Impala SS

Update your progress on your various car projects.

Moderators: MostMint, wxo, Fred32v, Basement Paul, ttamrettus

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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

Well I'm back from Niagara Falls. The entire trip was 591.6 miles and consumed 23.0 gallons, so the car made 25.72 mpg for the trip. There was a fair amount of short distance driving in New York. I only filled up once while on the road, and the last leg of about 200 miles I made 26.6 mpg on 99% highway driving. Of course the car was loaded with the whole family, suitcases and a cooler.
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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

With the Vette sold I am ready to take some action here. First up - exhaust. I am planning to do 3" from the manifold back to the Y, followed by 2 1/2" and some Flowmaster 40 series Delta Flow mufflers. It'll all be stainless except the mufflers, which are aluminized.
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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

Making final selections on the exhaust. Decided to get the 3" downpipe from the wbody store (online). Paul Carson is going to convert my converter to 3", and the main pipe will be 3" to the Y behind the gas tank, where it will split to 2 1/2". All pipes stainless. Decided to go with the stainless Flowmaster 40 Series Delta Flow mufflers and 2 1/2" out the back. Should be under $700 if I have my math right.

When you're near it you'll hear it :)

Also ordered a couple strut tower braces at the wbody store.
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Basement Paul
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Post by Basement Paul »

Ummm.... we're waiting....

-BP
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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

I have been driving it a week now. The sound is excellent. It took a little adjusting since the car had been so quiet before. On the first ride home I had the seat open to carry the old pipes which I think made it a little louder in the interior than I wanted.

On Easter Sunday took the family to the in-laws and no complaints from the wife, so it's good to go. When I first told her I was doing this she said "at least it lasted a year" before I started cutting it up.

I also found a bonus restriction in the exhaust where the post-cat O2 sensor was. See pics below.

The tailpipes are about 1" too low and one does not look centered to me so I'm having that fixed today. That could be because he had the car for 8 hours. I made some specific comments about calling with questions and about tailpipe placement but he did not heed them. Oh well the price was right.

I am really looking forward to putting it on the dragstrip to see what benefit I get from this setup.


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markss327
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Post by markss327 »

I agree, the tail pipe location is too low. Are chrome tips in the future?
When I had the pipes done on the Nova, last spring, I had pictures of EXACTLY what I wanted.
Did I get that - NO. And I paid big bucks.

We need a youtube video or at least a sound clip.
-Mark
2012 Impala LT 3.6 VVTDI
300hp - a bit much for FWD!
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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

Because of the location of the mufflers there is not much room for tips. I'll have to take some pics from underneath to clarify. I did take it back on Saturday and had the tailpipes redone. They are much more to my liking now.

I have some in-car video but no way to convert to digital yet. Should have had Tiresmoker take some video when he was over this past weekend. He did a real nice job - if you have him do custom work the best thing to do is be there so it gets done the way you want. Paul did a nice job with all but the tailpipes on the first try - and after 8 hours I think he needed to finish it. If I had it to do over again I would have told him I wanted to be there when he did the tailpipes, and he could have saved the rework.

I like it more and more every time I drive it.
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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

What happened here?

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wxo
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Post by wxo »

Did you do a CarFax on this car before you bought it? Maybe it was in an a front end collision. I can run a CarFax for you if you haven't done it.
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MostMint
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Post by MostMint »

WXO I thought I saw a carfax when I bought it but I don't have a hard copy of it now. From looking at it I think the car had been at the dealer for close to 60 days, and the car was a rental in PA originally. I sent you a private message with the VIN.

I swear this was due to body flex/motor mounts. I have washed the engine compartment before and I do not recall seeing this mark. However I have a picture from last May where it appears to already have the mark.

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Trouble is I already had the car for over two months so whatever I am doing I was already doing for two months.
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wxo
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Post by wxo »

When I first looked at your picture, I forgot that it's a transversely mounted motor. Now I understand why you think the mark is due to the motor rocking under high torque. Maybe you better chain it down :wink: . Can you rev it up from the engine bay and watch what happens?
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ttamrettus
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Post by ttamrettus »

touch it up and see if it gets scraped again.
Matt Sutter
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MostMint
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Installing strut tower braces

Post by MostMint »

So I finished up the install of the strut tower braces today. I really like the look - they look completely stock and innocent.

Turns out the braces were GM parts - 12498468 is the kit. I bought them at wbodystore.com. Here is the description from GM parts direct:
DESCRIPTION: STRUT TOWER BRACE KIT
For use on 1999 - 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo; 2000 - 2002 Chevrolet Impala; 1997 - 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. These are production Buick strut tower braces designed to minimize body flex. The kit includes two strut tower braces, hardware, and installation instructions. The part number for one strut tower brace only is 12456148.

I probably could have bought them at a scrap yard or swap meet for $10 each but too late now.

The instructions in the kit had some paper templates but they were of little use - the dimensions did not match my car exactly. On the front brace I had to cut some small studs off the shock tower. Overall the front brace was not too bad - just a little time to get the hole alignment right the drill. It was strange cutting and drilling on a 1 year old car.

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The back brace was a whole new adventure. I had to pull the strut from the car in order to install the second bolt on each side (the first bolt went on a stud that holds the strut to the strut tower). This required removing the caliper (see tiny single piston caliper - argh), control arm and the other two pieces holding the bottom of the strut in place.

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The kit came with four special fasteners that had two studs welded to a small plate. In the back you have to remove one of the studs since you only need one additional stud. To achieve this I used the sawzall to cut the head off the plate (see pics below) then drilled the hole to fit the stud from the strut. (Sawzall's rule!)

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There was no room in the top of the strut assembly to fit the head of the new stud, and I did not want to just cram it in there, the top of the assembly would not lay flat against the top of the tower, so I cut a hole in the top to allow the stud head to fit. There was no mention of this little situation in the assembly instructions so I was improvising.

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Also could not drill down from the trunk so I had to drill up. What a pain for a pencil pusher like me.

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I can't tell you how many times I had to get in and out of the trunk - at least it's roomy in there.

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I still need to put some touch up on that mark on the front tower by the alternator, and I need to try it out.

HP tuner and laptop are next, and maybe a trip to the track before then.
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GMJohnny
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Post by GMJohnny »

Are the "instructions for the kit" you descibe shown in the 3rd & 4th pictures? I was trying to figure them out and can see why you were having a hard time with them. What does that cat by the chuck key have to do with the SS???
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TireSmoker
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Post by TireSmoker »

GMJohnny wrote:Are the "instructions for the kit" you descibe shown in the 3rd & 4th pictures? I was trying to figure them out and can see why you were having a hard time with them.
LOL
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