Update: apparently P&H either sold or possibly manufactured the Cerlist diesel under its name at some time, so the engine in this car may well be a P&H branded engine, but the design is very much that of the Cerlist, not the usual family of diesels that P&H developed, built and sold.
CC contributor/commenter dman passed along an (expired) for sale ad link to a very rare beast: a 1950 Cadillac Series 61 Coupe, just like our official CC mascot ’50 Caddy, but with a big difference: it has a diesel engine under the hood. Given that it’s a Cadillac, one might assume one of the smaller “Jimmy” Detroit Diesels. But according to a badge on the hood and the ad, it’s a “RARE” P&H diesel. Well those are rare, an aluminum block and head two-stroke diesel engine that came in 2, 3, 4 and 6 cylinder versions, not unlike the DD.
But there’s something a whole lot rare yet under its hood.
As I looked at the engine compartment shots, the engine looked distinctly different than any images I found of the P&H diesel engine. It took a bit of Google-diving, but I’ve finally come up with what it has: an ultra-rare Cerlist V4 diesel. It’s a valveless loop-scavenged two stroke that was designed by Austrian Dr. Hans List and built by a small North Carolina firm called Cerlist, between about 1956 and 1963.
Never heard of it before, but then this is what CC is all about: proving clueless For Sale ads wrong and learning something new.
First, the text from the ad, a classic in the art of understatement (“just clean up and drive…“) and which tells us very little except for how RARE it is:
You are bidding on a 1950 Cadillac RARE P&H Diesel powered 2dr Sedan. The car is original and black in color. Original stainless. Does not run at this time. The interior is original and has wear. This is a rare car that would be good for restore or just clean up and drive a rare survivor. I will be going to Norfolk, Ne after the 12th and will be adding more pictures and info to catalog. RARE car. I bet you this car gets awesome mileage!!!! Rare one for the collection or shows. This is part of the E.J. Christiansen Collection auction and is online only auction .
I bet it gets awesome mileage too, if it ran, which I would be highly surprised if it did.
A bit of a hole in the floor, but that’s minor. The ad did say: The interior is original and has wear.
Does this count as “wear“?
Enough nitpicking. Let’s get to the good stuff under the hood, which sports an authentic P&H Diesel Power badge.
Here it is, ensconced quite nicely in the Cadillac’s engine compartment. At first glance, I saw nothing out of sorts here, as the P&H diesel is not exactly a familiar sight to me.
But when I got to this side, I started scratching my head? What am I looking at? Looks like two cylinder heads, tilted this way.
This didn’t look at all like the P&H diesel engine in the ads and some others on the web, which are all inline, and look pretty conventional.
I cropped the shot to get a better view. That’s certainly what those are (cylinder heads), although it seemed a bit odd to see the injector right on the center of each cylinder.
I cropped the other side too, and sure enough, there’s two more of the exact same cylinder heads here too. This is a V4 diesel!
I had no idea who made V4 diesels so I just Googled that term, and soon enough I found it: the Cerlist diesel, also made in two and three cylinder forms. Here’s some info from that website:
The Cerlist Diesel Co. was incorporated in North Carolina in 1956 by Peter Cerf. The name of the engine company was derived from the names of Cerf and Dr. Hans List of Austria, who designed the engine.
The 2-cycle, high-speed, aluminum, supercharged diesels were unique in that they had no valves, and were “loop-scavenged”. Multiple intake and exhaust ports were cast through the cylinder wall near the bottom of the piston stroke. The intake ports were angled upward so that the incoming rush of supercharged air was directed up and over the top of the cylinder and then back down in a looping fashion to the exhaust ports, carrying exhaust gases with it and filling the cylinder with a fresh charge of air.
Cerlist Diesels were originally manufactured in the Cerlist Diesel plant in Burlington, NC until the company went bankrupt. Peter Cerf had estimated that several thousand were manufactured. Although the engines were used primarily in military applications, they were used in some industrial and marine applications as well.
During the Vietnam War, the Air Logistics Corp, of Monrovia, CA used the 3-cylinder Cerlist Diesel (above) to drive the jet fuel pump of their Boondocks Air-Transportation Fueling System. The system was a portable unit that included the engine driven pump, two huge flexible fuel bladders along with all the piping and valves that could be towed to the airfields built out in the boondocks.
