Roadkill (2012–2020): Season 5, Episode 55 - Cummins Diesel in a Cadillac! - full transcript

- This time on Roadkill,
what you've been asking for

over and over and over, a Cummins diesel.

And since I knew nothing about that,

we had to bring this guy, Tony Angelo,

and when you bring him
you got to bring this guy,

Lucky Costa, and Finnegan's
sort of along for the ride.

- Do they share the
same brain or something?

We need both of them?

(laughs)

(engine revving)

(energetic rock music)



- Another junkyard adventure.

My buddy, Andy Maass, who
I know from Drag Week

and also from 24 Hours of Lemons,

he's got this massive
collection in Colorado.

And we're comin' to his yard
and just pouring through it,

looking at all of his vans,
and Volvos, and Rabbits.

But if we hunt around here long enough,

we're going to be able to find
something that's going to be great.

And we did.

I don't even know what year this is.

Let's call it a '78, maybe
it's an '82, I don't know.

But it's a Cadillac Brougham.

It is hideous and horrible,

and we're going to make it wonderful



with what you've been asking for,

a Cummins diesel out of
that truck right there.

- So, this is a swap
I've always wanted to do,

but honestly, I don't
know anything about it.

So, I'm actually stoked that
Tony and Lucky are here,

because they're going to kind of guide us

through this whole thing.

- What these things do, is they run,

and they run, and they run.

So, they're just made to last
and they will go through wars

and still keep tickin'.

This thing, I bet, still runs sweet.

- This is Roadkill, we don't
care about the longevity.

We need to make power and we need

to make it run in the Cadillac.

- Now, that we can do for sure.

- So, it's safe to say
if this falls through,

it's your guy's fault.

- I didn't say that.
- No, no.

- Did you say that?

- Yeah.

(engine revving)

So smooth and quiet.

- [Tony] Sounds great.

- I'm not used to engines

that just rod knock the whole time.

- I'm going to learn stuff.

Let's drag this thing inside.

- Yeah, let's do it.

It's hot out here.

(energetic rock music)

- That's good.

Our car's going to look
like when it runs, too.

(energetic rock music)

We have our truck, we have our motor.

Now, it's time to gut the mofo.

(energetic rock music)

(clanking)

We're making big progress
gutting the truck.

I'm going to unbolt the
trans, the exhaust is undone.

I think all that's left is motor mounts,

then we can drag this thing
out, and then start platting

and planning how we can
put it in the Cadillac.

- Wow, that is.

No, that's not good.

Hey, what if the roof
comes in, is that cool?

- Hey, let's not break this building,

let's just get the fork lift.

- It's lifting the fork
lift off the ground.

- [Mike] It only weighs 2,000 pounds.

- So, we should jack up
the tranny and undo it?

- Yes, yeah.

- [Lucky] And then walk it out that way.

- That's what I was saying.

It's going to make it so
much easier to come out.

- Who were you saying that too, though?

- Just everybody.

- I think you were saying it in your head.

- I said it out loud.

- [Mike] No.

- So, we're fork lifting the thing up,

it's kind of stuck in the frame,

'cause the frame's kind of ugh.

- [David voiceover] This
Dodge truck had been wrecked

so bad that it did not
want to give up the goods.

The engine and transmission
were stuck in there but good.

But there's no amount of
mangling that can beat Roadkill,

and eventually we got it out.

- Whoo!

- That's the end of the show.

See ya next time.

- [Mike] It's a nice, simple

little 2,000 billion pound engine.

- [Lucky] Yeah, just snatch it out

and we'll throw it in another car.

- [Tony] Bye-bye Ram 350.

I will not miss you.

- Just stole its soul.

And I'm okay with that.

- [Tony] It's rusty.

- [Mike] Oh, it's a beauty.

- [Tony] Is it that stuff
you call patina there, Mike?

- (laughs) That's patina.

Oh wow, look, Tony.

