Overtaker! It’s a Hearse Full Build Resurrection

(Tommy)>> You're watching Powernation.

(Tommy)>> Today on Detroit Muscle... Overtaker is going to be a ride that will grab the attention of your soul. No matter of your status or existence. ♪ ♪ [engines revving] ♪ ♪ Well, it's time for us to kick off another build. On this next project, I had to do a bit of some soul searching. That's ok. The question is... do we do Ford, Mopar or even a GM? I wanted something just to have some fun with it and I wanted it to have a big power plant. Because you know the old saying... there's no replacement for displacement. Plus, it needed to get noticed. And normally, people are dying to take a ride. ♪ ♪ A hearse? I wouldn't say it's for everybody. There's a lot of people out there that's kind of creeped out by them because, we all know what they have a purpose to do. It's like my old man use to say... it ain't the dead ones you got to worry about. It's the live ones. When we're done with this thing, it's gonna have plenty more life in it than it's got right now. ♪ ♪ I'm really curious about what Marc's words are going to be about this thing. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> I'm down here at US 43 Dragway, Tommy told me he was going to meet me here. He's got a big surprise for me. I'm thinking... it's a new project car and I'm hoping it's this one right here. '61 Falcon 2 door sedan. Actually had a car very similar to this. Same year, same body, it wasn't this nice though. It was kind of a project and Tommy knows I love Fords. And I love Falcons. And I wish I hadn't sold that one. And I'm hoping this is his big surprise for me, but there's only...

(Tommy)>> Surprise boss man! Check out what I got a killer deal on.

(Marc)>> (laughs)... I'm laughing just because I don't know what else to do.

(Tommy)>> You got to love it. I mean, this is an excellent opportunity for you to make wise jokes... something as beautiful as this thing.

(Marc)>> I just don't know what to say right now. I'll think of something.

(Tommy)>> I mean... it should leave you speechless. Especially speechless. Think about it.

(Marc)>> Just think about that and answer me later.

(Tommy)>> Let's see what it will do out there. You want a ride? ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> You know, I really thought this was a joke at first. And even though he's serious. It's still a joke.

(Tommy)>> Now one thing's for sure, I sure hope I impressed Marc.

(Marc)>> I guess I should just embrace it. Because there's no way you're going to make this car fast. I don't care what you do to it. It's got to weigh 7500 pounds.

(Tommy)>> Oh! The track's sticky. This old girl is probably going to make fun of herself.

(Marc)>> Don't choke!

(Tommy)>> I don't want to kill it. Here we go. [engine revving]

(Tommy)>> Oh! We red lighted.

(Marc)>> I've got to think of something funny to tell him when he gets back. [engine revving] (Tommy>> Oh! We can get better than that. It shifted.

(Marc)>> It's actually a little quicker than I thought it was going to be. I know that thing's got a 500 in it. It's got to.

(Tommy)>> I'm glad there's nobody in that right lane either. Cause I'm probably going to need both lanes to turn this big son of a gun around. I know that wasn't all that impressive but, you know... this thing's got that big ole quadra-jet under the hood. If you would, take the air cleaner off. Because I think it's choking it and could be killing me.

(Marc)>> I can't tell if you're serious.

(Tommy)>> No! I'm serious. Go ahead and get that off of there. That's cheap power. Don't scratch the paint. Don't worry! I ain't gonna rev it up. It'd scare you.

(Marc)>> You want to leave it out here so it don't weigh you down?

(Tommy)>> We're probably a second or so right there. Whoa! I can tell it's better. [engine revving] Woo! Man, that quadra-jet's squalling! [engine revving] That's still not impressive. Sounded better though. I bet a few of you all are thinking... I done lost my mind, dragging this big thing into the shop. And that could be the case, but I have to say... normally if it's a big body, I'm all about it. The power plant is going to get several components like heads, cam, intake and carb. To resurrect plenty of horsepower. Also, the trans is going to need a bit of some attention, so a new converter and a shift kit is a must. With the factory exhaust manifolds and tiny pipes... it's easy to say... they have a choke hold on us. So, we'll 86 them and install headers and fab up some side pipes that will rattle your bone. Those loud pipes are going to give the outside a bit of a sinister look, but we're not stopping there. We're going to doctor on the suspension, to give our creepy hauler a bad attitude. Lose those classic caps and spray on a fresh coat of gloss black to the wheels. Then fit them with some slicks, out back to have a death grip on the pavement. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> Up next... we dive into the heart of our hearse... upgrading our 500 cubic inch engine with a new cam and better flowing induction.

