Don't quote me, as I cannot remember for sure, but I think the sedan rear ends are narrower.
Don't quote me, as I cannot remember for sure, but I think the sedan rear ends are narrower.
Esoteric Nixon wrote: Don't quote me, as I cannot remember for sure, but I think the sedan rear ends are narrower.
That's what I hear too. They say you can 'squeeze' a sedan axle in, but it puts strain on your lower control arms. I would modify the control arm bracket if I get one from a non-wagon.
A Roadmaster Wagon and an El Camino gives you the best driveway in your neigborhood
You can pull the center section out of the rear, though.
Got the head off and started cleaning the surfaces. Found the oil like this:
Then I found this:
Anyone got an iron head for LT1? 
Make sure you check to make sure the block deck is still nice and flat, if you haven't yet. It would be crappy to get a new head on there just to have it start leaking again.
Thanks for the tip. That forced me to buy more tools and do things the right(er) way. Got it back together last night and everything seems to work! I think someone worked on this car before me. Opti-spark looks new, water pump looks new, even the valve cover gaskets. They never touched the exhaust though...20 years of salt made me shear a couple flange studs further downstream of the manifold. So I have a nice little exhaust leak.
Side note, EVERYTHING WORKS on this luxurious cruise ship. A/C, radio, every single interior light, both power seats, even the little antennae that extends and retracts. And it's in such good shape. No tears on the seats, no cracks in the plastic, no weird stains and scratches. This was grandma's car.
I kinda want to camp in it.
Judging by that oil, we know what Grandma did with her leftover gravy.
I want one.
I want gravy.
Budget update:
Still haven't installed the quick-ratio box, and not sure I will at this point. -$33.50
Head bolts and gaskets from Rockauto (even though I only did one side): $35.09
Non-cracked LT1 iron cylinder head from car-part.com sketchy late night parking lot deal: $80.25
Coolant cap from Advance that doesn't leak all over my driveway: $5.45
= $420.79
I drove it to work today and it's getting a tag this afternoon 
Runs like E36 M3 though. Need to get the CEL read before diving in again. Probably something spark/sensor/fuel related. The Opti and plug wires look new, though.
Speaking of that CEL...where the heck does it keep going? Seems like it only comes on when I've given up on going to the parts store to get it read. Right when I pull into the driveway.
On the obd1 gm stuff, they clear with key off. Dunno about lt1.
Can you do the paperclip jump on the aldl and make it flash the codes at you?
In reply to Dusterbd13:
Actually, if it's like the 94/95s then you can pull the cel codes through the climate control screen by pressing two buttons at once. Check out impalassforum and gmlongroof4umer for a bunch of info on this car. P.s. I've got a white 94 as a DD and a blue 94 that I bought to score a spare engine/tranny/random wagon-only stuff off of.
I would've hurt myself trying to get $300 out of the ATM as fast as possible for that one (even though I'm a beige-interior man myself.) Well, provided I didn't already own 9000 lbs of gm wagons, that is. Ha-ha.
Thanks for the tip! Now I'll be ready when it happens again.
Jambo wrote: P.s. I've got a white 94 as a DD and a blue 94 that I bought to score a spare engine/tranny/random wagon-only stuff off of.
You wouldn't happen to have a posi rear end or any hop-up parts lying around would ya?
In reply to maschinenbau:
Nah. I'm going to be installing posi and deeper gears on mine soon hopefully. Mine were both stock and the only upgraded parts so far are drastically stiffer front springs, mildly stiffer back springs, fixing broken stuff, and Monroe severe service shocks (budget stiffness=taxi/police shocks). But you might be able to find some takeoff stuff on the boards i mentioned or maybe the ls1 boards since they traffic a bunch of lt1 f-bodies. Also a Cherokee steering shaft can remove the slop of a rag joint.
After driving it for a week, I've noticed some vibration issues at idle/slow speed. As soon as you ease off the brakes even a little bit, the engine violently rocks all 4,400 lbs of wagon at a low frequency until you get to about 10 mph. Lady Maschinenbau is displeased with her chariot. Anyone have an idea? I was thinking:
Rough idle? It does throw EGR code 32. Been checking for vacuum leaks but come up short. After stumbling a bit, it takes off like a jet past 2,000 rpm or so.
Motor mounts? 259k miles under a V8 means they're probably worn. I doubt much is keeping the engine in check.
Crank damper/harmonic balancer? It's pretty rusty and the rubber is chunking out.
Something in the trans or driveline?
Id pull and clean the egr first.
Next would be motor mounts. Then balancer.
Check the plugs, too.
So it was a spark plug wire that came off for like no reason. EGR is also working fine again, but still throwing a code due to the massive crack in the exhaust manifold. It sounds bad, but damn it runs good.
Also, I don't think I can make it to the Challenge this year 
I need to use my remaining vacation during the holidays and I'm in the process of buying a house. The rental house's driveway just barely cut it for the head swap. Neighbors were less than pleased.
On the bright side, the new house will have a HUGE shop that will easily turn the Roadmaster into a Garagemaster for the winter.
You will be missed!
The only wagons my wife likes are Nomads, I told her it was a '95 Nomad. She looked at me with the same look as your wife in the pic. These beasts are so cool and you got a gem.
Damn, that Roadmaster autocrossing would have been epic, please reconsider...
maschinenbau wrote: Got the head off and started cleaning the surfaces. Found the oil like this:
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...
Went to the junkyard over the weekend for more Roadmaster hop-up parts. I don't move into the new house for a few more weeks, so I can't do anything too crazy yet. For now I am just taking my time shopping for deals and stockpiling parts for the impending Midwest winter boredom.
A freshly totaled 9C1 of the same vintage as my Roadie! Complete with G80 code and a funny tag on the diff cover. No donut scraps, but I did find a plethora of 2006ish gangsta rap mix CD's for the drive home. I highly recommend Lil E. Didn't know the streets of Louisville were so hard.
Aww yiss. A 30-spline posi with 2.93 gears. My Roadie has an open 2.56, so this will be a huge upgrade. I'm still shopping/waiting for a good deal on more aggressive gears.
I also took the rear sway bar. You know, for handling.
I better get both. The wagon needs all the handlin' it can get! Any objections to dual front sway bars? I think I can make that happen once I have a garage again.
This is what $131 buys you at Louisville P-A-P
2.93s? Weird, I thought they were 3.55s in the 9c1s.
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