cadillac economy motor

[dpm68]

This has nothing to do with what we love, but has anyone ever heard of the economy v8 Cadillac made in the early 80s that went from an 8 to a 4 for fuel economy...and if so, how to disable it?

[Brock Samson]

an absolute POS  they put them in buicks and olds too... called the 1980  8/6/4 motor they were supoosed to deactivate the banks of cylinders but they didn't have the engine controls right yet to that that stuff.. i'll find a link for ya..
but STAY AWAY! 


link:
http://www.100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1980/cad81.htm

a dry discription not saying anything useful:

a much better discription:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1980-1989-cadillac2.htm

only offered for one yr. that should tell ya something,..

"Displacing 6.0 liters (368 cubic inches) and tuned for a modest 140 horsepower, the Cadillac V-8-6-4 arrived as optional on the 1981 Cadillac Seville and was standard in the balance of the 1981 Cadillac lineup (replacing Cadillac's conventional 425-cubic-inch V-8).

The heart of the V-8-6-4 was an electromechanical system, developed by the Eaton Corporation, that opened and closed the valves on two or four cylinders (hence the name) when signaled by an electronic module controlling the engine's digital fuel injection.

The aim, of course, was improved economy. This was to be accomplished via the cylinders shutting down under part-throttle, low-load conditions when the car didn't need all eight, such as in medium-speed highway cruising. It was a good idea, but too complex and undependable, and Cadillac paid a big price in both image and dollars once angry consumers began suing for redress.

Few mourned when the V-8-6-4 was terminated after just one year, though persisted in Cadillac limousines through 1982. (Ironically, GM revived the idea in the early 2000s -- though not for Cadillacs -- as "Active Fuel Management," which interim technical advances made utterly reliable and virtually invisible to the driver.)"


But caddy also shared with buick and olds a diseil 350 that was an utter and complete failure too..
maybe that's what you meant?.. 

 

[dpm68]

Thanks Brock. What it is is that a friend of mine bought one of those Caddy hearses and it turns out to be an '82 4-6-8 and she wants all or nothin outa this sled for the dead. I'll look at the sites and see if there's a cheap way to disable it or we might to have to drop a BB chevy innit. That might bring some life into it...

[72chargerSE]

JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNK!!

Man, I remember that era!!!

Remember the GM diesels?!

[zstalker]

My grandma actually has and still drives on of those Seville's with the 8-6-4 engine.  not sure if she takes imaculate care of the motor like she does the rest of the car (it's totally pristine) or if she's just lucky, but it's still on the road, and as of a few years ago, was still able to de-activate cylinders.  maybe she got the lucky one...
~Erik~

[Ghoste]

Like a lot of GM's from that era, I think most of them were self disabling even before the warrantee ran out  , but the best way to disable it is to drain the oil and coolant.  If it won't even start this method won't work of course so you may have to resort to just swapping it outright.

[Chatt69chgr]

Truckers used to love those 8-4-2 cars.  When they would try to pass on the interstate, the truckers would key up their kilowatt linear cb rigs (which were illegal) and scramble the GM engine controller.  The cars would suddenly lose power and fall back.  Every time they would try to pass the same thing would happen.  They just couldn't for the life of them figure out what was happening.  Meanwhile, the truckers were laughing their ---'s off.  Turns out that the electronic boxes on the cars were not RFI resistant. 

I worked for a company that had the same issue.  They didn't have RFI resistant controlers so any time someone keyed a radio close to their control systems it would cause them to go haywire.  The outfit that I worked for before the last one did take this problem very, very seriously.  They were contractors to NASA and everything we designed there met several MIL specs to deal with this problem. 

[bsakal]

they were probably a bigger POS than the Olds diesel.

[OttawaCharger]

Supposedly, if you unplug the wire to the transmission,it will never let the 4/6/8 engage.  To find it, stand looking down over the master cylinder,on the transmission there is a black wire,with sort of a big plug on it, just pull it off.

[greatwn73]

I believe the switch is in the glove box on the left side to disable the 8-6-4. This now becoming more common in the newer cars and light trucks from both GM(5.3) and Chrysler(5.7) but of coarse works much better.

[Ghoste]

But I will at least give them credit for trying to be innovative.