Well It is still in the shop today and now it needs new lifters. But On a happy note my Blazer console arrived today! This thing is a beauty and it will remedy that oversight on GM's part of having a Column shift sports sedan! It has all the mounting hardware and the wiring to make it work stock. Even has the modified Tranny bracket to make my Dashboard Gear indicator work in conjunction with this.





Here is the finished product in a caprice:



Here it is in a Roadmaster (using a Bravada console to match the woodgrain)



Hopefully I'll get the car back one of these days and get some of my mods going. It's definatly feeling less like a bought not built car buy the day. This car looked clean and ran good but it has a lot of demons to work out.

~HJ

 

wow..thats gunna look really good. im a big fan of those impala's like yours.

 

that will look good HJ....

 

Well Long story short, My Mechanic had it for three weeks and never touched it (pissed me off) so I towed it home and worked on it with a couple guys from Track time Motorsports (To keep me from doing something stupid.

Here are the pics, sorry they are from my cell phone I forgot my camera at work:

 

mmm go-fast

 

Woo hoo! Its back home today! Good news is it runs awesome. The bad news is the Vibration at 58 is still there. I think it is Tranny related as it doesn't happen if you lock out OD until you hit 65. But I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

Big thanks to Dennis (Oly21 From the Impala ss Board) and his Neighbor with the kickass buick. Without them I'd still be eating oatmeal and swearing at my checkbook.

Well I went to work at 5 AM half asleep so I forgot to take pics before I left But just picture a pretty green/Grey car sitting next to a mary Kay cadillac! Seriously it felt great to see it in the morning and not an empty space, half filled with GMC parts. I am leaving for 4Th of July weekend after work so I don't get to enjoy it till next weekend (I probably will bring it to the MN meet, we'll see how I feel about the tranny) :(

Here is the one pic of the motor together.



~HJ

 

Nice!!!!!!! Glad you got it back...

 

That sucks about the mechanic, but at least you got it done. Are those lifters modified in any way to get you more power?

 

sweet!

 

Lifters, No. Rest of the Valve train? Yes. The Comp Type R lifters that were in there, was the problem. They are Junk. The retainers literally fall apart. It is quite common. The stock ones are more than adequate for my Cam/Valvetrain setup. I did alot of research on this and, my Friend dennis has been running the same setup for thousands of miles without issue. About 8 of my lifters were literally in pieces when I took the intake off.

Oh and if the tranny is shot, then the T-56 Conversion won't be far behind!

~HJ

 

Proof that it runs! Ignore the tail pipe smoke, My PCM program is a mess and it runs waaaaayyyyy too rich. I am having it dyno tuned in the near future. Only does it at idle when cold and when you really get on the throttle.

~HJ

 

nice! that sounds really good for a GM product!

 

Well, I went home this weekend and with the help of a few guys from the MinneSSota club and some high school buddies we got the motor yanked. This is step one in the LSx Engine swap.

It was a fun and eventful day, me and my Dad got it into the shop and removed the hood early on saturday. I then started unbolting things and waited til reinforcements arrived. It was about 11 when they started rolling in and by then I had most the electronics removed, the headers unbolted from the export pipes and the torque converter bolts removed.

After everybody arrived it was a lot of fun and humor. It was probably the most fun I've had with this car since the first day I had it. We got the motor free from the car and ready to go on the stand about 6:30. After wards I took the guys out that stayed for a steak dinner. It is wonderful having that kind of support from friends that want to see my car run again and are willing to give up a saturday to help me out. I couldn't have done it without them.

The next step is to get the tranny out (Too tired to do it after we got done cleaning up the mess, so it will have to wait til next weekend) and then part out my LT1. Then I will obtain my base engine and start building. I have 400 RWHP and 20 MPG as my goal. Very reasonable with a LSx based engine.

Anyways onto the pics.




^ I actually drove it in there, last time this motor will run probably.




^ Beau was wondering what all that racket was! (Didn't seem this bluury on the camera)




^ Chevy patio table!


