1966 Impala

Home

My 1966 Chevy info:

UPDATES!!
Current Specs
History
Pictures
Engine build pics
Build chart
1st motor (bad)

Tech / Misc:
Tech section
Links
Contact Info

My Project car

   Since childhood I have wanted a project car. My dream car was the 69 Mustang which is still
in my mine for a later day. In July of 99 while at work I was telling a friend about my
"Green Bomber" 1980 Honda accord that had broken down, she immediately offered me $200 for
the thing, well stupid me I accepted to sell her my Green Bomber which was my first car, 
she had the thing running a week later with a new head gasket. Well this is the lady I bought
my 66 Impala from. The reason she wanted my Green Bomber was to save gas mileage by getting rid
of her 66 Impala for a smaller car. I ended up paying $400 for the Impala in good running 
condition with trade for my car. I thought HERE IS MY PROJECT CAR, and that it is. I was 
planning to rebuild the 180K mile chevy 350 engine when a rod came lose and went through the
block two weeks before I was planning to rebuild it. So I started my Project in Late July by 
looking around for the best engine prices which I ended up ordering everything from Summit 
Racing. I ordered a Fel-Pro gastket set, 11:1 High Compression pistons, 224 x 234 Summit cam,
Matching Springs rated at 390 lbs, lifters, bearings, and a High Volume Oil pump. Total cost of
the parts came to $481.23. The estimated Horsepower to be produced from a stock of 283hp is 
expected to be 370-410HP. I will have the car on a DYNO soon.

Before I ordered all these parts I tore down the 350 to see what went wrong, and found that 
the rod ripped out of the piston when the rod bearings seized then causing the rod to slam the 
side of the block taking chunks out of the lower edge of the bore and breaking the rod in half
and then the chuck of rod fell on the cam and them smashed into the cam by the crank breaking 
the cam in 3 pieces and bending the crank, which can be easily explained as a completly bad 
engine.

I then hit the junk yard in search of a good block. I found one near-by for $70, brought it
home and striped it to find an engine that had been bored 60 over with very thin cylinder walls
and needed to be board again, shaved heads that were warped, 4 seized mains, and 6 seized rods
to say that this was another bad engine. I took it back to get my money back. Then a friend 
next door offered me his engine for $50, which he stated that a rod or two seized up but the 
rest was still good. This is the one that currently holds all my high performance parts. The 
crank was turned to .20 over on the mains and .30 on the rods. The cylinders are not bored over
just ridge reamed and honed. Assembled and ready to start. I ended up getting a new junk yard 
starter as mine was weak. The engine was so tight that the starter barely got the engine going.
Once the engine was finally started the lifters were adjusted. One problem occured here, the 
engine over heats when it idles to long. 

THE TEST DRIVE:
Even with the over heat problem I decided it was time for a very short test drive. Around our 
block I went then further away. The over heat problem was nearly gone when the beast
cruised faster than 30 the engine stayed below 210F. I put 23 miles on the car that day.

THE PROBLEM:
    Today September 26 1999 the day before I turn 19 I decide my car is road worthy. Did
the normal oil level check, water level check and every other check then hopped in started her
up and off I went. Figuring a trip around the Flathead Vally (Kalispell) Montana a course which
was about 35 miles in a loop. I made it about 25 miles before I started having problems. 
Constantly checking gauges I saw the temp rise from 180F (running without a thermostat) to 190F
and from there It continually rose to 220F. As the temp soared the oil pressure fell from 80psi 
to a low of 30 when I was slowing to the first light in town, I quickly ducked into a gas 
station before I stoped at the light to have the oil pressure fall to 0, I tryed to get the car
to neutral but hit park while still rolling at about 15mph (not a good thing) but I needed to 
keep the RPM up for the oil to stay high, but I guess when I passed reverse with the RPM at 
2500 it killed the engine. 4 hours later the diagnosis was a blown head gasket (_WHY!!!_).
Massive Irritation encured...

Future plans:
I need to get a carburator, I am running stock carb and intake manifold.
I also plan to put either a 3 speed turbomatic or one of those expensive 6 speeds, I have a 2 
speed powerglide in the Impala right now. A lower geared rear end for more top end speed, max 
speed is at 137MPh currently with a 253 10 bolt @ 5500 RPM. This car really needs a paint job, 
something along the lines of Metalic Midnight Blue :), Crazy Purple, or silver.
And last but not least wheels. I am looking for something like 10s width for the rear maybe 
bigger but I really don't want to tub the car, and 8s for the front.



DID I miss anything?