In 1963, Waukesha acquired the rights to build the unique Cerlist Diesels.The Waukesha Cerlist Division was located in Waukesha’s Clinton, Iowa plant under the direction of Peter Cerf, Sales Manager. Cerlist Diesels were discontinued in 1973. All the WEHS knows for sure about the fate of the Cerlist’s Diesel is that in 1980, the entire inventory of Cerlist Diesel parts were sold to Engine & Equipment Co., Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Cerlist models involved in Waukesha’s acquisition were:
Model Cyl. Bore x Stroke CID. HP@ RPM Years 2 2
4.000 x 4.250 113.1 50 @ 3,000 1963-73 3 3
4.000 x 4.250 169.6 75 @ 3,000 1963-73 V4 V4 4.000 x 4.250 226.2 100 @ 3,000 1963-73
So this Cadillac has 226 cubic inches and 100 hp. That’s a bit less than the original 331 gas V8, but it would have been interesting to hear this at full chat.
The Cerlist diesel’s two-stroke loop-scavenging system was not exactly new or unique.
Detroit Diesel made a similar loop-scavenged engine series back in the ’50s, from 1950 to 1959, designated 2-51 and 4-51. Starting in 1957, the more conventional -53 series started replacing them.
Here’s a 2-51 being run. Apparently they were very reliable and rugged little engines. Of course they were noisy, as Jimmys (and all two stroke diesels) are wont to be. But putting mufflers on them with anything than minimal restriction caused exhaust back pressure which resulted in poor performance, not surprisingly, given their loop-scavenging system. This was the main reason they were replaced by the -53 series.
This bin with five cylinder liners is/was also included in the deal. But they don’t look like the Cerlist cylinders; there’s no ports and they look quite different. Could these be for the missing P&H diesel? Did this Caddy first have a P&H diesel, and the Cerlist replaced it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know. This fine diesel Cadillac sold for some $1800 back in 2018. I’m sure it’s been cleaned up and being driven regularly, and getting great mileage.
It came with one of the best passenger car engines of the era, and they replaced it with a diesel in the 60’s, when gas was cheap? I guess that was the spare engine they had on hand.
Burlington was still a textile town in the 50’s, but plywood aircraft were made here for the US Army in WWII, though none were actually used in the war. Honda now makes lawnmowers nearby.
Agreed, puzzling choice, at best. Not that there is anything ‘wrong’ in doing what you want to anything you own, but it would seem a radical change for little real benefit, other than satisfying one’s desire.
Could these have been for promotional reasons? Especially with the badging, it makes one ponder whether this may have been done to showcase diesel engines by putting it into a car that carried a lot of status at the time? And it would not be out of the realm of possibility that a shop specializing in diesels may have replaced that P and H with the Cerlist at some point.
Regardless, fascinating.
Sometimes, the people have eccentric ideas of “what if I put this engine in my car? Will this work out?”.
Recently, Car Wizard had the fantastic but dim-witted idea of installing an Oldsmobile 5.7-litre diesel V8 engine in his 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood saloon. Lot of viewers lamblasted him for the crackpot idea and poor decision. After spending weeks in figuring out the engine mounts and engine-gearbox housing mounts, he gave up and stuffed the original Cadillac V8 back in the engine bay.
He went on with another idea of installing Jaguar 5.3-litre V12 engine with new custom-made manifolds for two 4bbl-carburettors in his 1966 Chevrolet Malibu.
The CarWizard is exactly what/who I was thinking of when I posted my comment below!
He’s also discussed dropping the Rolls-Royce V8 from WatchJRGo’s 1979 Silver Wraith (which now has an LS6) into a ‘62 Chevy C30.
If David (CarWizard) is even half as sincere as his on-camera persona, he’s probably a good guy. But some of John Ross’ (WatchJRGo’s) decisions leave me scratching my head, like destroying the rear differential of the Silver Wraith with the LS6’s horsepower, and then planning to replace it with a solid axle. And buying a rare Audi with a blown engine and then spending more to replace it than it could be purchased for in perfect condition.
I know…his money, his decisions…
I agree and watch both JRGo and Car Wizard – who knew that Wichita was a hotbed of auto YT channels?
I think if they did the logical/easy thing, they wouldn’t get the viewers. Not as many people will click on “Didn’t buy car with bad engine, saved a lot of money!” They tackle projects that none of us should, for entertainment. I also to learn some tips from them, or see some new tools/products. Still beats most of what passes for entertainment, and it’s free!
Don’t forget Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage fame. As he refers to it himself ” the dumbest automotive channel on u-tube.
I don’t know what’s in the Wichita water but it must be good!
But do we know for a fact that the diesel conversion was done in the 1960s?
To me this looks like it might be a case where someone had a low-value car with a bad (or no) engine, and also had a working diesel engine lying around that happened to fit.
