1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

[caddyesc]

Hi, I am restoring this 1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz 2 owner car. i purchased it in 2019 where it had sat for 15 years. I got is running, new brakes, new tires, changed all the fluids, and restored the dash. All the accessories work including the sunroof and it does not leak. This summer starts the exterior and then the rest of the interior. The car was garage kept its whole life with no rust. It has 29,703 original miles. We have owned 17 Cadillacs from DeVille's to Escalades. The 1979 is our third and last of the tenth gen Eldorado. We love our Cadillacs and Corvettes. I will post images as we go along.

[JGilligan75]

Beautiful car and color, keep us posted with updates and photos of the restoration.

[James Landi]

Love this model's exterior and interior design, and you've got the best of ALL worlds with that engine.  If you don't know about the many challenges of the 4100 engine that was installed after '79, just Google 4100 HT Cadillac engines.   All that said, you've selected very wisely.  By the way, we all enjoy posted pictures.  Congratulations,   James

[79 Eldorado]

Very nice!

You didn't go into detail regarding what you did to get it running but if you haven't already changed the injector seals it would be a good job to add to your list. If they become hard, due to age, they can leak high pressure fuel which is a fire risk. Bruce Roe "bcroe" on this site also has an external relay upgrade which avoids a common ECU failure mode. I posted a thread with photos documenting the install on my 79 Biarritz. I was able to unpin and integrate all of the wiring into the factory ECU connectors other than one ground wire (by choice).

GM also used a plastic tooth timing set in 1979. That's another item which should be done at some point. I recall when we did my 1979 Toronado in the late 80's the gear had a crack in the valley between each gear tooth. Nothing was missing yet but it was scary to see. Other than the timing chain, small oil return passages in the head, and only 5 bolts securing each valve cover the Oldsmobile engines are very reliable. Older Oldsmobile engines had 10 bolts making them easier to seal. Most, if not all, Olds heads still have the material in the head allowing the five positions they removed to be drilled and tapped but I didn't want to do it on an engine which I wasn't planning to rebuild.

My Eldorado Biarritz had closer to 100K miles when I bought it and my oil returns had mostly plugged so I thoroughly cleaned them out and I changed the valve seals while I had the valve covers off. The Eldorado is one of several vehicles I've had with an Oldsmobile engine but it was the car I finally designed my own valve spring compressor tool for.

I look forward to hearing more about your car and seeing more photos!

Scott