I wanted to get a few pictures of my project.. This is a 72 skylark custom convertible that I am in the process of resto modding to a GS clone with a few modern updates.. Quick background - bought the car from a guy who advertized that the car was ready to roll as it sat. //Ouch// Unfortunately the previous owner took a lot of shortcuts on areas of the car that couldn't be seen so once I started to disassemble realized that I was in for a much larger and longer (( more costly )) task than I anticippated.. So after a lot of reading and inspiration from this site I basically decided to reverse engineer the car and put it back together the way I wanted it with some unique twist. Here are few of the early stages of the teardown.. Will download some more photos in the near future. Dan C.
nice lookin car probably wont get alot of other response being chevy powered and all lots of chevy haters here not me i have two
Thanks for the positive comment.. :beers2: No doubt the purist will look past it but that's ok.. We all have our own taste and set different goals in our car builds. Some run Stock and some run Modified, but in the end there is an appreciation that we should share of running a Buick,, even if mine has the heartbeat under the hood. Lol. Dan C.
Them gen2's are some of the cleanest looking engines. Especially once all the baffling is removed and the vette fuel rail covers go on. Too bad they're such a pain to work with.
I have met some challenges along the way so far with this LT1 but once I got into it found some nice advantages to the reverse cooling design.. Also with the ability to tune it by using software on a home pc leaves alot of flexibility of different combinations of dialing it in. One advantage is a ton of support for the 2nd gen motor with aftemarket vendors so that helps in the wallet area when doing hp upgrades. :dollar: Dan C.
I am all for this swap. I am in the process of doing a LT1 in my 65. I love the LT1 engine. Tuning is super easy if its an OBD1 PCM, I've never tried to tune an OBD2. Are you using the 4l60e? Or are you going manual? I'm using a built 4l60e with mine and a 3200 converter. Keep up the good work. It will be tons of fun.
Thanks,, 4l60e with shift kit , stock stall convertor. Obd1 here also. Lt1 with lt4 upgrades.. Getting the pcm tuned by mad z28 and then if I have to tweak will use a download program and pc.. I'm hoping to get back on er soon , been so busy with spring cleanup and outside chores haven't had time to tinker with the my fun stuff. Soon I hope.. Dan C.
Right on. Mine's been taking forever. I don't even count the months till its done anymore. If I were you though I would stay clear of all the LT4 stuff except the Hotcam kit. The LT4 heads and intake are not much of an upgrade for the money at all. Especially that edelbrock LT4 intake. Atleast with the Hotcam kit you'll see some good gains. The factory heads ported some with even a stock intake manifold will be plenty for a while since you don't have a built trans.
The LT1 intake will flow fine for even a pretty extreme build. It doesn't become a restriction until you start doing turbos and such. You don't even need to do any port work on it. As for the heads the iron b-body heads actually flow better than the aluminum f-body heads do. The problem is that they're heavier. Even ported vs ported the iron heads outflow the aluminum ones. If you go with aftermarket then any of the choices are good except for the LT4 heads which flow about the same as the ported aluminum heads but cost alot more and require a special intake. A cheap upgrade is to do ported heads with the LS1 style valves (sodium filled exhaust and hollow intake) along with the beehive springs. This with a performance cam will really wake the car up alot. Also don't overpay for headers. That engine will take any of the gen1 small block headers. The ports aren't an exact match since the header port will be slightly larger and rounder, but it'll flow just as well and save you alot of money. The Impala guys run generic afterburners for $200 that are made for alot of different chevies wth the gen1. You can actually run the very same headers since it was actually designed for the '72 Chevelle. The info is Flowtech Afterburner 49100
Been a while since Ive posted updates. Here are a few updated photos of the front end coming back together . I am in the process of running the wiring and hope to have this thing firing up in a couple of weeks. Dont have a lot of extra time so doing what I can when I can. As you can see, organization is not one of my stronger skill sets with stuff laying all around.. Oh, that funny looking scoop tube under the rad support is a ram air device that is for an lt1 Impala but I am going to make it work for the LT1 Retro Lark.. Dan C.:TU:
Is that air filter have an open end on the side in the scoop,is that scoop limiting air flow? just asking.
The fan is the dual ls1 setup i purchased clean used ( and have read that it pulls air better than the original lt1 fan setup and it slides right in the same spot with no mods. The radiator is a new stock lt1 reverse flow from NAPA, nothing fancy. I figure on using a 180 degree thermostat and program the fans to come on at a lower temp to keep things cool. I purchased a faster flowing waterpump, rebulit with hd bearing. Plus this is a no a/c car so that is less strain on the system. As far as the ram air scoop setup I truthfully don't know how well it is going to work other than hearing people rave over on the Impala SS site on how it out performed other systems. I purchased this new/used from an Ebayer for 1/2 of what it would have cost from the company that sells it. So I am going to modify it (Hopefully) to pull air from right under the front buick bumper. Here is a link to the ram air system site. http://ramairss.com/ram_air_kit.htm Dan C.ray:
Cool deal. I already have an LS1 fan assembly but haven't purchased a radiator yet. Hadn't really given it that much thought but is the reverse flow radiator necessary or would a standard aluminum still function w/ the reverse flow system? Is your radiator out of an F-body or Impala? I plan to run a modified 4th gen ram air set up from Suncoast Creations (http://suncoastcreations.com/a-che-cam-2/21001k-ram-air-interface-air-box-kit.html) with a Stage II hood scoop. A guy over on Pro-touring.com has this set up on his 70 Cutlass w/ an LT1 & a 442 style hood.
From what I read you need a reverse flow rad, if you google it you'll find info on that. The rad I am running is for a 95 lt1 z28 - it is a wider unit than the later ls1 version, but the dual fan assembly is better on the ls1 so that is why i opted for it with the lt1 rad. Honestly, I didn't think about running an impala rad but that should be reverse flow also and may be larger for more cooling but i'm not sure. Dan C.
Did the radiator require any modifaction to the core support and were you able to use the factory skylark radiator hold down?
bottom of rad support was borrowed from an fbody (best I can tell) and fabbed to the buick core support as well as the top cover had a finish panel welded in. I can't give you particulars as this part was already done when I bought the car. It is one of the few things the previous owner did correctly before giving up on the project. Unfortunately I also found a lot of Mickey Moused items like the wiring that I am correcting now to make the car safe and reliable. Basically what I have been up against is starting from the rear of the vehicle, taking completely apart and putting back together and correcting and upgrading at the same time.:rant: Hasn't been fun at times. Dan C.
