On Monday December 14th 1987, one of many black Cadillac Broughams rolled down the Clark Street assembly line just as many Cadillac automobiles had before it. Boombox radios blasting stations like WCSX and WLLZ competed with the symphony of machinery as workers did their part to turn a jumble of individual pieces of chrome and plastic into a Brougham that would burble down the American highway. But this was one of the last Broughams to be built in Detroit – by Friday December 18th , the Clark Street Assembly plant would be shut down for good, with the last Fleetwood built body stamped out a few days before on Wednesday the 16th. Some of the workers found jobs at other GM plants, others were not so fortunate – and the Brougham found a new home in Texas at Arlington, at least until 1996.
Fast forward to Spring 2017, and I get a Facebook notification that I have been tagged in a photo from a friend of mine. It’s a black Cadillac Brougham – my friends know my obsession with old Cadillacs…and it’s for sale! But even with it being sharp looking and in great condition (new bumper fillers, windshield, vinyl roof, and carpet) I had to pass as I had already purchased a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood from a friend. Looking back, I should have gone with the Brougham – I had a 1984 Sedan deVille as my first car and it suited me fine, but I didn’t want to renege on my agreement to buy the 96. But hey, no use crying over spilt milk. The owner of the Brougham is an older radio guy from northern Michigan, so he and I become FB friends and stay in touch. And two months ago, he messages me that he STILL can’t find anyone who wants his Brougham…so would I take it off his hands for a bit less than the advertised price?
The only picture I have of Dads 87 Brougham “Igor”
This time I say yes! One of my Dad’s limos was a black 87 Brougham named Igor – and how can I say no to another car from my youth?! I agreed to his price, and made plans to come out and get it over the July 4th holiday when I would be in the area (ironically enough, in Cadillac MI) and not have to make a mad dash to get the car and be back in Pittsburgh for work. But you know what happens with the best laid plans – something came up with work around July 4th (Christmas related ironically enough – shooting a holiday TV special in July), so I had to mad dash to Michigan and get the car over a weekend.
Take the last train to Elkhart…
Trying to make this as painless (and cheap) as possible, I ended up taking the train overnight from Pittsburgh to Elkhart Indiana where a friend of mine would take me north to Traverse City where the car was. The train ride was fun, even if the train station was a bit…sketchy. I paid extra for a sleeper car and got some shut eye on the way to Indiana – well, as much as possible on a train car that’s rocking and rolling. And due to Amtrak delays we were over an hour late getting to Elkhart. No worries, as I had planned to drive in the evening after getting the car and stay somewhere in Ohio before getting to work Monday morning.
Amazed this has lasted since Dec 87 – the build sheet
Manual rear height adjustment – roughly 90 PSI is stock ride height
We got to the Caddy about 5 in the afternoon – and it was just as advertised. Paul showed me around some of the quirks of the car, like the air shocks that are manually adjusted via a tire valve near the gas cap and the car cover in the trunk.
But when I opened the drivers door for the first time…all I could think about was my Pap’s 1983 Oldsmobile 98 Regency sedan. This Brougham smelled EXACTLY like it! I settled in behind the familiar wheel (leather wrapped this time), adjusted the power seat, and started to make miles towards Ohio as the soft burble of the 307 Olds soothed me along rural Michigan.
Living room on wheels
Unfortunately, my serenity went away quickly as about 40 miles down the road…one of the rear tires decided to disintegrate on MI 115 doing 55. At 6:30 in the evening, about 18 miles from Clare MI…when nothing is open. Check the spare…and it won’t hold air. Call AAA – which was an ordeal in itself…my AT&T phone wouldn’t play nice with their automated phone system (not recognizing voice commands or DTMF), so I had to use my Verizon backup to get a live operator. And then due to a dispatch error, the tow truck didn’t get there until 10 PM.
What 15 year old tires look like
But you know what? It ended up being ok – I stayed at a hotel in town after dropping the car off at a tire shop, and got some work done (last minute radio show to record – have mic, will travel) and got a good night sleep. Called Bob’s Tire at 8:30 AM – and I was in luck! They had two tires in stock that fit the Caddy – with whitewalls! Hankook Optimos that ended up matching the front tires – the fronts were ok (date code 2015), while the rear tires were from 2005!
