With a dizzying number of engines available, the tenth-generation Eldorado was sure to please almost any buyer, or so Cadillac thought. A couple of the choices (a 350 diesel and a 368 V8-6-4) didn’t work out quite as well as they had hoped. This 1981 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz is posted here on craigslist in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and they’re asking $7,000 (I’m assuming U.S. dollars?) Here is the original listing, and thanks to Curvette for the tip!
Despite the engines available in this Eldorado originally, and we don’t know what that was as there’s no VIN provided and the seller doesn’t mention what the original engine was, either the seller or a former owner (again, we don’t know due to a lack of information given) of this 1981 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz skipped all of that and put in a 1973 Olds Rocket 350 V8!
In 1981, Eldorado buyers could choose an optional 105-hp 350 Olds diesel or a standard 140-hp 368 V8-6-4. In 1981, there was also an optional 125-hp 4.1-liter V6 that was newly available for the first time ever in a Cadillac, but it seems like it would be an easier swap to fit a Cutlass 350 where a Cadillac 350 or 368 would have been, rather than a V6. I’m assuming this car had the standard V8-6-4. You can see that the bumper filler material has been replaced, but not color-matched to the Saxony Red (?) exterior paint. The tenth-gen Eldorados were made from 1979 through 1985, and I wonder what a six-door pickup convertible snowmobile pontoon boat body style may have looked like… (just kidding)
Beautiful matching red leather greets the passengers, and I guarantee this is a comfortable car to both drive and ride in. There really doesn’t seem to be a flaw inside other than some light wrinkles on the driver’s seat. The seats look fantastic overall. Since the tenth-generation Eldorados were made in Linden, New Jersey, the trunk compartment can easily hold four adult bodies. I’m kidding, that wasn’t funny, I love New Jersey. The Biarritz package adds some nice luxury touches, and this car really looks like a winner to me.
Here’s the 1973 Oldsmobile 350 Rocket V8, which would have had around 180 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque when new and installed in a 1973 Olds Cutlass. I see an Edelbrock air cleaner, so I’m assuming there’s at least an Edelbrock carburetor under there. The seller says this engine has 81,000 km (50,331 miles) on it and it’s strong and very reliable, and as usual, power is sent to the front wheels through an automatic. This looks like a no-brainer to me, especially at this giveaway price of $7,000. Any thoughts on this Olds 350-swapped Eldorado?
Dr Olds to the rescue 🚀
The Olds 350 is a great choice ( didn’t the ’79s have an Olds 350?) These are great looking cars. Its a shame they didn’t just leave the 368 V8 alone and not have the V8 6 4 setup. It was related to the 425, 472 and 500. Good engines other than the cylinder shut down feature. Its a very pretty color and would look great if they could match the paint for the filler panels.
Yes, sir, I believe it was a regular ol’ (Olds) 350 without any funny business going on.
I’ve always thought that Oldsmobile V8s are as reliable as an anvil. And sound great with the exhaust opened up too. Nothing like a 455 Burbling at an idle. (Off topic sorry)
But that 6 door drop top pontoon pickup sounds very intriguing!!!! Especially if it floats…. lol
Nice to see a more powerful engine than the 307. Plus it’s clean, not a bad price if runs that well.
NICE!!! A comfortable Biarritz interior and an engine that will move it, what’s not to love?
This looks like a great deal even with spending a few bucks to match the bumper fillers. With 50k miles on that 350, it’s hardly broke in.
Driveinstile mentioned a pontoon. How about Amphibarritz? The usher just opened the door for me!
The 368 was fuel injected and would have a display above the climate control showing cylinder deactivation. Buick 4.1 v6 was carberated. Most likely this was a failed 350 diesel which had a direct replacement gasoline olds motor installed. Most of those diesels failed with less 50k on the odometer. Had a few swaps in my shop over the years.
If I remember correctly, it was fairly easy to defeat the V8-6-4 system and run it as a standard V8, which many, if not most owners did. However, the Olds 350 diesel was a disaster. GM used the gas engine block, which wasn’t strong enough for diesel pressures and quickly failed. I remember many diesel Olds being converted back to gas after the diesel engine came apart. Anyway, I suspect this originally had the diesel and the 350 gas version was an easy swap.