- [Tony] Oh boy.

It's well ventilated,
that's what this thing is.

- [David] Wow, this is
going to be a lot of work

for a not very good car.

- [Tony] This is the one we thought would

be the best one to use?

- This one got picked because

it was the closest to the door.

- To the door, that makes sense.

- [Mike] This is really a Brougham.

It is, it's right here
on the side of the car.

- You got to call it
the Broughammer, dude.

- Broughhammer's good.

- [Lucky] Oh, it says Brougham.

- Broughammer, he just named it.

It's perfect.

- The Broughammer.
- Do you like that?

- Good job, you win.

There's nothing we can do to this car

that I will feel bad about.

Nothing.

- I'm going to get off
this so I don't fall

in the car when I cut through.

(laughs)

- My turn.

We need to get rid of that window anyway.

We can't drive around with that.

- Let me get it for you, guy.

- Tony, handle that would ya?

Wait, wait, wait.

(laughs)

Do you need me to do that for ya?

- I got it, I got it.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Go from the other side.

- Ah, that's interesting, good idea.

- Not in the car.

(clanking)

(laughs)

- Solid.

(energetic rock music)

- Hey, drive shaft guy.

Clear.

- [David] Ah, lost your touch.

One hit wonder.

- [Mike] You're not goin'
to Rio with that form.

(laughs)

Dude.

I finally got a convertible Cadillac.

It might be a little flexy,

it might be a little flimsy,

but all of that will be fixed

when we stick a thousand pounds

of Cummins engine and
transmission right there.

- [David] The fork lift
doesn't want to pick it up.

- [Mike] Are we going
to have to put a Cummins

in the fork lift?

- How are we going to get it in?

- [David voiceover] Andy has got this

radical vintage fork lift,

which would be even better
if it actually worked.

It would not pick up
the big, heavy Cummins.

So, I ran next door and rented
a really cool new fork lift.

- Yeah, man, this bolts right up.

Whoa!

- Hold on, hold on, hold on.

What is this, and does it matter?

- [Tony] It's important.

- Man, this thing's fitting way better

than we thought it would.

We're just sort of
battling the tiny details.

We're almost past the oil
pan on the cross member.

Transmission's sitting in
the trans cross member.

So, as soon as we hack that out,

we think we can angle this thing in more.

It's going to fit under the hood, maybe.

Yeah, that arm is drooping down.

Yeah!

- Almost past.

There we go.

- Oh, dude.
- Sit it down.

- Dude.

- We're in, dude.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Let's put a jack under the back end of it.

- Definitely.

Wow, it bolts right up.

You are kiddin' me.

- Dude.
- Look at that.

- So much room, and there's
room for a radiator, dude.

- [David voiceover] Next
up, we had to fabricate

a new transmission cross member,

which meant that we needed
the car up in the air.

So, we used Andy's super sketchy lift,

and made it even worse by
tryin' to pick up the engine

with the fork lift, and then move the car

up a little with the lift.

But doin' this dance back and forth,

which, man, it's a miracle nobody died.

- [David] That's goin'
down fast, do you think?

- [Tony] Yeah, why's
it goin' down so fast?

- [Mike] This is going to be awesome.

Ready for this?

Instant lowering job.

- It's nighttime, but
we've got a lot done today,

between gutting that truck

and then stripping this thing apart,

and doing a little body work.

Now, we've got the engine
placed really well in here.

We're going to have to pull it back out,

drill some holes, make our motor mounts.

Once that's done, we can
start to adjust the angle

of the dangle and other stuff

like the trans mount cross
member and accessories.

It should be running by morning.

(bouncy guitar music)

It's morning now, we're
all revitalized, kind of.

The engine is in the car, on motor mounts.

And now, we're makin'
a transmission mount.

Finnegan's cleaning out what's left

of the stock cross
member that we hacked up.

I'm making a section
to weld in between it.

We're going to have this done
literally, in like half an hour.