Even on a tow truck it looks cool
Back on the road at 11 AM, and had an uneventful but rainy trip back to Pittsburgh – with a stop in Saginaw for a Culver’s ButterBurger & cheese curds.
I would trade Eat n Park for one of these in Pittsburgh
The cruise control worked wonderfully, and I kept the Caddy rolling at the speed limit with the help of my phone GPS since the speedo is a few MPH off. Rolling along at 70, the 307 Olds managed 23 MPG on the flatlands of Michigan & Ohio on regular gas, even as the Electronic Climate Control was set to 60 throwing out that wonderful icy cold conditioned air that GM is famous for.
The Caddy Crest leading the way home down Perry Hwy
Back home, I am now getting to make a few repairs to the car – the windshield had a nick in the glass that I fixed with a kit, some touchup paint to fill in a few nicks, and repairing a small tear in the vinyl roof.
At least the badge looks powerful
Much has been said on this site about the game of musical chairs Caddy played in the 80’s with the RWD C/D body engine choice, and while the 307 Olds is not the 425, it isn’t as bad as I remember it. Granted it struggles up steep grades here in Western PA, but I haven’t had any issues merging onto highways nor keeping up with traffic. What does drive me crazy is the tendency to not want to restart when warm – but that might be due to the ethanol content of the gasoline. But I would be lying if I told you I haven’t been googling how to convert it to EFI.
Classic vs Contemporary
Driving it daily isn’t much different than my 91 deVille, except I make sure to leave more room in front to stop. The power steering is WAY overboosted for that “drive by pinky” feeling, it rocks and rolls in the corners, but not dangerous once you get used to it. The ‘91 deVille feels like an BMW by comparison – the extra 60 HP, smaller dimensions, independent suspension, rack & pinion steering, and 600 pounds less weight make a world of difference. It’s a shame Cadillac let the big car wither on the vine – the interior on paper isn’t much roomier, but it FEELS roomy. And while I love the styling cues of the 89 and up FWD C car, nothing says “Cadillac” quite like these.
But the sales figures speak for themselves – people loved the new deVille & FWD Fleetwood at first, even if it didn’t help Cadillac attract younger buyers. That tufted velour/vinyl top/wire wheel cover Broughamitis is a hard habit to break, especially when you still believe that the competition is a Chrysler Fifth Ave or Town Car rather than a Benz or Bimmer. The Brougham never sold in great numbers, with 1987 being the high water mark of 65k produced. Compare that with 100k for the FWD C body – and production steadily trended down to under 40,000 by 1990. These cars appealed to older tastes and were a throwback even then – watch the sales video below. The only two people not members of The Greatest Generation are the goomba Murano glass types from New Jersey (I resemble that remark!) – aside from those two, it’s all senior citizens throwing on the cardigan sweater before heading to the country club for a few holes, then maybe a nice steak dinner at the place with the dark wood interior that matches the Brougham.
But there were enough hard core Classic Cadillac people out there – along with coachbuilders for hearses and limos – to keep the Detroit plants going, even after GM said they were closing up in 85. But then GM decided to shut the plant down, and the final Clark Street Cadillacs came down the line. And with it a bit of the neighborhood too – I found on YouTube a two hour home movie shot by one of the Clark St employees with newscasts at the end of it. You can feel the wounded pride of people who truly believed that they built the best Cadillacs, local bars and restaurants worried about where their business will go, and a city bracing for the next round of closures and jobs fleeing elsewhere. With work being in all Christmas mode for our upcoming show, I think about how I would feel having to lose my job right before the holidays…and no way to get it back.
It’s not fast, it has no pretensions of being sporty, and the interior has more plastic wood than a 73 Zenith console TV – but I love it. That long hood with the Cadillac crest pointing the way, the seats that could be in my living room, and that boulevard ride make me feel like a king when I’m behind the wheel. Those who know me call me an old soul – I was wearing sweater vests to high school in 2004, I still listen to mostly 50’s and 60’s oldies, and my current favorite TV show is Perry Mason. So this car fits me like a glove – especially being a Jersey Guy who looks like a low level enforcer (seriously – some of the background singers at work thought I was security for my boss).
Three body trunk as we say in the Garden State
This past week I ended up going to a car show on Father’s Day – mostly to hang out with my friend who was emceeing it, but also to look at what the Steel City has to offer for classic cars. With the forecast calling for rain only about a dozen classics showed up, so I ended up putting my car in the show!