No the diesel was a different block, it did use tooling from the gas engine. As far as “disaster”, I drive several Olds diesel powered cars every day and love them, excellent fuel economy and dependable too. The negative publicity they got was over the top, but there were some problems early on that Olds promptly addressed. If you’ve never had one, you don’t know anything about them. Check out the Facebook groups of happy Olds diesel owners. When you follow the news, 99% is the bad news, the good news isn’t ever talked about.
I remember GM doing this when the 350 diesels failed, same block and dimensionally compatible. Should be an awesome Eldorado.
That’s not completely correct. The disaster part is. The diesel block was a lot different than the gas block. The diesel block was 80 lbs heavier than the gas blocks. Had the big block 3” main journals vs 2.5” for the gas engines. The main journal webbing was beefed up, the blocks had a higher nickel content, and there was a lot of extra material in the cylinder walls. You could bore a diesel block .125 and still have more cylinder wall thickness than a stock 350 gas engine. Mondello’s out of California specialized in racing Olds engines and loved the diesel blocks and wrote several articles on the subject. The disaster wasn’t because the blocks weren’t strong enough it just wasn’t a good design from the start.
A gas Olds 350 was a common swap to replace the 350 diesel, both being Olds 350 blocks they bolted up, and suddenly you had a dependable great running Cadillac. This one looks very nice for 7k if it were closer I’d take a look at it in person.
The one thing you had to remember was to use the flex plate and starter for a 350. Check for the right balancer, too. They vibrate like hell if you try to reuse the diesel parts.
Eldorado and Seville had a smaller diameter flywheel. You had to buy a flywheel for an original gas engine Eldorado. It was easy to do since the 1st FWD Caddies of this gen were Olds powered.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but that is not an ’81 grill! I owned a ’79 and it had this grill but Caddy changed it to a finer mesh type in ’80 and later models, till ’85 in the same body style, I believe???
@Mongoose
You’re right, that is definitely a ’79 or ’80 grill. ’81 was much more refined with tiny “egg crates”.
Absolutely right! I noticed it first thing and decided I needed to read through the comments first before posting. The 81 was exactly as you described. Thank you!
Yes, that’s a 79 or 80 grille
$7000 Canadian is about $5000 US but even if it’s $7000 US it looks like a deal to me. Great write up Scotty.
Scotty,
Im from NJ and you couldn’t be more correct about the body count, especially around the Linden area.
The ’59, ’74, ’75 & ’76 were the best Cadillacs at that feature. They were a 6 to 8 count, stacked correctly.
🤣🤣🤣
This car appears to have been a gasser from the start, swapped from the original Caddy engine to the Olds. That appears to be Cadillac’s V8-6-4 emblem of that era below the rub strip at the back of the front fender.
I had an 81 where the diesel was pulled before I bought it. A .030 over 350 with a little cam, a few carb tweaks and a recurved distributor make a terrific car.
When I see an ad from Canada, I always assume Canadian dollars.
Am I wrong?
What’s not to like red om red in a beauttiful car and no boat anchor junk 4.1 grenade. 1980 was last year for 368 Caddy engine. Joe Mondelo told ne personally Olds blocks had higher nickel content than other GM divisions. I had two Olds 350 powered cars. Good old reliable cast iron. No stupid aluminum junk.
Yes, we used Olds gas engines to de-diesel diesel powered GM‘s all the time. Usually 350s but also 403s and occasionally 260s. These engines were plentiful in the junkyards at good prices. If we had better pics, I could tell. If it was a diesel, the diesel emblem on the trunk has been removed. (Would have been rt side under Biarritz) The emblem on the front fender from the one blurry picture could either be diesel or V8-6-4 looks more like a V8 6 4 emblem. Also no good pics of the dash to see if it says diesel fuel only on the fuel gauge. I actually owned an 81 Diesel that I put a 350 gas engine in and did this for numerous customers. The diesel powered cars were cheap used (for good reason) and usually well equipped. I liked that body style Eldorado and owned a few of them. The 350 Olds was the standard engine in 79 (1st yr) and maybe 80 but it was fuel injected.