Upping the cool factor on an Impala Wagon

what we have here is something you don't see often.  can't say it hasnt been done,  but certainly don't see many.

Picked up an LQ4 from a 2005 Chevy truck.  Yeah,  the same LS that everyone else is swapping in.  over played, over done,  tired of them.....oh well.  They are cheap, reliable, and everywhere.    

Plan was to build the engine,  then find something to drop it in at a later date.  Well before i even had a chance to pull the valve covers off,  i came across this boat of a car for only $500

1978 Impala station wagon roller.  Was running and driving with a carb'd LS just before i bought it so should be mechanical sound.

so,  it sat for a while while I began to empty my bank account on engine parts.   Nothing outrageous.  Engine is an LQ4  6.0.  Low compression engine to start with.  So adding a Custom Cam Motion grind cam.  Its a mid size cam.  Bigger than many "truck" cams but smaler than most performance stuff.  220/228 @.050 with .600 lift on  109+4.   Should give me plenty of power while keeping it lower in the RPM range.  Using stock 5.3 862 casting heads,  compression has been bumped to ~10.5:1 over the stock 9.4:1.   Otherwise,  just a small freshen up of the engine and supporting parts for the cam.  

Yes, this is awesome!  More please!

the next trick up my sleeve for it is for the trans.   Originally wanted to do a 4l80e.   wanted the reliability of the 80e over the 60e long term, though most likely the 60e would have been fine at my power level

Then I happened upon a deal too good to pass up.

Not many T56 box body wagons out there that i know of.   Shaken and Stirred is the most well known that i know of.    But should make this thing a blast to drive around and bang gears in

Engine is assembled,  Car is in need of said engine.  First hurdle...Engine mounts.  Most swap mounts rely on using the factory GM clamshells.  Being as my car was a roller, i did not have them.  So out comes the welder.   Using older style solid engine side mounts and universal LS swap adapters,  i made new rubber car side mounts.  Simple, yet effective

Drop the engine in the car, get it where i want it.  simple measurement, little cutting to fit and engine is in!

the T56 is a big boned Gal...little wide in the hips so needed to make a bit of room.  

Meh...they were rusty anyway

Guess this means new ones are on the way.

Lucked out and stock driveshaft was an exact fit!

Simple trans crossmember made.  I know it will be modified later for exhaust.  but just needed something to hold it up there for now

Frame was a bit rusty.  Summon the welder and scrap metal!

All better.

test fitting...For tall guys (like me)  the stock bench works with the stick!   Short folks...rides only looks like

well.  the inevitable has arrived.  Guess i have to put floor pans back in it

Bought a sheet of 18Ga mild steel.  here we go.  I am no body man.  in fact, first time attempting anything like this.  go big i guess.

Trans tunnel up first.  6" radius out back, 9" radius up front

being the mounting points are not round,  my round tunnel looks pretty close

Little Cardboard Aided Design,  and bam...sheet metal pans!

Thats all for tonight....More to come soon

Love me some wagons

Welcome aboard! LS+T56 in a brown Caprice wagon. Obviously, you belong here. 

I can think of a few American wagons and a few German wagons I'd love to see this kind of combo in...

This is shaping up to be a cool build!

Any future turbo plans?

In reply to boyleged :

Nope.  It will get a blower if anything,  but that is still unlikely.  I plan on doing some towing with it and turbos just dont fit that bill.  

Next,  wanted to make sure the pedals fit before finishing the floor pans incase any mods were needed....now be the time. 

The task....take 6 pedals from 3 vehicles to make 1 usable set of 3.   Full set from 2000 Donor Camaro,   Stock Brake and throttle from the Wagon,  and lastly DBW pedal from a 2004 Yukon.  

Decided on using the stock Impala Brake pedal mount as a base.  So,  need to add a clutch pedal.  simple solution is to cut it off of the camaro pedal

Using the stock camaro brake pedal as well.  It is narrower to work with the 3rd pedal.  Had to swap sides of the mount for the MC pushrod.  Little shop vise and push the pin out,

Weld it on,  now 2 pedals where 1 used to be.  and will be bolt in to the car.  

Clutch pedal did not have nearly the throw i needed with its stock shape.    so.....out comes the grinder to lose some serious material

Reshaped,  welder places it nicely on the front side of the pedal

like it never happened

now for the Go pedal.

Hack up the DBW pedal

Little custom bending to the stock mount rod on the Wagon pedal.  Welder glues em together

Now,   3 pedals where there was never meant to be 3.  

