another new guy from Pittsburgh, PA

Hey everyone. My name is Ian, and I've done a little lurking here, and have finally decided to post my introduction and also the introduction of my project that I have been building in my head for years, and have finally started to dig into. I'm also an active member of the Impala SS forum, and am a life-long GM B-body addict. As you might gather from my screen name, I have a fascination with the Cadillac 425, 472, and 500 big blocks as well.

Here is my current project: It's an '86 Pontiac Parisienne Safari. Pretty base model and utilitarian, which is how I like 'em. I changed the bolt pattern from 5x5 to 5x4.75, (using f-body 1LE rotors, custom axles, and drums from a '77 a-body buick wagon) to allow me to run Year One 17x9" snowflakes. I'm running Hotchkis springs designed for a 94-96 Impala SS, and I am in the middle of swapping in a 55K mile LT1/4L60E from a '96 SS.

The rust is all superficial from dirt road driving and rocks chipping the paint. The car has only 86k original miles and spent most of it's life in Arkansas. I picked up the roof rack for it from an '89 Caprice destined for the scrapper. I am still open for opinions on that one. It's not actually mounted on the car yet...

 

Welcome the forum Ian!! Cool wagon, and what a great project! Love the wheels, that's is a nice mod.

 

Cmon....lets get on that motor chop chop!

lol show them the other stuff too !

 

Welcome aboard!

 

aboard Ian.
I dig the B-body Pontiac Safari. Nice project. The LT1/ 4L60 combo should motivate that car nicely.
Keep us up to date on your progress.

Jack

 

Welcome aboard - cool wagon! Nice choice on the tires/wheels. What are you going to do for exhaust?

 

Thank you! I am using flowtech afterburner headers, making my own hookup pipes, dynomax 2.5" intermediate pipes with h-pipe added, dynomax over-axle pipes modified to work on the wagon, and spintech pro street mufflers. That's the plan, anyways. I have all the parts except for the mufflers. I was also thinking of using the T/A style split turndown tips, but I'm not sure how that would work with the spare tire well right where the tip would be. I still have some details to work out, but they will fall into place when I get there.

I am also not leaving the lt1 stock. I am installing a comp cams xfi 268 cam, beehive springs, Harland sharp 1.6 roller rockers, modifying the heads for 7/16" screw-in studs and guide plates, and doing a mild port job (basically bowl blending and port matching). Drivetrain-wise, it will have 3.73:1 gears, eaton posi, a yank 3200 converter and Transgo kit. That's all the second phase, though. Right now, I'm working on getting the engine and trans fitted, wiring worked out, and the impala a/c parts adapted to the original evaporator setup.

 

Welcome to the nut house! Great choice of wagons, fantastic choice of wheels! That looks wonderful. To be honest, that is the best aftermarket wheel/tire plus 2 I have ever seen on one of these wagons! There is only one thing I would consider rethinking in your plans, and that is the rear axle ratio. With the torque your engine is going to put out, you may find that that high a rear ratio is going to be a bit of a handful on anything but dry pavement. Torque like that allows for some very conservative sounding ratios that still give more than adequate performance, and can net you incredible fuel economy to boot.

 

aboard Cadtorque.

 

Welcome to the SWF, Ian. I like what you are doing with the Safari - especially with the wheels. Those snowflakes would look great on mine.

Marshall

 

Welcome Cadtorque!

 

Hey there Cadtorque! Welcome to the family from Lil ole me..


SAY.... got any gum?

 

Okay, okay...

So, here are the other vehicles/projects in my fleet. The '75 Catalina has been without an engine for some time now, as I've been slowly building a Cadillac 500 to go in it. The '69 C10 is going through a frame-off right now. The '95 Caprice is a civilian LT1 car with the tow package. That's my fair weather daily driver. The '78 Caddy is my winter ride. The '02 Yukon Denali is my girlfriend's daily with a mild drop and some 20" Cragars and 6.0 LS pahr. And the '67 Ford... well it's a ford. I got it on a trade deal and swapped out the tired 352/3 speed for a 390, 4v with long tube headers and an NP435 granny 4 speed. I'll be unloading that one soon- as soon as I get the drive shaft done.





And this is the 406 small block I built for that truck. All new rotating assembly, Dart 200 cc Iron Eagle heads, Lunati Voodoo series hyd flat tappet cam, Comp 1.5 rockers, blah, blah, blah... The only part that isn't brand new is the block, and that's been reconditioned, obv...





So... there ya go!

Also, Thank you all for the warm welcome and compliments on the car!

 

Welcome Ian, Nice mods you have done on the Pontiac. sweet!

 

Thanks much for the compliment on the wheel selection. I saw these wheels on a trans am at a car show and realized that I HAD to have them. Some say that the bolt pattern change-over isn't cost effective at $600 some dollars, but I think it's worth it to be able to run the wheels that are truly in my vision for the car. As for the gear ratio: This is going to be a hot-rod/street-strip type car, so I'm much more concerned with straight line acceleration than I am with fuel economy. Hot rods are supposed to be a handful and feel outrageously powerful, so I'm okay with that. I already have a stock-ish LT1 powered B-body with 2.93:1 gears, for my freeway runner.