Not even a Road Kill half
hour, but an actual half hour.

We go under the sketchy lift that's bound

to kill somebody at some point.

Here's the stock cross member that we cut.

Or that actually Andy cut

when he was takin' this thing apart.

We're going to take this square tube

and slide it right in there.

I'll have to mangle it a little bit,

and it's going to become the
new center section of this,

which we then tabbed to that bolt.

(banging)

- The welder's too small,
the metal's too thick.

And my arm hair's on fire.

But that's not falling out.

So, it's good enough for who it's for.

- Sketchiest lift ever.

- Whoa! Whoa!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Back up, back up, back up.

- [Lucky] You're that
far from the windshield.

- Yeah.

- [Lucky] He's got it.

He's a drifter.

He lives life on the edge.

- [Mike] Okay, ease it
back up, ease it back up.

- You're makin' us nervous.

- We're caught up, the motor and tranny

went right in, didn't.

The transmission didn't break any lines

when it went in, did.

The wiring's super simple, not.

All we've got left to do
is the cooling system,

hope the brakes work,
maybe find some tires,

shiny hubcaps, and put
some diesel in the gas car

that has the diesel turbo
motor and some exhaust,

and drive around and scare
people that we don't know.

So, I think this is
going to be a good day.

- So, I'm asking Lucky, why aren't we just

putting the exhaust pipe
straight up out through the hood?

He's like, "No, that would be Roadkill.

"Hot Rod Garage would actually put it out

"through the side of the fender."

- That's correct, we do
things entirely different

from that other show.

First of all, you need a
hole right in the middle

to get the tin snips in.

- [David] Can I saw now?

- Sure.

- [David] Better cave in that panel.

- [Lucky] Sounds great.

- [David] That was fantastic.

(energetic rock music)

The time's come to make the
list about everything left

to do and everything
that we need to go buy.

First item, zip ties.

He's embarrassing low on zip ties.

- Well, I'm lookin' at a list,

hoping there's something I can cross off,

and there's nothing.

So, we might as well start
at the top of the list.

Radiator.

- [Tony] Yeah.

- Want to dig in the bone yard?

- Yeah, let's go shopping out back.

- All right.

- Oh, yeah, we'll just hop in.

- This might be a winner.

- It's not as thick as it looks.

- No.

- But it's probably
going to work the best.

- This is the elbow that
connects the inner cooler

to the intake manifold of the Cummins.

We're eliminating the inner cooler

to simplify the plumbing,
turning it around the other way,

and going straight from
the intake to the turbo.

Problem is, that hose has
to get over the motor now.

So, we needed a two-inch
spacer, I have no aluminum,

no plastic, nothing I would
normally make it out of,

nor the proper tools to do that.

So, wood from the floor of a trailer,

and a drill and sawzall's
going to make this spacer.

- You've basically board
matched it perfectly.

It's pretty incredible.

- [Mike] She's going to
flow, she's going to flow.

This is a Dodge van
grill that's going to go

on the front of our '91 Caddy.

- [David] Man, the grill is mint.

It's literally made for the Cadillac.

It looks just right.

Full approval.

Remember how long it took
us to swap a small block

for a small block in a parking lot?

- Yeah, the same amount of time it took us

to put a Cummins in a Cadillac.

(laughs)

- It's true.

They'll be catastrophic
failure at some point tomorrow,

and because of that, we're
going to call it early tonight.

We're going to go have, you
know, libations and stuff.

- That's always a good strategy
when you're this far ahead.

- I know.

This thing drives tomorrow.

- Yesterday was probably
the most productive day

in the history of Roadkill.

And maybe it's because
we doubled our forces

by adding Lucky and Tony.

And today, I think we're driving.

I think that's what's going to happen.

Got a bunch of little projects to do,

things to accomplish,

and then I think we're doin' burnouts

and brodies in the parking lot here.

At about 7:30pm.