Back to the floor pans.....No more mods required for the pedal to work.  so they can go it!

Weld in the tunnel first

And of course the  flat sheet is not very rigid,  so a little bead roll can't hurt, right?   never used one before,  really no instruction.  Just went for it.  Looks like a 3rd grade art project,  but it will go under carpet so figured it was a good place to learn.

all welded in,  new floors complete.  

added some seam sealer and a bit of paint to call it done. 

Underpowered said:

 

 

13 year old me LOVES the bowties.  Enjoying following along!

I've beadrolled multiple car firewalls/door panels etc, and still couldn't pull off those bowties. LOL

An impala wagon with is power and a manual you sir are my hero and we truly are not worthy! Keep the updates coming!

I like this.  What will you use for a clutch master cylinder?  I know the OEM LS1 clutch master will fit through the cruise control wiring hole in the firewall.  However it didn't want to mount correctly to a 2nd gen F-body clutch pedal without modifying the pedal.  I think there are mounting plates available now that address that.

This is so cool!

mjrj said:

I like this.  What will you use for a clutch master cylinder?  I know the OEM LS1 clutch master will fit through the cruise control wiring hole in the firewall.  However it didn't want to mount correctly to a 2nd gen F-body clutch pedal without modifying the pedal.  I think there are mounting plates available now that address that.

I was able to make the Stock F-body master work,  Through what i beleive is the hole you speak of.  See below VVV  

Since it was brought up...need to actually make these pedals Funcional.  Brake...well its pretty well stock setup so it went right in.   Gas pedal...Tac module was jsut a few wires through the firewall,  piece of cake.   Clutch.....oh boy the clutch.

For starter,  new MC came with a cheesy pushrod.  Old MC i had,  has a nice adjustable rod end.    Figured it would be handy so had to swap it out.  

Now....where to put it.  

This hole should work right after I do a little weight reduction to a small brace

space was limited...holes needed drilled.  not exact, but i did put mounting holes "close" to where they needed to be

and mounted.

Now that that part is done,   Engine and Trans can go back in one last time.   Little clean up and paint work to make it pretty, or at least less ugly.

and home, For good, I hope.

I thought most of the hard part was done.  I mean, Fuel, cooling, exhaust, and wiring should be it right?

well,  1 step forward and two back.

While attempting to install new injectors there are some very small back pieces on the tips of them.  7 of these small plastic pieces dislodged themselves from the injectors and fell into the intake ports on the heads.  A little ingenuity  and they cam out.  ok,  most of them came out.   1 was sacraficed to the cause and fed to the engine.    In the end,  Wrong injectors anyway.  Live and learn.

Back on track though.   Already on in above pic... but Headers went on.  They are cheap ebay F body headers.   Drivers side,  little Ding in one tube to clear a bolt and it was golden.  

passenger side though.  I beat and banged and heated and welded and yelled until they fit.  3 tubes "modified" via hammer.  all 4 tubes had to be heated and then actually bend the whole header near the flange.  Pretty sure it was a build quality of the headers due to i had to modify them to fit around the T56 bellhousing, something that was factory on the car these are supposed to fit.  truly get what you pay for.  But since i did pay for them, by golly they are going to fit!

and thats all for todays edition of Wagon Weekend

I was able to make the Stock F-body master work,  Through what i beleive is the hole you speak of.  See below VVV  

 

Since it was brought up...need to actually make these pedals Funcional.  Brake...well its pretty well stock setup so it went right in.   Gas pedal...Tac module was jsut a few wires through the firewall,  piece of cake.   Clutch.....oh boy the clutch.

For starter,  new MC came with a cheesy pushrod.  Old MC i had,  has a nice adjustable rod end.    Figured it would be handy so had to swap it out.  

Now....where to put it.  

This hole should work right after I do a little weight reduction to a small brace

 

space was limited...holes needed drilled.  not exact, but i did put mounting holes "close" to where they needed to be

and mounted.

Yeah that's the hole I was referring to.  I swapped a saginaw 4 speed into my 77 Delta 88 years ago using LS1 hydraulics and a mcleod hydraulic  throwout bearing.  The mcleod bearing leaked like crazy, and after sending it back and forth to them a few timres I finally got something that worked.  Then shortly afterwards broke the saginaw.  Put a Tremec TKO in with a mix of 2nd gen F-body and 73-77 A-body linkage and pedals.

Love the floorpans!  I can tell this is gonna be good!  Not a lot of these cars out there anymore and even fewer of them with manual transmissions.

I fear your might