Either way, I bet they measured 0-60 times with a calendar.
Who knows when its engine was replaced? I’m assuming it was in the ’70s, when diesel swaps were rather common. I really doubt it was in the 60s though.
actually you can see the ports in two of the cylinders in the bin and it looks like a flange is leaning on the center left one plus you get an old flange gasket. maybe they are upside down compared to the diagram.
Those look like they’re for a two-stroke diesel with exhaust valves, like the P&H and DD. Note how the intake ports are very low down. On the loop-scavenged Cerlist, the ports are in the middle of the cylinder/stroke.
And the barrels just don’t look like the Cerlist ones from the image further up.
I suspect this owner was a diesel mechanic who was into two-stroke diesels, and had parts for others laying around.
After Paul let me know that there was more to this car than what was listed in the ad, I poked around the Internet a bit and learned that Dr. List’s son continues to run the engineering consultancy to this day, and it has evolved into a large company, AVL, http://www.avl.com
With almost 12000 employees, they are involved in many aspects of design, including vehicle acoustics … an interesting field considering the background with 2 stroke diesels.
And they consulted on the Ford 6.7 PowerStroke, so their work on diesels did end up under American hoods in large numbers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVL_(engineering_company)
Good to know they’re still at it.
And thanks for turning me on to this.
If it still exists and still runs, I hope it is NOT powered by a small-block Chevrolet!
G poon hates going fast and drives a ford granada
I agree with the suggestion that the diesel may have been swapped into the Caddy at some later date when the original engine was blown or used up. Also, these early Cadillac V8’s were popular with street rodders. It’s possible the diesel was used to resurrect a car that lost its engine to a rod project. And, we also should consider the possibility that the diesel was installed during the 1973-74 gas crisis (although the early 50’s Cadillacs actually got better gas mileage than you might think; better than their 60’s and early 70’s brethren). Without some history on the car, we will probably never know.
The other curious question is what transmission was being used. This appears to have been a Hydra-Matic car (in ’50 you could still order a manual shift Caddy, although few were sold). It looks like there may be an opening in the transmission tunnel, although it’s not clear that what is sticking out of it is a shift lever, and I still see only two pedals.
I think something is partially blocking the accelerator, so there could very well be three pedals. And the hole in the center of the floor could very well be for a shifter … though it could be rust 😀. In any case I would have though a rare manual transmission Caddy of that vintage would be column shift.
Very neat — I’ve never head of Cerlist (as I’m sure most folks haven’t), so I looked up some information. Looks like the firm was never profitable while in North Carolina, which is why it was sold to Waukesha after just a few years, but when first starting out, they explored some potential automotive applications for their engines. Here’s a Willys Forward Control truck outside of Cerlist’s headquarters, after having a 3-cyl. Cerlist diesel installed.
This Cadillac here is really fascinating — great to see pictures of it.
Wow that last interior shot – I didn’t even recognize it as a car at first. Looks more like the inside of a long-ago-abandoned building.
Interesting background to two engine manufacturers I’d never heard of.
By the way, to close the loop back to P&H, their own Diesel engines weren’t successful, but they used Waukesha (which purchased Cerlist as Paul’s source noted) gasoline engines in their mining equipment. P&H exists to this day, part of Komatsu, and is headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
I was at a car show once, and a guy had what I think might have been a Cerlist V-4. Guy was going on about the engine being an experimental Ford 2 stroke V-4 diesel that was accidentally thrown out. I didn’t stick around for the 400 h.p. 65 m.p.g. oil company conspiracy speech I thought might be coming. Couldn’t figure out why Ford would be the least bit interested in a 2 stroke diesel unless it was for their agricultural and/or power products division.
Interesting engine!
Well he might have confused things, those were offered by Ford Germany as an option in their Ford FK-Series trucks in the mid 50s to early 60s (in the V4 and V6 configurations) but were dropped because utterly unreliable.
Odd choice for a engine swap. I can’t imagine any getting that Cerlist V-4 going again.
Interesting on how different the front and rear seat conditions are on this one. The body does not look too bad so probably savable with another engine swap.
Belt-driven blower. Earliest “modern” flat belt that I recall seeing; may predate Detroit Diesel’s use by 10+ years.
Don’t see a vacuum pump
Electric actuated ZeroStart ether shot.
I wonder if it was 12V?
Generator was retained, sort of says early ’60s swap.
Cooling system split between block and heads. Sure looks like a hot spot at the exposed liner.