My Project car - part 2

July 4th '2000' Independance Day

Things that have changed since the last entry are new carb and intake manifold by Edlebrock 
Performer RPM intake and 750 CFM carb. A new Milodon copper head gasket due to a miss 
understanding of me and the engine, Explained -- when I put on the aluminum intake I didn't get 
the bolts tight enough for when the heat makes metal expand and contract which is different 
between the metal in the Iron block and the aluminum intake which sprung a water leak under 
the intake dumping all my anti-freez down into my engine while at the time I was racing  '88' 
Ford Probe (I was winning of course) untill my temp gauge was maxed out at which I shut the 
engine off and walked home thinking I blew a head gastket for not letting the engine warm up 
before racing it hard. So I striped the heads off to find perfect Fel-pro head gaskets made for 
upto 9.5:1 compression ratio (another reason to assume a blown gasket running 11:1 CR), a 
closer inspection showed pealed intake gaskets with water makes though it (heh, opps, should 
have looked first).
After this head gasket was put in one month later the engine didn't run hardly at all, this 
is after the trip back to washington from Montana, so I tweeked with the Accel points to no 
end, so I broke down with the $200 bucks for an electronic Distrib (Accel Billetproof). At 
first no improvement didn't even start. Checked the magnetic gap showed the outter limit of 
.07 gap of .05-.07, so just for kicks I moved it closer, to .05... wham! HIT the starter and 
it just purrrred like a kitten, smoothed out the idle by retarding it a bit and I am on the 
money.
Thank you ACCEL FOR THE GREAT billetproof distributor!! Well worth the money..

My engine still HATES to start up after it heats up Hot starting problems.. I have notice a 
drastic increase in engine compartment temps and exaust manifold tempature, probably due to 
the higher compression and cam...  So just a few days ago I ordered a Summit Protorque mini 
starter and a heat sheild. I am sure this will solve all my problems of leaving me stalled at 
a stop light and pushing the car by hand'N'foot to the nearest grassy spot, you should try 
this with a 3700 lbs car and traffic behind you, sure get the heart a pumpin.

I have done some body work now, I patched one of the bigger sized rust holes in the bondo 
pannel.. The driver side rear fender pannel looks like it has been smashed before and someone 
reconstructed the hole pannel with about an 1/8 of an inch in bondo, so there was a baseball 
sized (elongated) hole closer to the bottom of the pannel that I repatched due to a small 
hole in the wheel well that allowed it to rust from within the pannel, I sealed this with a 
piece of fiberglass and resin. Filled the outer side of the pannel with bondo and have is 
sanded down and ready to prime. I have one more big patch job on the bottom edge of that same 
pannel that again a hole on the inner side let mosture eat a 1" wide by 6" long slot along the 
bottom edge. I will pound this in a bit to make some room for a stip of fiberglass material to 
heal the wound and bondo any low spots. This seems to be the only way I can think of to fix 
this problem, the first rust hole filled was accually my first bondo job ever so I am pretty 
confident now. I am trying my hardest to prep the car for everyday driving and here in this 
part of Washington It better be ready for the rain if not I will be driving rust with a 350CID.
My '97' Ford Tauras is going back to the bank due to my lack of getting a job intime for the 
next payment, and First Secruity Bank was not willing to work with me or help me out so I said 
GREAT now I can put $500 a month into my Impala :) thats why all the recent/future upgrades 
have been pull out of the hat.


Thanks again for reading! and come back again for the never ending project...

Performance parts line-up

The engine is a 1969 4 bolt main block .40 over from a Z28.
Forged 5140 steel crank.
Forged 4340 H beam 6 inch rods with 7/16 ARP 12 point head screw caps.
Forged 10.89:1 .125cc Dome top pistons 6cc reliefs with moly rings.

AFR 195 cc runner Aluminum with 74cc chambers. Upgraded springs and valves for roller cam.
Felpro .039 compressed head gasket for use with aluminum.
Scorpion 1.6 ratio aluminum full roller rockers.
Hardened light weight chromoly pushrods.
10.89:1 Compression, Forged pistons with Moly rings.
Racing bearing kit.
Compcams P/N:12-450-8 Duration 230/230 - 286/286 adv, .490/.490 w/1.6 ratio rockers. 110 Lobe center.
CompCams retrofit roller lifters.
Pete noisy timing gear set dual idler.
Performer RPM Intake.
750 Holley 3310-4 vacuum secondaries with rear jet plate and quick change vacuum sec.
Accel Billetproof Distributor.
Accel 300+ multispark electronic ignition with matched super coil.
Accel 8mm plug wires.
Accel U-Grove spark plugs.
Summit Racing Shift-light Tach 0-8000 RPM.
Milodon Diamond windage tray.
Milodon Crank scraper.
High flow Edlebrock street fuel pump 130 GPH @ 6PSI
High flow Edlebrock aluminum water pump.
High Volume Oil pump.
High torque starter. (Summit mini-starter, protorque)
High power 107 Amp GM alternator.n.
Big B Auto Classic A
Flex-A-lite radiator faccessories Chrome pully kit and chrome fan shroud.
Dynomax Ceramic coated Headers. 1-5/8 primaries 3 inch collector.
Dual 2-1/2 inch FlowMaster 40 series Mufflers with 3inch X pipe.
TH400 Transmission with Trick shift fluid.
2800 RPM B&M stall converter.
B&M 24,000lbs gvw transmission oil cooler.

3.08 12 bolt posi rear end for higher strength and top speed.
Water Injection system, (If you have info on this please E-Mail me). Plans wanted.
150hp NOS Shot wet kit.

Performance Stats

Horsepower 550-600 Estimate
Foot-pounds 580 ft/lbs Est
0-60: ~5.5 seconds Est
60 foot: NA
1/8 Mile: NA
1/8 Mile speed: NA
1/4 Mile: ~12.7 Est
1/4 Mile speed: ~108 Mph Est
Top speed: 157.41 Mph @ 7500 RPM. Tires 235/60 R15 w/3.70 10 bolt limited slip.
*Accual numbers comming soon.