(Tommy)>> This is 500 cubic inches of Detroit engineering. Now, I know it doesn't look like a whole lot right now and the power output isn't all that impressive either. It makes somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 horse. But, after swapping out a couple parts, pulling some wrenches, well thins thing is going to make right at 1 horsepower per cubic inch. SO, that's 500. Oh! And the torque number is pretty impressive as well. Try 700 of them. [drill popping] To achieve those numbers, we'll start by disassembling the accessories on our engine. A small portion of these pieces, we will be reusing, but several you could say... are past their prime. So, they're headed to the scrap bin. [drill popping] We're planning to swap out our bump stick on our caddy, so a bit more tear down is in order. We got to get this timing cover off. The distributor out of the way. Oh! Can't forget all these ooey, gooey inards. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> We'll add a little assembly lube to our cam then slide it in. Lift on this cam is 520 thousandths on the intake and 504 on the exhaust. The duration, at 50 thousandths lift is 234 degrees on the intake side and 249 degrees on the exhaust side. ♪ ♪

(Tommy)>> With those all torqued down, now it's time to spray on a splash of color. Jeez this thing's heavy. ♪ ♪ Beep! Beep! Beep! Before we drop on out intake, we'll add a little bit of r-t-v and a new gasket to make sure everything seals properly. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> I know we can't bolt these in yet but, I want to see how it looks. Oh! Look at that. The baby one.

(Tommy)>> Yeah! Just 850.

(Marc)>> Can't wait to see that in the car.

(Tommy)>> Now it's easy to say that our old Cadillac hearse makes quite a statement. I want to do the same thing with our exhaust. So today, I'm going to be fabbing up some side pipe mufflers. Now we picked up all this stuff from Magnaflow and they offer several components, you know in their Builder series. The first thing that we need to do to get started is do a bit of measuring on the car. ♪ ♪ Here, we're trying to get this thing as close as possible to the front side of the rocker near the wheel. With a couple of bends and some tack welds, we hit the sweet spot. ♪ ♪ [saw cutting] ♪ ♪ The tube coming off our headers is 2 ½ inches. So, I fabbed up an adaptor to connect it to our 90. ♪ ♪ Now this next step is going to convert a side pipe in a bit more of a muffler direction. And what we're going to be doing is adding these baffles that we got. [welder crackling] We'll slide on these stamped rings that will help locate and support our baffled tube. [welder crackling] Once it's all tacked up, we can slide our baffle inside our exhaust tube and tap her in. [hammer tapping] ♪ ♪ A small amount of massaging and burning in some wire and we're almost to the finish line. [welder crackling] Now we just need to fab up some hangers to keep these side pipes in place. Don't have to get to elaborate here, we're just using the flat stock... With a few cuts... Drill a hole. An isolator. A little bit of welding. Bolt it in. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> Wow! That wasn't what I expected, but I like it.

(Tommy)>> It's pretty impressive isn't it?

(Marc)>> That is the biggest muffler I think I've ever seen.

(Tommy)>> The wheel base had a whole lot to do with that.

(Marc)>> Is it going to be loud?

(Tommy)>> Oh brother, it's probably going to be plenty loud. We'll tuck our tank in Overtaker, adding an upgraded fuel system.

(Tommy)>> Well, I guess you could say... We're about 6 feet deep with our makeover on our old Cadillac. Next thing we're going to dig into, is the fuel system. ♪ ♪ Don't really know what to call these things, but we'll start by taking out the casket clamp plates and rollers. ♪ ♪ Close enough, we can cut it. [drill popping] [saw humming] ♪ ♪ [drill popping] Not really suppose to climb into the back of a hearse but once. [saw humming] Now if everything goes right, this little tank here should fall right into place. Oh yeah! This next upgrade that we're going to be doing, is basically bolting on 150 horse plus or minus. So, our plan of attack is to be spraying this thing with some nitrous. It doesn't take but a couple of hours to install, plus it's economical. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> This particular kit we're using is called a plate system that we got from NOS. It sandwiches between your carburetor and your intake manifold. With the plate in place, the carburetor can sit on top of it and get bolted down.

(Tommy)>> To mount a nitrous bottle, it's really basic. Comes with some brackets, you got to make a couple holes and you want to make sure that you mount it onto a solid foundation. We're going to put ours here on the floor. ♪ ♪ [drill popping] You know Marc? I wonder how many people in this world has put a nitrous setup on a hearse?

(Marc)>>I'm...probably very few.

(Tommy)>> Probably wouldn't hurt if there were a few more out there. ♪ ♪

(Marc)>> So I guess... all that's left now is to just push the button. Go ahead! Make sure it ain't going to leak. [valves hissing]

(Tommy)>> Dude! That looks pretty cool on this end.

(Marc)>> That was awesome.