Liners in the box are probably Cerlist. Liners seem to show the shroud as seen in cutaway, separating intake from exhaust ports.
Hmmmm, this has me thinking dastardly thoughts again . . .
I have two world war 2 air-cooled engines, both boxer-type flat 6 cylinder DIESEL motors. They were made by Continental motors as part of an experiment requested by the US Navy in 1945.
The info I have on these is Continental made 10 engines for testing, with ID numbers 1 thru 10. These are #5 and #10. Continental tested 8 of the engines before stopping the test because the war was over. The Navy had been searching for an alternative power unit, for a gasoline engine used to start B-29 bombers on the airfields & runways in the Pacific, as well as aircraft on the carriers. Gasoline was in short supply in the pacific, while diesel was more plentiful.
I’ve had these for a few years now. They came out of a huge WW2 military surplus collection I bought here in Maryland, but so far I’ve not found a home for them. After reading about this Diesel in a 1950 Cadillac, Perhaps I should look around at a possible pre-WW2 donor vehicle.
Comments are welcome.
Correction, I went & checked photos, they are flat 4 cylinder motors, not a 6 cylinder, as seen here:
Fascinating.
Big flat four engines don’t lend themselves well to installation in most cars.
The prototype looks similar to a production Packette engine.
Maybe in a Vanagon,?
This isn’t fully related to this story, but I thought it would be a good place to mention. I’ve been seeing more about the use of “renewable diesel fuel” and it’s environmentally friendly, and now Porsche claim’s its synthetic fuel is just as clean as EV. The use of both fuels could be more environmentally friendly than electrics. This could mean the ICE engine isn’t dead yet!!
The Caddy 61 is interesting. However, the Car Wizard’s information on the infamous GM Diesel for its automobiles fascinated me. I remember mechanics staring at these back when they were new and wondering what to do to repair the chronic problems. Dave has done it.
The 3 cylinder Christmas found its way into the Marine version of the Willis FC , most of which were built as a four door crew cab version. I nearly bought one at a a salvage yard 15 or so years ago while searching for parts for one of my FCs . I did come away with roots style supercharger now residing in my shop as an ornament
Weird choice for a swap for sure. There was a V6 version too but this I believe was only offered in Europe as an option on Ford Germany’s FK-series light to medium trucks. That had 120 hp from a 4.2 L (256 ci) which compared favorably with GM’s much later car diesels but like all of the List designs was notoriously unreliable and in fact helped ruin Ford’s reputation in that segment. It was dropped very quickly, replaced by British Ford diesel but the damage was done.
There is a guy from Sweden, who have a very similar Cadillac as his daily driver. Drivetrain is GM 6,2 diesel. If remember correctly, he swap the body on the Suburban frame so have a sort of modern suspension. And he have a balls to drive it long distance, coming to car meeting in my country Czech Republic from Sweden on several occasions. Its 1000 mile trip one way, no less. He is truly living his way, hats off to him 🙂
And here is back in Sweden, at Power Big meet show. Unfortunately, I found no underhood picture.
Like MadHungarian, I wondered about what appeared to be a manual transmission lever but no clutch. What an interesting find! Can’t imagine what the engine sounded like and how the car performed.
The only other V4 I’m familiar with are those used in Saabs after the 3 cylinders. I believe the V4s were English Ford engines. They had a reputation for being not so smooth.
The V-4s used in SAABs were Taunus German Ford not the Essex English Ford V-4s. Similar, but no parts interchange. German has distributor at rear, English has distributor at front.
I hope this didn’t get broken up for parts….
Fascinating re power .
-Nate
P&H did indeed make/market a model V463 marine engine.It had 4 separate heads and looks quite like the one in the car except for the marine specific parts.Thinking maybe some sort of marriage or agreement between Them and cerlist.
Funny how all the comments as well as the main article got it wrong EXCEPT for the very last comment by “A.P.”. That indeed is a P&H V463, not a Cerlist. I own one!
Well, it’s all-too obvious that the P&H V463 is essentially the same engine as the Cerlist. I did not find any reference to P&H selling this under their name, or making it under a license, or perhaps picking up the right to it after Cerlist went bankrupt.
If you or someone else can clarify precisely what the differences between the Cerlist and the P&H V463 are, and how P&H came to put their name on it, I would gladly amend the article.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
The engine is P&H 463. Was made mainly For marine aplicattion. I saw listed in marine magazines. Is p&h design, not a cerlist. In the photo you can see the design of the head IS diferent. 4 cilinders with 63 cu in. 252 cu in VS 226 the cerlist.