Mafia Staff Car – Keepa You Hands Off
I was pleasantly surprised how many people stopped to look at the car – having grown up around these all my life you just take them for granted. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that a car from the year I was born is a “classic,” but time marches on I guess. I even had a handful of people ask if it was for sale! Nope, and I’m not selling my 91 deVille either.
“See kids? This is what they used to call a land yacht before Escalades”
You can’t go home again, but with this Brougham I can at least visit. One second of that soft V8 burble and I’m back in 1999 with my Pap & Dad, lamenting how the transmission has “no holdback” and enjoying the soft velour seats. I can’t get that from a Benz at any price.
Beautiful car, and a well written story. It reminds me of my grandparents. They had a circa 1985 Brougham, brown all the way. Some years after my grandfather died, my grandmother decided to buy herself a new car, the first one in her life that SHE had picked out…
…She picked a 1994 Fleetwood Brougham, taupe all the way. She gave it to me in 2004 and she’s been gone a while too but I still have the Caddy. It’s not stock and getting a little battered, but still going.
Absolutely beautiful representation of a classic Cadillac.
Even by the late 1980s, with BMW love firmly entrenched in me, I still enjoyed the idea of having one of these.
You forgot to mention probably the coolest option on your “new” Cadillac. It has the Premiere Roof option which was a $900 option and gave the car a much more formal look compared to its non-Premiered siblings.
I have some issues… particularly with the 90-92’s with the 5.7 …Over the years I’ve acquired a few needing some salvation with very good intentions ( but rather less time) and kept two excellent examples. One of them is so nice… too nice really as it’s been a collection car since birth.. ( 1800 miles and I bought it off a rather well known collector ) I’m too afraid to drive it. So like the 78’ Biarritz and the 280SE cabriolet it will become a rather static car. But this does goad me into getting the other one I’ve kept a very nice white on white Brougham D’Elegance 5.7 with 56k miles into decent driver shape.
It occurs to me that M115 is the perfect sort of road for a car like this. Enough curves, hills & scenery to keep you awake and entertained, but not so much that you need a sportier ride.
About a decade ago I also got a flat in that area, but headed north. Thankfully the spare was good enough to get to Cadillac and a couple of tire stores were still open on a Saturday afternoon.
Nice story and an good reminder that tires age out whether they have good tread or not. I just replaced the 6 year old OEM tires on the Tacoma with four Defenders and I feel more comfortable about that.
My relationship with Cadillacs had always been one of respect and desire having driven a 56 four door, 61 convertible, 63 and 69 Coupe DeVilles (the 69 had “Ostrich” leather seats), and a 79 four door (my partner’s). I would love to have any of these old beauties in my garage right now (though most of them would not fit).
But, trying to keep an 85 4.1 low mileage but aging Eldorado running for an elderly widow neighbor drove me bananas and made me feel sad for the marque.
Your 88 is a beauty.
Low kms doesn’t mean a car is in good shape. Often, especially in a car that is 34 years old, lack of use is a real killer. Seals dry up, tires flat-spot, sensors stick, fluids turn to milkshakes and cause all kinds of expensive problems.
I use this metric as a rule of thumb: if the car you are driving as your DD is over 15 years old, either have a reserve fund to fix it or buy something newer to drive and then, if you like, drive your baby the weekend. But by all means, drive it.
Proof in point: The Hot Rod Lincoln sat for nine months. The four new whitewall tires I bought for it last year are already out of round.
My in-laws bought a blue ‘89 used in 1994. It was in great shape, and it was always a treat to ride in it. I loved the stretch-out room in the back seat and the smooth, quiet ride that you only get in a big rear-drive luxury car. I drove it a few times, and it was a different experience for me. I’m used to small and mid-sized cars, and driving the Cadillac felt like steering a yacht along the road…but it was a very pleasant feeling nonetheless. I went to the dealer with my father-in-law when he traded it for a new Taurus in 1999. He got a good deal on the Cadillac, but it was kind of sad to see it go. My mother-in-law liked the Taurus, but she (likely still) misses the Cadillac. There’s just no comparing the two.
I think my kids loved my 89 Brougham more than any other car I ever had during the years they were paying attention.
This is familiar territory for me, having dailied in an 89 for four years up until about 2005.