- We took the gas tank out of the car,

and it had an EFI on it, so it
had a fuel pump in the tank,

none of which we need to
use for the diesel engine.

So, we took the pump off of it,

and we're modifying the
whatever that's called,

sending unit pick up to use diesel.

- There is definitely a picture of this

with a circle and a line through it

in some manual somewhere.

Like a lot of this stuff you guys do.

- Everything.
- I like it.

- We wrote that book.

- I appreciate that.

- The manual of don't do this.

- Well, the car needs a bumper,

and these are cop parts right here,

so we're thinkin' about just
welding that right on there.

- Over here, fan David
who loaned us his welder

is helping out by taping all
the edges so that we don't.

- [Lucky] That your first name, dude, fan?

- Yeah, fan David.

- [Mike] Great, is that Scottish?

(banging)

- The bumper is shedding on me.

That's bumper chrome.

- [David voiceover] And now it
was time to throw on a hood.

And I wanted a big old
hole to reveal the Cummins

to the world, and Finnegan
wanted to go sleeper.

We had to compromise in between.

It took just a little
hole to fit the engine,

and then we made a scoop using metal

out of the roof that we cut off the car.

- Ready? Fire it up.

Yeah, rolling coal already.

- [Mike] Oh my god, it's alive.

(engine revving)

- Yeah!

- Dude, it's awesome.

- That's awesome.

- It's not leaking.

Whoo hoo!

- We dig that.

- [Mike] I kind of want to
hear it with the hood down.

- All right.

- Check engine light's on.

- I hear the motor, I don't
even hear the exhaust, dude.

- Wow.

- Three days, man.
- Like I told you, it motors.

- That was cool.

Once we put wheel and tires on it,

we'll be somebody, but
right now, who cares?

We're down to the very, very end.

I think we're going to redo everything

about the hood scoop we
were making last night.

'Cause it didn't look
as good in the morning.

Imagine that.

We're also going to put on our new tires.

Check that out.

I love the combination of the
genuine Cadillac wire wheel

with the all terrain rubber.

That's Cooper AT3.

Oh man, that looks good.

- [Mike] That looks really good.

- Right, what'd ya think?

- [Mike] I wasn't totally
with you on the off road tires

until we combined them with the spokes.

Now, that and the roof,
it's all workin' for me.

Here we go, it's moving.

- Movin' under it's own
power with all of us in it.

- Whoo!

- It stinks.

(laughs)

- That is awesome.

- [Mike] You got to shift her.

(laughs)

Oh, yeah.

- [David] Hey, here we go.

This thing is incredibly slow.

How does that happen?

- We let diesel guys
build a car on Roadkill.

- [David] Wide open.

- [Mike] Down shift.

That's unimpressive.

- Yeah, this is why all
those fans keep telling us

we need to do a Cummins swap.

All this power.

What is the slowest
Roadkill vehicle ever?

I think the crew cab tow truck
was quicker than this thing.

- Sadly, you might be right.

- Fix it.
- Pull it in?

- Yeah.

Yeah, nothing so far makes
me want to have this engine,

so you're going to have
to impress me right now.

- What about really good gas mileage?

That do anything for ya? (laughs)

- [David] Watching Tony work.

He's got the diesel voodoo
goin' on over there.

He swears it's going
to transform this thing

into a beast of smoke blowing,
tire burning Cadillac.

- [Tony] We added a fuel
pin, and then we put

in a higher governor spring,

so we should have more rpm and more power.

But we also turned all
these fuel screws up,

sort of indeterminately.

'Cause I don't want to go back in there.

It's hot, it's gross.

- Yeah.
- We'll just go for it.

- So, it could just run away.

- It could fire up, and be
basically uncontrollable.

So, he's going to stand there
with that pie plate or whatever.

He's going to try to shut the
air flow down if we have to.

- Dude, I'm freaked out.

Our boys said at 4200 rpm,
this crank breaks in half.

