New Member, New Wagon

New wagon owner here, from Calgary, Alberta.
Let me begin by saying "I have always loved these wagons since the day they came out".
Beautiful, aero, with a lot of style. What an awesome design.
I have always been a GM guy and as I recently sold my GMC 4X4 I was looking for a winter car. As soon as I saw the "White Whale" I harpooned her.
It's a 1992 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon originally sold new in Los Angeles. It must have spent most of it's life there because it is basically rust free.
It has a 350 TBI, white with dark blue leather, 8-way driver and passenger seats, auto climate, rear defogger w/wiper/washer, auto level, heavy duty 4 wheel ABS brakes, trailer package (no hitch), G80 limited slip with 3.23 gears and heavy duty suspension.
In the 2 weeks since I bought her I have:
Engine oil flush and fill with Mobil 1 synthetic oil.
New engine oil cooler lines.
Transmission flush and fill with Mobil synthetic Dexron 6 with new B&M deep finned aluminum pan.
Rear brakes with new drums, shoes, springs, hold down kits and wheel cylinders.
Power flushed all the brake fluid.
Drained the rear diff and installed a higher capacity, polished, finned aluminum diff cover. Now holds 3 1/2 quarts Redline synthetic 75W90.
MSD 6A Ignition with MSD coil and wires. NGK plugs gapped to .045.
Cooling system flush and fill with new rad and heater hoses as well as thermostat.
New serpentine belt and tensioner.
New windshield.
I have received but not yet installed new Summit, long tube, ceramicoated headers and stainless H-Pipe (balance tube). I know that most here install the G9100 "Street Headers" but I opted for the G9101 "Street and Strip" headers. They have 36" primary tubes vs the 32" primary tubes on the "Street" version. They should provide significantly more torque when combined with the H-Pipe. I hope they fit, the applications were the same as the G9100s, including 1989 Caprice wagon, which I read here will fit.
I also got the Jegs, Impala SS catback exhaust that I read about here. I understand that I'll have to modify the pipes to mate to the H-Pipe as well as modify the transmission crossmember. I'll try to adjust the tailpipes around the fuel tank and add an extension before the tips.
On order and shipped are Wilwood twin piston front calipers with carbon-ceramic pads and StopTech drilled and slotted rotors. No point in going fast if you can't stop 2 tons 'o fun!
It came with new Monroe Relex shocks and new GM rear coils but does exhibit some body roll, it has no rear swaybar.
I'm considering Hotchkiss front and rear bars unless someone has a better solution.
It came with corroded aluminum aftermarket wheels, made in China. I have since sanded and buffed them with aluminum polish and they look like new. They are quite wide but on the inside spokes three of them said 15X8J and one said 15X7J. I'm like WTF? When I took the tires off the rims I measured them, and they are all actually 15X9 bead to bead and 10" wide overall. Go figure, made in China.
The tires are 235/70R15s, a little narrow for 9 inch wheels but are not "stretched". They do not rub at all.
The rears have 5 1/2 inch backspace and that is about the max you could go, any more and the rubber would touch the inner wheelwell.
The fronts have 4 3/8 inch backspace with a little room to spare. If you went to 5 inch backspace you might have contact with the outer tie-rod ends.
I'm happy to be a member of this board and hope to contribute as much as I can as well as learn more about these great cars from the other members here.
Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, be sure and post pictures when you can!!

Welcome Dwight,you sure have been busy with your new wagon.Sounds like you have a lot of plans for your new wagon.If its really that rust free maybe you had better get another winter beater and park it until spring.You will be glad you found this group,lots of great people here always wanting to help out.

Thanks Jim.
You know, life is too short. I've always been a car junkie and had nice cars. I've also had winter beaters to "preserve" the classics. I'm at the point in life where I want something cool all the time.
People buy new trucks for $50,000 plus and drive them year round without a second thought.
I actually "saved" this car from a tow/salvage yard that would have probably gone to the crusher, not because it was used up, but because it was "old".
I plan to restore this car to it's former glory and then some. I am going to rustproof the undercarriage and give it a full repaint, black on top and hood, white on the bottom.
This beauty has survived 23 years so far and I'm sure I'll get another 23 out of her.
For the summer she'll be my DD, I'm going to massage the rear wheelwells to fit 15X10 Centerline Convo Pros with 295/50R15 BFG TAs and maybe regear to 3.73s. Fronts will be 15X8.5 Convo Pros with 265/60R15s.
I plan to keep this baby for a long time.

Since you are doing all of these mods, you should consider an LS engine to replace the 180 hp. LO5. Make it have all of the "performance" that the "look nice" parts warrant. LQ4s are one of the best mods for the money, and you can get a lot of goodies to make it a real go fast engine.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_0710_6l_ls_series_small_block/viewall.html

AARRRR MATEY! Welcome to the GM whale bodies forum.

Where be the pics of the white whale. Have ye seen him? Stick'em good for me.

Captain Ahab


Welcome to the forum from myself (Dave) and the Prince of Whales, "Shammoo"

Our 91-96 B-bodies re not listed on the Summit application chart for the G9101 headers. Are you certain they will fit?

I know Justin did the 9001s for his and they fit once you removed the frame braces. How do those compare to the headers picekd here?


Also, Fred, to be fair, since I'm currently in the middle of this... LS engines are not really "bang for the buck friendly" unless you get a LOT of perfect circumstances. I'm quite a bit of money into my swap right now, and even excluding the transmission side... cheap is not a word I would use for this project.

Welcome!! You have quite a list to work through.....be sure to start a project thread and post up PICS PICS PICS!!

Chris

Thanks for the replies guys.
Regarding the headers, there are not really any applications for our cars aside from the high-end Tri-Y
headers for $800+. I know that the Summit 9001s fit once you remove the frame braces and the 9101s are for the same applications, including up to '89 Caprice wagons, so I'm pretty sure they'll fit.
As far as a LS swap goes, not in the plans, I merely hope to improve what GM started with. This is my winter car / ski mobile. I already have several fast cars, this will be my cruiser.
However, everytime I look at the side profile of this car, I think how cool it would look with a top chop, sloping to the rear.

Actually, the shorty headers for trucks will work. I have a set on Shammoo now. They will require a bit more tube and bends to get it to where you want it to go. I added braided flex couplings after the flange, knowing the pipes and ground would be close friends.