My back to back comparison was with the mechanically similar Olds 98 in its final rwd version. I always chalked it up to variables between individual cars, but the Olds was a smoother driver than the Cadillac. I never experienced the hot start issue in either, but my Cadillac always had a very slight engine vibration that the Olds lacked.
I had forgotten when Clark Street was closed down. It is cool to have one of the final cars from that historic plant.
And count me as a huge fan of Culvers!
Great story and car. I had a tire burst at 70mph in my ’81 Deville a couple of years ago, and it required a change of undies, but no damage to the car. I have two 307’s and have never noticed the hard start warm condition. I do use pure gas in my oldies (Shell V-Max 91), which might cure your issue, providing all your plugs, wires, electrics are good. For the mileage driven, it seemed more beneficial to use good gas in the oldies and avoid any issues.
Hard starting when warm is very indicative of a fiber float that has been eaten away by prior ethanol gas and is out of spec in the carburetor. I changed over to a brass one on my 1990 Brougham back when I owned it and that issue when away.
“I’m still coming to terms with the fact that a car from the year I was born is a “classic,” but time marches on I guess.” I know EXACTLY where you’re coming from–I’m 25 and believe any vehicle that looked sharp from around the 80s & 90s still looks decent if not contemporary today (IF it’s been maintained that is). As much as I’m not a fan of Ford phasing out the Aerostar in favor of the Windstar, I found this ’98 Windstar GL at North Main Auto Sales in Kershaw, SC to be fairly attractive for now being 22 years old (it was built in June 1997; I read the CARFAX report). Like my ’05 Astro, it’s clear this Windstar has been kept up to a reasonable degree for it to have lasted this long, especially with the model’s well-known reliability issues (ex: 3.8L head gasket failure). Fun fact: Ford began selling the Windstar in March 1994, the month & year I was born in. Also, the driver’s door was made longer than the passenger side in ’98 to compensate for the lack of dual sliders until the ’99 redesign.
It even has a hitch receiver! But I wouldn’t DARE haul or tow any serious loads with this thing–this was why the Astro (& to a lesser extent the Aerostar as well) was still favored for this purpose even as the competition grew to adopt Chrysler’s FWD layout for standard minivan design.
For being born in the early 1970s, the Fleetwoods and Devilles from that time are what comes to mind upon hearing “Cadillac” but one like yours is the second thing that springs to mind.
When we were shopping for a vehicle to transport my post-operative wife across the continental US in 2010, I was looking at Cadillacs like this and conversion vans. A good Cadillac never turned up.
Your tire situation reflects my biggest automotive phobia. A person can often work around many other things taking a hiatus, but a tire calling it quits changes that equation immediately.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Very nice car. One of my all time fav Cadillacs.
Oh lest I forget- “not starting when warm” is a trifle. Reason is a broken seal inside the fuel pressure regulator. We had the same issue on an ’89 GMC Sierra. We searched and investigated and examined… and in the end it was just a 40 Euros gadget, replaced in 10 minutes. Maybe you can just clean it. This wouldn’t cost anything at all.
Tom’s tire story gave me deja vu: Shortly after I acquired my ’91 Brougham, it blew a rear tire on the freeway. No serious damage done (and my AAA experience was much better!), but still disconcerting.
I recently sold that car to a friend whose grandmother had one just like it. I needed to make room for a new-to-me ’76 Fleetwood (a Talisman, no less!). I thought I was going to miss the Brougham a lot (it was a car I had wanted since I was a little kid in the ’80s), but I’m actually OK without it. The ’76 Fleetwood has even more style than the Brougham. My daily driver is a ’96 Fleetwood, which I’m sure anyone reading this post can appreciate is a great compromise between classic style and modern driveability.
I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to have a ’91-93 Sedan Deville, too. I admire the design. In some ways, it’s like an Acura Legend: a fwd sedan that still looks “right.” But I’ve never driven one, and I’m not sure that I would really enjoy driving it more than the ’96 Fleetwood. Maybe if I stumble across a clean Sedan Deville Touring Sedan (what a name!)… I love the idea of a classic look combined with semi-sport-sedan driving dynamics. But now I live in the midwest, where the roads are straight and the drivers are pokey, so even a SDTS might go to waste. Well, they’re so rare that I probably won’t ever have to make that decision anyway…
“…the Electronic Climate Control was set to 60 throwing out that wonderful icy cold conditioned air that GM is famous for.” I think the icy cold A/C carried over to the Astro too–you can feel it in my ’05 at even the lowest fan speed 🙂 ! I believe the Lincoln Town Car from that time also had automatic climate control as it was in my dad’s ’89 (final year for that bodystyle). Wish we still had it…but our ’04 Expedition Eddie Bauer is fundamentally just as good & a lot more functional for our family outings.
