I need to get some input on something. I have a 95 Impala SS.
It runs and everything right now but I am just not excited about the car right now. I have been thinking of ditching it and building an 82 cutlass or something like that. It would be a drag car that could be driven on the street.
But I have been also kicking around the idea of yanking the LT1 out of my imp and swapping in a gm performance parts LS 364/440 carbed crate motor, and rolling with that.
I have put carbed motors in cars that came carbed but not one that come with fuel injection. Would it be a tough swap? I know I will have to mess with the oil pan and motor mounts and such.

What do you guys think?
Thanks
Brandon

 

do you by chance have a friend that works at sellers truck center? a cooworker just told me he had a friend doin this exact thing and wanted to ask me about it. but ofcourse we didnt get a chance to talk yet.

anyways, its a very easy swap. the hardest part will be either replacing the gauges with aftermarket ones, or figuring out how to make the stock gauges work with a non-computerized engine.

you would be able to get all the stock gauges to work, but it would be easier/(while being alot more expensive) to mount a full set of aftermarket gauges. and since you mentioned a drag car that could also be cruised on the street, is prolly what you should do.

the stock intank pump will be more then enough for what your talking about. all you gotta do there is run a hose from the stock steel line to an adj. return style regulator. mallory is what I recomend, as thats whats worked for me in a handfull of swaps Ive been part of. the regulator is about $75 or so from summit or anywhere. if I remember right its called a 4 port return style and it'll have a high and low press. spring, ofcourse you'll want the low press. spring. run it around 8psi, making sure it never dips below 5psi (some say 4) at WOT, esp. near the end of the track.

you do know that LS engine would be ALOT more expensive then just using a sbc right? custom headers would be needed too, compared to being able to use typical LT1 headers on an SBC. with as much as that crate eng. cost, you could get a bad *** sbc with forged internals, and some bad *** heads. ofcourse you prolly know the LS engines do have alot of benefits, but for what your doin, personally Id rather spend the money on some killer sbc stuff and just keep it simple.

do you have a link for the crate eng. you mentioned? Im just curious what comes with that for what price?

on another note, I got a killer fully forged 383LT1 thats built for nitrous Id sell you for $3500(/with stock exchange) complete you could just swap into your car and go? all it needs is a new set of valve springs, head/intake gaskets, 2 pushrods, fill fluids, and go!!! Im demodding my 95 to sell closer to stock. already got a stock eng. Ive been putting together for it. Id even swap pcm's with you so you could keep my dyno tuned program. you'd just have to change the rear gear ratios and some things in the tune for your trans. mines programed for an oldschool 700r4. Im sure any tuner would change those parameters dirt cheap. then you wouldnt have to mess with the gauges as theyd be ready to go (although Im sure your still goin to want a tach right? ).

chris

 

Nope I do not have a friend that works at sellers. You gave me alot of good info for sure and I appreciate it. I will have to kick everything around for awhile. The LS 364/440 is in the motor section of summit. If I rem correctly it is $5300 and comes with everything except the intake, carb, accs.

You are probably right that going with a reg sbc/th400 would be alot cheaper and I could get alot of bang for $5300. It would also be alot easier.

The one thing I like about the LSX's is the fact that I wouldn't have to hack up my cowl for the distributor.

later,
Brandon

 

I'm still using a factory tank/pump and lines from my TPI car and now it's carbed. I use an Aeromotive universal bypass regulator to get the pressure down to 5-7psi like Chris said. The Mallory unit works just as well, I've had 2 of them work nice and they are a little cheaper.

An LSX swap is always cool butit will be a "redo everything" project. From the mounting hardware, clearance issues, custom headers to fit your body style, You could always mount the carb sideways also for clearance in front to back fittment issues. Have a good carb builder build a custom carb for the application so it will drive like EFI from the get go and save you a few carb tuning headaches. Pro Systems did mine and it's been flawless. Goodluck!

 

ihave a caprice as well, and I don think there would be any firewall issues with a distributer? nor would I guess there would be any carb clearance issues, even with the stock hood. but maybe air cleaner challenged.

and yes if your gonna go carb'd, custom carb is def. the way to go. little more expensive, but out of the box driveability and performance.

 

I will have to check into the distributor clearance, seems pretty tight right now with the efi setup..
Hood clearance shouldn't be a problem. I have a 2 inch cowl on it right now.

I have never had a carbed vehicle before. What are the disadvantages I will see?

 

Not to flame bu the Impy SS is a limited production car, as i'm sure you know since you own one. But i wouldn't go tearing that car apart if i were you. Its going to be worth a lot of money one day and keeping it as close to original as possible would mean a lot in its value down the road.

 

thats true, but if its already not a nice car, or has a billion miles, its not goin to be worth anything anyways. besides he could always keep all the orig. stuff he takes out anyways.

as for disadvantages, you'll have to pump the gas pedal once before turning the key. EFI will pretty much always give you the best fuel mileage, but who cares about that with your goals for the car. not like your building a daily driver.

my 383 still got 17mpg mixed driving in my camaro, all while goin 11.6-11.7's at the track and still fully loaded. but being carbed, if you have everything setup optimum, Id expect around 13-15mpg tops mixed driving. my Iroc with a carb and solid lifter cam still got 15mpg. but again that car weighed about 700lbs less then your impy does/will unless you GUT the crap out of it.

 

Ya I am not too concerned about holding onto this car until I am 90.
It has 72,000 miles and has the frame notched, air bags in the rear, not the original Lt1, smoothie 2 wheels. It is (tim) bigcowl-imps old 396 ride. I am just looking for something to get me excited again.

I will probably just get a car and make it into a full drag car.