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Who wants to see a '96 Caprice build thread?

15K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  miska_man 
#1 ·
Please note: this thread will run concurrent with a thread over at the ImpalaSSForum, so to make things easier, I will pretty much copy and paste verbatim on my progress. Here goes...

Ok, so for those that have been following along, around October of 2007 I broke a valvespring and that put the Caprice out of commission for a while. Then, last summer I finally got the car back to the house to take it apart, where pictures were posted, teeth were gnashed and OMG's were exchanged.

Well, since the sale of a trombone on Fleabay, I now have the money to buy the parts that I've been needing for a long time. I've had parts sitting on the shelf for 3+ years, but no coin for the gaskets and other assorted tidbits. Now that the parts are en-route, I figured I'd start a build up thread.

The theme here is ultra low buck, with performance in mind. I've got a bunch of High-perf parts waiting, but you'll just have to wait and see what.

So, that leaves us here. I will post up pics of where we're at when I get home, but I do have one question. Know this first though, there isn't enough money in the bank to do any machine work, unless I find that it's abso-freakin-luely necessary.

My question is this; If the clearances measure within specs, is it okay to reuse the main, rod and cam bearings? Will it do anything to the bearings to release the clamp load, then retorque? Also, how about reusing the rod bolts? I know it's usually a no-go, but I'd ask how many have actually done it. If no, then which rod bolts to use? I'm eyeing some Pioneer rod bolts right now, P/N# S1035. Kinda looks like ARP's are out of the price range. How about head bolts? I do have head bolts on the way, but can return them if they're not needed. I ordered them because I thought I remembered that stock headbolts are one time use only.

Whew! Lots of typing make me tired. If you only take one thing away from this though, be it that I intend to have this done by June 7th because the Hot Rod Power Tour is cruising through Nashville, and I would love to be in my hot rod to hang out with them.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
Needed to get it off the cherry picker and on the the motor stand.
Mr Electric impact is your friend



Oh look, GM was nice enough to reman this trans for me. Too bad it's still a ****ing piece of ****.




Motor on stand


This is where we end for today. That whole having a 2 year old thing, kinda gets in the way of my projects, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Made it through today with only 1causality. 1 Flexplate bolt. Got mangled when my socket on my impact gave up the ghost.



Maybe some progress for tomorrow?
 
#5 ·
Actually for a long time, that was the route I was going to go, but then I found out how much it was going to cost! Lol, really though, if you figure up how much time, money and effort it would take, for this kind of car, it's not really worth it to me. Now, if it were an Impala SS and not an old cop car Caprice, or even a really nice Caprice. it might be worth it. I think last time I checked by the time it was all said and done, I'd have AT LEAST $3500, just in parts alone invested. That's almost what I paid for the car.
 
#8 ·
Not much new for today. Pulled the pan off last night and in the process, broke the oil level sending unit because I'm a retard, and forgot to take it out. I guess I'll just add it to the list of crap to grab from the scrap yard...

On the plus side, the bottom end looks really good! Hopefully tonight, I'll get the balancer hub pulled and get the timing cover off. If that goes well, I might even get the cam and lifters out.

*Sigh*
The wife was at a baseball game last night and she took her camera with her. That's why the no pics. BUT, I will have a progress report either tonight or tomorrow morning.
 
#9 ·
Ask and ye shall receive.

I want to take his pan... off...





Oh look, a cam...



Me soooo organized



Look here too, parts I've been too poor to buy until now. With part numbers conveniently shown! FYI, head gaskets are Victor Reinz, PN 5898. FTW.



So, in case anybody missed the first go around... Here is what lead to the tear down. Springs WERE CM 613's, supposedly good to .600 lift... I guess .544 on the exhaust side was too much.



And for the record, EVERY SINGLE damper was broken on the exhaust side, on every cylinder.

Oh dang!



I guess it's not that bad...




Mr Mike Harris, AKA 1FAST94 on the Impala SS forum, was kind enough to donate 2 rockers since 2 of mine were wasted. Meow.



Anybody says an unkind word about Mike and we'll have to fight. I sure do appreciate it, even if it did take almost 3 years to get them on. Since we're talking about Mike, he also sold me these.




Yeah I bought those, oh I dunno, like 5 or 6 years ago, they're still not on... :( Soon, very soon.
 
#10 ·
Mmm k, so where did we leave off? Oh right, the balancer hub. I shall remove you.



And all of your lifter buddies...




Timing set removal. I elected not to remove the crank gear since I'm reusing the set. It was a brand new cloyes set I got off ebay for like 30 bucks when I did the cam swap. It's got less than 5000 miles on it.




Look at that pretty thing!



Why, that's a COMP cam!

 
#11 ·
So I pulled the WP drive to find this... I ask about this because since I've had the car, in 40,000 miles I've went through 3 water pumps. All of them puked the rear bearing. Could this be the root cause? Is this bearing supposed to be sealed, or is it supposed to look like this? FYI even though I'm installing an electric WP, I am reinstalling this so just in case I have to run an emergency stocker, I can.



To teh bottom end...

Pulled the first piston and rod.



When I pushed it off the crank, the somebish fell out and hit my leg! Luckily it landed on the pile of rags under engine stand.




Bearings, what do you think about the wear? This motor has 119k miles on it.





I'm not going to bother taking pictures of all of them. They literally, all look the same.



Now, the damaged piston. I took a long hard look to see if it damaged a ring land, collapsed a skirt, did anything to say "Do not reuse this piston". I couldn't find anything. So, the damaged area is going to get a polish and it's getting thrown back to the wolves!






Other side of piston.


Everybody has a box of pistons, right?

 
#12 ·
Ahh, safe and sound.



Now on to the mains. What do you think about this bearing wear? This is #1 and #5. 1 through 4 looked identical in wear and patterns.




Hank the crank is ready to some out. With the rear main. There wasn't enough room between the stand and the motor to pull it out with the crank still in.




See anything you don't like?





OMG, it's nekkid!



What do you guys think of the bores? I know you can see some minor pitting, and you can also see where the rings were when it sat for over 3 years. I don't plan on honing it, and I also plan on reusing the rings and pistons, cleaned up of course.




Damn scratch.



Gasket surfaces cleaned. Ready for the pressure washer today.



A wood chisel and some Aircraft Stripper will do wonders for this PITA gasket.

 
#13 ·
Lastly, I found this when I flipped the motor over after I took off the pan. Yes, I know exactly what it is and where it came from. The question is do you? Who can tell me where this came from? If you study pictures in previous posts, you should be able to figure it out.




Off to the cleaners!
 
#14 ·
Reckon Top of a Push Rod.

I would have suggested you numbered those lifters for proper placement on the cam due to the wear patterns. I assume naturally the pistons are numbered however.

If I may suggest one big thing for your crank, have the oil holes Chamfered! This drastically improve oiling for the bearings.

Here is an example on my Shelby Can Am Crank,

 
#16 ·
possibly a peice of 1 of the 3 water pumps youve had?
 
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