“You can’t go home again, but with this Brougham I can at least visit. One second of that soft V8 burble and I’m back in 1999 with my Pap & Dad, lamenting how the transmission has “no holdback” and enjoying the soft velour seats. I can’t get that from a Benz at any price.” AMEN to that!
I grew up in a tire shop so I tend to be, ahem, rather fanatical about tires. I have seen far too many tires shredded just like this. The day I bought my Acura TL it was in the shop for a new set of Michelin. It still had the stock, eleven year old tires on it and they had plenty of tread on them, as the car only had 60,000 km on it. One of them had a big bulge and the other three were cracked-all in places you’d never look.
As for the Caddy, well, sir, you are preaching to the choir. I am the caretaker for a 1979 Sedan DeVille and I really enjoy driving it. The basic engineering of these cars was really good and they drove well. Even now, it’s not hard to pilot one in traffic. Sure, it’s a big car but not in comparison to the gargantuan family devices so common today. The windows are big, it’s easy to see the corners and with 330 lb/ft of torque, it’s easy to squirt through gaps in traffic.
If I were to drive it more, there’d be a Wildwood brake upgrade with rear disks added. Brakes were always the weakest point of these cars and for me, it’s the most important criterion on a car. That’s because where I live, there are only two directions: up and down!
Great story and very nice car! I worked on quite a few of these big D-body Cadillacs when I was at the GM dealer. I specifically remember a black ’89 that looked just like yours that needed some engine work (I believe the infamous leaking intake gasket).They really were big solid feeling cars compared to the FWD C-bodies.
For your hard hot starts, you might have a leaking fuel bowl on the Q-jet carb. It could be leaking excess fuel into the engine, which is causing the hard hot starts. Does it start easier if the throttle is depressed as you crank? You might want to consider having the carb overhauled by a carb expert. That’d be a lot easier than doing an FI conversion IMO.
In comparison to the 80’s Town Car we discussed the other day, these Cadillacs were so much better styled. In 1980, the Cadillac was clearly the better of the two cars.. By the late 80s, the Lincoln still had its less attractive styling, but it made huge improvements in the engine and drivetrain while it continual updated and improved the car. Despite the fact that 302 MPFI only had a 10 hp advantage on paper, it was significantly more powerful in the real world. It’s too bad Cadillac didn’t take the time to do the updates to these D-bodies, because I always thought they were better cars than the Town Cars, but were saddled with inadequate engines and basically zero major updates from 1980 on.
About 15 years ago, I did seriously look at buying an ’89 Brougham. A mechanics shop had a lien on the car. It was really low mileage and rust free, so if I could have got it for a song I would have bought it. Unfortunately, due to the laws around Mechanics Liens, I wasn’t able to swing the deal. In hindsight, I am glad I passed. I had my fill of 307 cars by that point.
Note that the 1990-1992 versions of these did get some updates visually, gained ABS, flush mounted real glass headlights and best of all the option of a 5.7 with fuel injection. In 1991 the 307 was out and the 305 with TBI and a 30 HP jump was std so these 3 model years were the way to go if you wanted more power than the 307
I worked at a Chev-Olds-Caddy dealership, so I was familiar with these Caddy’s and their updates. We had a lot of Cadillac customers and so I have driven both the L03 305 and the LV2 307 versions (L03 was far better IMO). We even had a few elderly HT4100’s still running that came in for service, and the odd 368 (one of the tech’s owned a ’78 with a 425 too).
Sharp looking Caddy.
Interesting they ran the 307 in these. Guess I thought there was a Cadillac-exclusive 5.0 instead, I never gave it any thought.
Of course if power’s an issue, I say LS All The Things. Wouldn’t be that hard – or expensive – to make the transformation and you may even find an NVH benefit from the smoothness of the Gen III/IV/V engine. You’ll just need the matching transmission since the rear bolt pattern is different on the Olds engine.
