$6,000
Carbondale, Illinois
Category
Sedan
Mileage
128500
Posted Over 1 Month
For sale is my ’94 Caprice wagon, done up in Impala SS livery. It’s got a bunch of upgrades under the hood, in the interior, and the exterior. It’s a rust-free car that spent most of its life being driven by a little old lady in Georgia before being rescued from such a mundane life. It currently has 128,xxx miles on it but it runs and drives like it has half that many. Engine Performance UpgradesIt’s got an LT4 intake, LT4 aluminum heads, a Lunati cam with matching valve springs, 1.6:1 roller rockers, headers and Flowmaster exhaust, managed with a PCM4Less tune. The previous owner estimated 425 HP at the flywheel, and seat of the pants, it feels like a solid 340-350 RWHP. Time slips from the previous owner show 13.1s at 10x mph. Transmission UpgradesSitting between the engine and the transmission is a 3000 RPM stall lockup converter. The 4L60E has a shift kit and has been tuned to shift firmly (but not harshly) at ~6000 RPM under WOT. Out back are 4.10 gears. You might think that 4.10s are too aggressive—they’re not. Cruising at 80mph, the engine is around 2700 RPM. Suspension UpgradesStock springs are at all four corners, as are Bilstein shocks. Bilsteins are fantastic—more comfortable than stock, but more controlled too. Air springs are installed inside the rear springs so you can firm up the back end when carrying a heavy load. Tubular lower control arms attached the rear axle the frame. They’ve got bosses for a rear sway bar to be installed but, to be honest, I never felt like the car needed it—at already goes around corners way better than something its size has a right to.Wheels are Boss 338 20x8.5s with General Gmax AS03 tires. These tires are grippy enough to leave the line hard, stick in the corners, and won’t leave you skating in the rain. (I've used the Gmaxes on other cars and they do well in the snow, but this car has never been driven in it.)All of the wearable items in the front suspension have been replaced with ProForged parts—ball joints, tie rods and the idler arm. The power steering box is a 12.7:1 unit that has been rebuilt by Lee Manufacturing. Interior UpgradesThe front seats have been replaced by buckets out of.. a ‘90s era Pontiac, if memory serves. The seats are power controlled, just like stock, and have been wired up so that the door-mounted electric seat controls actually work. (No half-baked seat conversion here.) The middle bench has been upgraded to match the front seats. (The third row seat is stock.)The column shifter has been upgraded to a center floor mounted shifter, I believe out of an Oldsmobile Bravada.The gauge cluster has been replaced with one from a ‘90s Fbody, so you get a full slew of functional gauges. The oil pressure gauge wiring has been modified so that the gauge shows actual oil pressure. (Stock, the oil pressure gauge is basically a dummy switch—it displays about ¾ of the way up all the time, which is pretty much useless.)The stereo is a mid-range Sony Bluetooth unit. Since pretty much nobody uses CDs any more, this one just has a front USB input and an enclosure inside where you could put an iPod or a USB stick. The speakers in the doors have been upgraded, and there are a set of tweeters at ear level—this stereo sounds much better than stock. Exterior UpgradesThe paint job is the stereotypical Impala SS black cherry. It's got SS logos embossed on the rear flanks. The hood is an aftermarket fiberglass unit with a small cowl induction.The No-So-GoodSo, what’s wrong with it? Aesthetically, there are a few flaws, none of which are major. There are two light scratches on the passenger side front fender. The black cherry paint needs to be touched up in a few spots on the roof rack and around a couple door handles. The window tint has a few flaws. The roll pan (rear bumper) has several cracks in it. The tailgate only swings out—the cable that hooks up the handle which makes the tailgate swing down is broken. (I have a replacement cable but have not installed it.)The main issue is with the engine itself. It has very low compression on cylinder #1, which results in excessive blowby. (#1 tested at around 60 dry and only went up to 70 when wet; 2-8 were in the 170-200 range.) I’ve replaced the oil fill cap with a breather to allow the gasses to escape as the PCV system can’t keep up. The odd thing is that the car runs great—if I wasn’t up front about this issue, you’d never know by driving the car. My asking price reflects that the new owner will likely need to spend some money to resolve this issue.I have a huge stack of receipts from the previous owner detailing all of the exact parts that he used (he was the one who did most of the work) and I have supplemented it with receipts from the work and modifications I’ve done to it.