- [David] Parts come out?
- Yeah.

- [David] So, those are safety glasses.

- [Tony] I'm going to start
it in gear 'cause I have to,

and then run it in park.

Ah, we may have to prime it.

(engine revving)

- Hey, is that you?

(laughs)

You're freaking me out, man.

(laughs)

(energetic pop music)

Oh yeah!

- Okay, we might actually
have something here.

- [Mike] This is better.
- [David] All right, Tone.

(shouts)

Almost good.

(shouts)

- Oh my God, was that high gear?

- Yes.
- Wow.

- Oh, so much better.

Yeah, here we go.

It's just like a car now.

(laughs)

All right, go!

Man, I don't know what he did, really,

but it completely woke this thing up.

It's now a tire frying monster.

I still won't call it fast,

but it's really good.

So, now we're all pumped up
and we're going to take off

and have an adventure.

(energetic banjo music)

(laughs)

Nice work.

(energetic banjo music)

- [Mike] It's really, really good.

- [Tony] It does great burnouts.

Incredible burnouts.

- Look at the poor motor
home, they can't even see.

- I'm really sorry about
loosing that thing.

- [Mike] Oh, you just sat
their house on fire, dude.

- I feel terrible.

(energetic rock music)

- [David] We're trying to find
this abandoned drag strip,

it's Mountain View Raceway.

It closed in 1973, but
there's still like pavement

on the ground and stuff.

- [Tony] I see it, I see it.

- [Mike] Yeah, that's
an entrance right there.

- [Tony] Oh we're in.

- [David] Yeah, there ya go.

- [Tony] I wonder if it's about to happen.

- [David] Here it is,
that's it right there.

- [Tony] Wow.

- [David] We're on the drag strip.

- [Tony] Whoa.
- [Mike] Cool.

- [David] Insane. (laughs)

- [Lucky] Look at all
the rabbits and gophers.

- [Mike] All right, buddy.

- [Tony] This is awesome.

- [David] Let's check it out.

- [Tony] I think we need to
go to the other end of it.

- [David] Oh yeah, we'll have
to drive through the weeds

and run the whole thing, of course.

- [Tony] Obviously.

- [Mike] I want to stage
right here and make a pass.

- [Lucky] Absolutely.

- 'Cause look, no one's been
here in God knows how long.

We'll make the first
pass in this dragstrip--

- In 40 years,

- In 40 years.

- I love it.

- All right, let's do it.

It was nice workin' with ya.

- Yeah.

(laughs)

I'm about done with you guys.

- [Mike] Look, man, it's smokin'.

(shouts)

(laughs)

This is crazy, this is crazy.

(shouts)

(laughs)

Oh my God.

(laughs)

That looks like the end of the drag strip.

That's a tree, that's a tree.

Whoo, we did it!

(shouts)

I had total faith in you.

- Oh, that was pretty great.

- This is the best day at work ever.

- [David] This is pretty solid.

(shouts)

- Oh my God, I ate so much plant life.

(laughs)

I think I'm a vegetarian now.

- So, that was only our first point

of irresponsible, illegal
behavior in this episode.

Ready for the next one?

- Yeah!

- Let's go!

- Let's go and get 'em.

Not bad.

(shouts)

- Spin out.

- Oh my God.

Oh man, this is so beautiful.

- I love it, we just lost a hose.

- Oh, did you turn the fan on any?

- [Mike] It's on, it's on.

I don't want to be near that.

We should get out.

That was good.

- All right, who let the smoke out of it?

- I don't want to be near that.

(laughs)

You know what sucks is
we're stuck here waiting

for the cops to arrive, and
we really can't touch the car.

- Maybe when the cops come,

they can help cool this thing down.

- Maybe they'll bring a fire truck.

- Yeah.

- So, is this what it's like

to be on Roadkill all the time?

- Yeah.

It's always defeat, glory, defeat, glory.