Should be easy to convert to EFI.Look up GM TBI conversion on google. Should be able to pull all the stuff from a 90s/car truck at a junkyard for a couple hundred and have it running in a weekend.
I would like to comment on the “just convert to EFI comment” I see so often (I don’t mean to pick on MB in particular). In this case, the conversion to EFI is a little more involved just collecting junkyard parts. The Olds 307 never had fuel injection, so you’d need to find adapter to make the throttle body fit the intake. Then you’d also need to retrofit the fuel system with an electric pump and fuel lines capable of EFI pressures. None is impossible, but its work and money to do properly.
On top of that, the Caddy has a fully computerized E4ME carb along with a computer controlled HEI distributor which is different from the TBI distributors. It is essentially as complex as a TBI car, sans the fuel injection. The ECM in the Cadillac also controls the lock-up on the transmission. So “removing” the current Cadillac setup isn’t as easy as it sounds along with trying to retrofit the donor ECM and finding an ignition that is compatible that twill fit an Olds V8. It basically becomes a hack job, unless you pull everything and build a everything from scratch (in which case you might as well dump the 307).
Of course there is always the option of aftermarket EFI, that replaces a carb, but then you still have to figure out the ignition and transmission controls. Many of these aftermarket EFI systems have hit and miss reliability and parts availability isn’t always easy if you suffer a break down.
I’d suggest the best way to keep this car running well is to have a Q-jet expert overhaul the carb. It’s not hard to pull a carb, send it away, and reinstall it even with limited skills. It’d also be a lot cheaper than an proper EFI retrofit. I owned an Olds 307 with this same computer controlled system (CCC) as this Caddy. It ran well and reliably for 12 years and over 100K miles with one carb overhaul, and there is no reason why one with a proper tune couldn’t do so today.
Honestly, if I was to do anything aside from a carb rebuild I would just do an engine swap. Nothing crazy, but if I could find a L03 SBC to swap in it would make me happy. Nice boost in HP & driveability without completely destroying the character of the car (after all, in 91 & 92 the standard engine was the 5.0 L03).
I wouldn’t even have to change the “5.0 LITER” badge on the trunk!
I would agree an L03 would be a nice upgrade (although L05 would be even better). I remember driving an L03 Brougham back to back to a 307 car. What a big difference in performance. If you could find a doner car, it would make this swap pretty straightforward in terms of parts, but it’d still be a lot of work.
BTW, if you are serious about a carb rebuild, try giving Cliff a call. I know he’s one of the best for Q-jets, I am just not sure if he does the electronic versions too,
https://cliffshighperformance.com/
Makes me really miss my 1990 grey Brougham De-Elegance that was 307 equipped. I bought it from another dealer who was a friend of ours for a mere 950.00. All 4 wire wheels were missing and 2 tires had almost no tread. A junk yard visit landed me 4 beautiful wire covers and as a bonus 2 had almost new tires mounted to the rims! So in a couple of hours I dramatically improved the appearance of my car and the way it went down the road with all 4 tires like new and properly inflated. A set of fresh HD gas rear shocks helped the handling a lot. Total money invested was 50 bucks for the 4 wheel covers and 2 rims as they were on sale that week and the rear shocks were about the same. So for 1050 I had a nice driving car that was well pretty slow but could be driven anywhere.
My buddy and I rebuilt the carburetor and replaced the shot fiber float with a brass one and gave her a good complete tune up. The base timing was off like these always seem to be and retarded by 6 degrees if I remember correctly. That cured the hard start when warm issue, and you no longer needed to hold your foot to the floor to get any pickup from it.
These engines are extremely finicky and all it takes is for one thing to be off and your 307 will not run to it’s potential. A properly tuned like new 307 running the std 2.93 rear gears or better still the trailer towing 3.23’s should have very sharp strong low end response and have no trouble keeping up with traffic. These engines have a bad rap as being turtle slow but it’s more the age of these and years of owner neglect or a mechanic that didn’t understand how these operated that screwed them up. Just be aware that these 7A head 307’s from 1985-1990 were all packed in at only 4000 RPM’s. All the power was made down low and that 255 torque rating was achieved at only 2000 RPM. This enabled one to drive the car at part throttle with good response but with these Broughams curb weight was often well over 4000 LBS which was a lot for only 140 HP. So brisk highway passing and hill climbing was out of the question.