(Tommy)>> One thing that you may run into, if you're doing an odd duck conversion like we are, on that Cadillac, as far as the rear, is finding a set of wheels that's going to match front and rear and the attitude of your ride. Luckily for us, we found this jewel. This is a stock wheel that would come on an F150, but it would be the spare. This is Ford's attempt to save some cash. Now like I mentioned, we wanted the front and rear to match, Summit had exactly what we needed. This is a U.S. wheel, that they offer as their Rat Rod series. And with a splash of color on these, maybe some pin stripes and even some chrome lug nuts, it church it up a bit. We're going to spray these down with some wax and grease remover because of the potential contamination that may be on them. ♪ ♪ Then a little hand jiving with a red pad, will prep the surface for our paint. And one more wipe down, she's ready to go. We're going to mix up a few ounces of paint, add our reducer. And a small splash of hardener. ♪ ♪ Painting wheels can be a little complicated because of all the curves and opposing angles. The trick here is to make sure everything is covered with a nice even coat. ♪ ♪ Once that's dried, it's time to spray on our shiny. ♪ ♪ Now we got to let our goodies in the booth dry for a little while, so we can that we can handle them. And while they're doing their thing, I'm going to tell you about the rear tires that we going to be running up under our Cadillac. I went to Summit Racing and picked up a set of M and H Race Master d-o-t approved tires. These are a 275-50 R17, that are 10 ½ inches wide. They're going to fill up that steel wheel we're going to be running and it's going to look pretty killer when we're all said and done. ♪ ♪ Now the next thing I'm going to do with this tire machine is add my pin stripe. It's time to do some painting. Now I know most people don't use them for this, but this rotating deck is going to help me. ♪ ♪ Now that's a nice looking piece. Now we just got to get it up on the car. [drill popping] ♪ ♪ With a little nitrous, we test how far this Cadillac will go on the track. [engine revving]

♪ ♪

(Pat)>> Alright! You're all programmed in and this came in under it's own power. So, now the big question... what's been done to it?

(Tommy)>> Man! We done basically a head cam intake swap. It's 500 cubic inch. We didn't touch the bottom end. This thing from the factory made... about 200 horse. So, if we make more than that... Tch! Tch! We've knocked it out of the park. And with that, it shouldn't be all that hard to make some significant power, from there. When I say significant, 50 percent gain with nitrous...

(Pat)>> Oh that's right! We're going to spray it.

(Tommy)>> It's all good man. With this type of cubic inch, it should be pretty easy to do. [engine humming] [engine revving]

(Pat)>> It made 258 horse and 323 pound feet.

(Tommy)>> Well, I know we're climbing, let's go ahead and hook the nitrous up, so we can climb a big jump.

(Pat)>> I'm all for it.

(Daniel)>> For every 50 horse of nitrous, you want to pull a degree of timing out. We're hitting this thing with a 100 shot, so that means we need knock out 2 degrees of timing. [engine revving] Alright cousin. Don't forget that boogie button.

(Pat)>> Give her the purge man! [valve hissing] [engine revving] That made... 326.99 for power at the wheel now. And torque is at 402.81.

(Daniel)>> Man that's awesome!

(Tommy)>> Now that's with the little one though. So, we can go up from here.

(Pat)>> You have to go up from here. Now that you know that it all works, now you got to go up.

(Daniel)>> I'm gonna get 50 more and put in it.

(Tommy)>> Dropping in the new jets, just takes a little wrenching here on the front and rear of the plate. [engine revving]

(Pat)>> It keeps going up. 341 and 438.

(Tommy)>> Well... I'm gonna call it a win.

(Pat)>> The next step is to what?

(Daniel)>> The racetrack.

(Pat)>> Racetrack.

(Tommy)>> And you know, if we absolutely like, disintegrate this thing, you may have to cut your teeth on some Cadillac.

(Pat)>> You know I may or may not have worked on one of these before. If something needs to be done to it, I think we can help you out. [engine revving]

(Tommy)>> We're lucky to have Ethridge Motorsports Park right down the road from us. Now before we head down the track, let's talk about our goals with this thing. We wanted it to be a head turner and as we're cruising around through the pits, I believe we got exactly the reaction we were looking for.

(Bystander)>> It's pretty neat. I like it.

(Bystander)>> I ain't never seen a hearse like that. ♪ ♪ [engine revving] ♪ ♪ (Tommy) I ain't kidding. My fac is kind of hurting.

(Daniel)>> Is that from the g-forces on launch?

(Tommy)>> Not exactly. Is more of the smiles that I got from driving this big, goofy car.

(Daniel)>> Man that's awesome!

(Tommy)>> I will say... I didn't run the nitrous, I figure you got to crawl before you can walk and you're taller than me, so you should be able to have a longer stride. So, maybe we'll cover ground a little better. Have your way with it.

(Daniel)>> I plan to. Thank you very much!

(Tommy)>> You go right ahead big guy. [engine revving] [valves hissing] [engine revving] So, what do you think about it?

(Daniel)>> How bout this sports fans.

(Tommy)>> Dude! I tell ya, you looked a lot better than I did out there.

(Daniel)>> I had the boogie button on though.

(Tommy)>> Nitrous definitely helped! Now with this old car guys, we' aren't the fastest by any means, we set the bar pretty high, but you know sometimes you need to set goals and try to achieve them. Man I have to say... I think we knocked it out of the park.

(Daniel)>> You know what this means don't you?

(Tommy)>> What's that?

(Daniel)>> This means that we are now, world record holders. We have the worlds' fastest, 1976 Cadillac hearse in black paint, with twice pipes down the sides at 150 shot, powered by a 500 Cadillac.

(Tommy)>> I think you're right! Let's go get a cheeseburger.

(Daniel)>> If you'd like to take a look back at this build, hit up powernation t-v dot come and check out the build page for Overtaker. [engine revving]