And the show ends with defeat.

- Oh yeah, there's
water sledge comin' out.

- Oh, gnarly rusty, that's not good.

- She's clean now.

I care less about the
rust than I do the water.

- I can see there's a ton of
crud in the bottom of that.

- [Lucky] It'll never start.

- [David] Man, we tried for like an hour

to get that thing running and eventually

we had diesel up to our armpits,
the cops were driving by,

we were sick of it, we had to give up.

Just let the car sit there,

had it flat bedded back to Andy's.

So, this morning we're here,
the diesel's still not running.

We picked up a fuel filter for it.

And we're hoping that
that's the only problem.

If the filter let a bunch of crud by,

and it got all in the injectors,
this could be really bad.

Either that, or we're
going to spin a new filter

on it right now, and it's
going to fire right up,

and we're going to go
do some more practice.

It looks so much like an oil
filter, and yet it's not.

- [Mike] Ooh, I'd clean that up.

(engine revving)

- You got it.

(shouts)

- Just needed a filter.

Okay, let's go.

We were back on the road and we set out

to find another abandoned race track.

This one was a road course.

And we did find it,
but it was all gated up

and locked up, and it said
no trespassing all over it.

And naturally, you know,

we're law abiding Roadkill citizens.

And the good news is there
wasn't a no trespassing sign

anywhere in sight when we
found this cool hill climb.

- Turns out I didn't do enough damage

while wheeling Stubby Bob's,

so this will be Caddy air to flat landing,

hard right turn before
falling off of a cliff.

- You'll be okay this time.

Just put your visor down.

- Family, sorry.

I love you.

(suspenseful orchestral music)

- [Tony] Straighten out.

Oh, good one.

(laughs)
- [Mike] Oh my God

Did you hear him laugh up there?

- [Mike] Oh my God, that was crazy.

(thudding)

Whoo!

(laughs)

- [David] Let 'er off.

How's your back?

- Ah, it hurts a little.

Why do we keep wearing a black helmet?

- I say, let's go blow tires.

(laughs)

- [Mike] I hope the door doesn't open.

(laughs)

- Oh God.

- [Mike] This is horrible.

- [Tony] Awful.

- What is the deal?

- I don't know.

- This thing's garbage.

Try it in reverse.

- This doesn't feel quite the same

as it did before the jump.

- There we go, startin' to get a swing.

There we go.

(laughs)

Yeah, now you got it.

(shouts)
Time to make the donuts.

- [Tony] Come on, baby.

Come on.

(laughs)

- You had it goin'.

- [Tony] Man, this is a handful.

- [David] Yeah, not good.

- We're all out of time but
we still have tire left.

What are we going to do about that?

- You know, all good
things must come to an end,

and that tire's a really good thing.

Let me handle this for you, Tony.

- Oh cool.

- I'm going to chauffeur you guys.

Hop in the back.

You guys ready?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- Take us home.

(engine revving)

(laughs)

Oh, that was pretty cool.

(background noise drowns out other sounds)

- [Mike] Do you think it will
make it through the wheel well

and the rear seat into my back?

- You'll be all right, I think.

How do you think this side looks?

- [David] Oh, baby, I
can't breathe right now.

- [David voiceover] You know
what I learned on this episode?

The cummins does in fact
have the power to destroy,

not only with the power,
not only with the upgrades

that Tony made that set the tires on fire,

not only with great donuts,
but when you jump this thing,

that thousand pound
engine absolutely destroys

the front suspension of a GM B body car.

But the good news is, that engine

and transmission fit in that car mint.

And that's the type of thing we're here

to find out on Roadkill.

This time on Roadkill, the guys from Hot Rod Garage teach us how to go fast in a diesel.

And I found out that diesel does not evaporate off your hands.

This is working out good.

Hey.

Never again.

No more diesels.

You do that just right, you can sky write with this thing.

All those Kem Trailer, Kem Trail rumors are true.