A good rule of thumb for any current 307 owner is to make sure it is in proper tune with no trouble codes, make sure your base timing is set to 20-22 degrees, make sure the EGR passages are clean with no restriction and that the EGR valve itself is working, check rigorously for vacuum leaks and make sure the carb is rebuilt and set properly and that your dwell is exactly 30 degrees on the 6 cylinder scale. Every 307 I have owned that I did this too ran really good for what it was and had very sharp and strong low end response and got good MPG and were as reliable as the sun!
You make a lot of good points about keeping these cars in tune. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had good service from one of my 307’s for nearly 12 years. I had access to all the specialized GM tools when I owned that car, and rebuilt and tuned the carb well (BTW, the dwell mixture Joe speaks of is for the mixture control solenoid in the carb, not related to the ignition). I even removed the catalytic converter and had custom free flowing exhaust to try and get extra power. While slow, it did get great mileage (the best was mid 20’s US MPG), and was reasonably reliable.
FWIW, I also owned an ’85 Olds 307 with Canadian emissions (mechanical Q-jet) and it performed about the same as the electronic version. It was however, much simpler overall than the Rube Goldberg GM CCC system. Although I was pretty good at tuning E-Q-jets, I’d never own one again. If I ever bought a car from this era, I’d retrofit a mechanical Q-jet immediately. GM should have abandoned that system in about 1982 (or better yet never even engineered the half breed system), and installed a simpler and more reliable TBI system.
The 307s had strong (for a circa 1980’s American 5.0L V8) low end power, the peak power was at 3200 RPM, and it felt like it. These engines had little mid range power and no upper end at all. Compared to a 305, they were definitely more torquey, but a 305 was a much better overall performer since it could actually breath at higher RPM. A Ford 302 MPFI felt nearly as torquey as a 307 at low RPM and had decent upper RPM performance in comparison. As some who has owned the three 5.0L V8’s from the 1980’s (Ford, Chevy and Olds), the 307 is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to performance, while the 1986-91 Ford 5.0L was probably the best.
Just for comparisons sake, Popular Mechanics tested a Town Car vs Cadillac Brougham in 1987. Take a look at the performance difference below:
Cadillac
307 – 140 hp
Weight – 4200 lbs
0-60 – 13.53 secs
1/4 mile – 19.09 @ 70.25 mph
Lincoln
302 – 150 hp
Weight – 4100 lbs
0-60 – 10.99 seconds
1/4 mile – 17.74 @ 76.33 mph
I am pretty sure the 10 hp and 100 lb advantage of the Lincoln shouldn’t result in performance disparity this big. Look at that slow trap speed too – 70 mph! It’s not like the Lincoln is that strong either (76 mph trap speed), it’s just the 307 is weak. This particular 307 was a good performer too. Motor Week tested a much lighter 307 powered ’85 Cutlass Supreme and it ran 0-60 in 13 seconds.
There is more going on here than a 10 HP and 100 LB difference between these two cars. The Town Car had response adding sequential fuel injection and a better overall power curve. It also made an additional 15 LBS FT of torque and had a 3.08 rear end versus the 2.73 that GM used for the 1986/87 Broughams at the time. Add in the fact that the 307 was packed in at only 3200 RPM and it’s redline was only 4000 RPM and that bottle necked it’s higher end performance.
The Ford 302 was more comparable to the Chevy 305 for power depending on years and injection system versus carb but I routinely would outperform any 1980-85 TBI Panther with my buddies 1986 Caprice 305 4 BBL LG4 engine and 2.73 rear gears. When running against a SFI car it was a more even race.
I have the Motor Week video of the Cutlass saved on Youtube. It was a 1984 Brougham coupe with the 140hp/240 torque version of the 307 tied to the 3 speed automatic and required 2.14 rear gears which further killed power so those were 12-13 second cars. Now in comparison I have a beautiful 1987 Cutlass coupe with the 140/255 version of the 307 tied to a 4 speed auto and optional 3.08 gears and I can assure you it is much quicker than 13 seconds. I haven’t timed it but seat of the pants it feels like about 10 seconds or less and far quicker than my 1990 307 Brougham which I got running around the 12 second mark after going through it.