^ closer



^team effort FTW!



^ lets pull the beast!



^ Scott thinking to himself, "if I fart now will anyone hear it?"



^ Scott with his trademark "Thumb's up!"



^ Casey always having to one up Scott!



^ Look at that pretty pink Vigilante converter!





^ Oh Crap, I broke the engine stand! Both front wheels came off when we were putting it into the shed. Luckily it didn't tip over.



^ here is how she sits til next week

My Support teams rigs:



^ Dennis' Sweet 95 Caprice wagon!



^ Scott's Roadmaster (My old car, He repainted it, lowered it, put impala rims and sequential tailights in it) It is a heck of lot nicer now then when I owned it.



^Casey's Supercharged mega lifted 38" tire smoking chevy.

That is all for now!

~HJ

 

Nice John I would love an SS!!! Whats up with the bumper thing on the truck?

 

must not have been a fan of the body lift brackets =]



ditto on the ss ownership! i wish i was old enough when they came out new to just buy one and shrinkwrap it for ten years. there's a dude down the road who did a caprice wagon up with the impala style trim. looks like a factory impala wagon. i'll have to snap some pics up.

the kicker is he has to be over 60 years old! haha, he's cool as hell though.

 

I assume you're talking about the pipe bumper below the factory bumper. I know Minnesota has some strict rules about bumper heights. usually a truck that lifted has a bumper like that after they get sick of paying tickets.

~HJ

 

Glad to see the progress on it. it's been a while since I'd heard anything about it.

 

Its definatly progress, towards what I have no idea?

~HJ

 

Since I plan on getting it painted while the motor is out (I want to clean up and respray the engine bay as well as the outside) I just order a 1970 Chevelle SS repopped hood to cut up and install the cowl on an old caprice hood I have laying around. Since I am a SSRI intake (Basically turns my grill into a ram air see below) I was wondering what to do with he flat boring hood. I hate Z28 style cowl hoods (The typical cowl hoods you see) and the Suncoast Ram air hood is nice, but every member of MinneSSota has one and I like to be different. I love the 70 Chevelle hood. I am going to cut the sheet mete off of the chevelle hood and separate it from the supports. Then I am going to take it over to the caprice hood and trace it. Then I am going to cut the sheet metal off the caprice hood to match and weld on the cowl hood. Well it will be for looks I think it will give it something extra.

To finish it off I am doing SS type racing stripes, except they'll only be a shade or two darker green/gray to give it a ghost stripe appearance.




^ This is the style hood I bought.


~HJ

 

Well I thought I'd bump this with a new tale of whoa. I celebrated one year with my pride and joy buy finishing the job of neutering it. We got the tranny out and got her back to storage. It was alot more laid back than it was last weekend as it was only about an hours worth of real work even though it took all day. What a difference a week makes. Last week was 20 and 19"s of snow and this weekend started out sunny and 60 and ended sunny and 70. I actually have bugs to scrape off the explorer for the first time this year. Scott and my friend from high school Ben helped out and the tow truck driver only managed to wreck the exhaust tips (I hated them any way so I told him it was ok)

Anyway on with the pics.



^First thing in the morning.



^ Screw a new motor, I just need a whip!



^ See Ben agrees.



I'm "Balling" now, Literally!





^ Scott giving me his Micheal Knight impression



^ That makes it 6 fords that have towed this car. (thought you guys would like that)


^ Watch those exhaust tips! cwm9




^On Da way too stowage for lord knows how long.



^ I’m looking at you; you wore green so you can hide. I don’t blame you...

Anywho I forgot to take any pics of it in storage but it looks like this:



~HJ

 

I Don't know why but I found this funny,

What a difference a Decade makes:



^ 2008



^1999

Just thought that was a neat thought.

~HJ

 

I -love- those two pictures at the end.. I was scroling back and forth for liek 3 or 4 minutes just noting all the changes that were made to the house and such.. fantastic cars, wish I had one.. they are so so so comfortable!!