Due to the very high nickel content in the head castings there is no need to install hardened seats.

We use CMD camshafts in all our motors and you get your choice of four camshafts. Since our motor is intended for street performance use only your choices range from a mild street performance cam to a hot street performance camshaft with a lopey idle. All these cams will work fine with a stock converter and make enough vacuum to run your brake booster or other vacuum powered accessories. Finally, the entire stock rocker arm setup is trashed in favor of a shaft rocker system manufactured by Rocker Arm Specialists. With billet stands and a one piece hardened rocker shaft the valve train is tied together eliminating one of the few real weak points this motor has from the factory.

All of our crate motors are topped off with an Edelbrock model 2115 dual plane intake manifold. In addition to saving a considerable amount of weight it’s hard to beat this intake for performance up to 5000 rpm and 500 horsepower.

We include stock style tin valve covers and a front or mid sump pan at no extra cost, and we also include a new Flow Kooler water pump and a new windowless flexplate. We have lots of options available including ignitions (HEI, Points style, Pertronix and Joe Hunt Magneto), carburerators and fuel pumps, flywheels and pilot bushings for manual transmission setups, brackets, pulleys and custom paintwork.

After final assembly all of our motors have their camshafts broken in on our in house test stand. After a final inspection and baseline tune they are ready to be delivered.

This is the only combination we build and sell. You can buy a much higher performance 500 Cadillac based motor from other vendors and those are really a testament to their hard work and devotion to this powerplant. But we believe that dollar for dollar you will not find a better value out there in any crate style pushrod street performance V8. Please contact us for more information or to order your Schrader’s 509 Cadillac crate motor today.