68 Impala Wagon modifications begin

Frankly, you should have a full tank, and fire it off at least every two weeks. Cars do not like to sit without getting run every once in a while, and it ensures the float bowls have fresher gas so it doesn't break down. Otherwise, it's the alternative of draining all fluids/oils/fuel, standing the car up on stands or cribbed wood blocks, and removing the tires to lay them down, even if you're only storing it over Winter.

 

I have to say that I'm pretty jealous - it looks great!!! I had plans for mine but got buried in another project that had to take priority, so hopefully I'll be able to get back on it next year. I did find a set of rally's for it which I much prefer to the wheels I had! I hope that I can get mine looking as sweet as yours, and that we can get the two cars together at some point!

 

Looks great with those ralleyes! Nice choice! My brother is trying to convince me to do a leg of a big car cruise next year (I’m blanking on the name). Would be great to get the cars together!

 

Any updates on this car?

 

It's been almost two years since I've posted. Let's blame it on COVID. We blame it for everything anyway.

A few updates on the car:

New Exhaust
In spring 2022, after much tinkering, we decided the Waldron exhaust I bought wouldn't work and would require way too much custom work to get it to fit. If I was going to pay for custom work, I was going to get the exhaust I wanted. So, I bought 2.5" Flowmaster stainless steel exhaust "components" from Amazon, along with a set of Flowmaster free-flow mufflers, and paid my brother's friend (who has his own shop) to cut and weld everything together. The wagon is now a little louder than I'd expected it to be, but it's growing on me. The sound it makes under full acceleration is intoxicating, and while it's never going to serve as a stealthy getaway car, the neighbors will always know when I'm coming home.



New Carb
Despite initially running well, the car ran terrible in spring. We tried everything we could think of and got it running "well enough" to drive it to a local shop that specialized in carb tuning and dyno work (something else I'd wanted anyway). After a full day of tinkering, installing new jets, installing a custom distributor set up, etc., the dyno broke and I couldn't get hp or torque numbers. But at least the car ran really well on the drive home...for 10 minutes...and then it started running poorly again.

Fed up, I removed the carb and we installed a 850cf Holley carb with an electric choke my older brother had lying around. We put the old distributor set up back on, and the car has been running very well ever since.

New Wheels and Tires
The finishing touch on the car for me was the wheels and tires. According to the window sticker, the car came up factory steel wheels and hubcaps, and since I've always loved that "sleeper" look, I decided to go that route. I bought a new set of 15" steel wheels, had them painted to match the car, and after much searching and WAY too much money, found a factory set of hub caps and complemented that all with a set of red line radials. I couldn't be happier with the look.




Next Up
Despite having an all-new aluminum radiator, twin electric fans, and a 160 thermostat, the car is continually running way too hot (it gets up to 200+ degrees in a flash if I'm sitting at a stop light). He's only happy when he's on the freeway getting a ton of fresh air forcing through to cool it. The only thing we can think of is that either a) maybe the fact that we had to use a flex hose for the lower radiator connection is causing problems, but that feels like a stretch or b) the Holley accessory drive I bought has a crappy water pump (even though it's designed for big blocks). We're going to make sure one more time that there is no air in the system in spring (there shouldn't be - it has an overflow tube), and buy a new thermostat on the incredibly off chance it's bad. If neither of those work, I may bite the bullet and just opt for buying all the original accessory components separately. As it is now, I can't enjoy the car because I'm always worried about it overheating. Any other ideas out there?

 

Right off the bat, what is the ignition timing at idle, in gear? If you're running the original points dizzy, what is the dwell setting? See, when points wear, they lower the dwell, and a loss of dwell recurves the static timing retarded, and retarded timing causes a hot-run condition. Also, on the off chance, check the physical timing of the engine--verify that the engine is at zero degrees on the crank, that both valves on #1 are fully closed, then verify, when the #1 piston is at TDC, that the timing pointed points at #1, and finally, turn the crankshaft slowly backward while watching the distributor rotor, to verify no timing chain slop. The spec for chain timing is no more than 12-15 degrees reverse rotation before the rotor moves backward. And a slipped damper ring, or a jump of the timing chain, will retard engine performance overall. These basic items should be checked and verified (trust but verify), because your symptoms sound like basic engine or basic distributor problems.

 

What a lovely car. 1968 is one of my favorite years for Chevrolet. I’m sure I mentioned it that we had a ‘68 wagon in Seafrost green (grey) seeing this car just brings back really great memories. Love the absolute stock look with all of the other modifications you made. That is one sweet car, and although I like the rally wheels, I really like the no nonsense steels with hubs that you chose. That car couldn’t be more perfect. Nice job, and wonderful car!

 

Thank you for all those good thoughts, Silvertwinkiehobo. We did spend a lot of time verifying engine timing and ruling out distributor issues, but those are all good things to check again before I throw in the towel. Certainly can't hurt. I appreciate the recommendations!

 

Thanks, 60Mercman! I appreciate the compliments.

 

That's a good thing to do...return to the basics. Spark, fuel, timing, mechanical, in that order. I dunno how many driveability problems I'd diagnosed over the years by returning to the basics. I even diagnosed a Navy fire control radar by doing a basic inspection, and found a cable disconnected during a PM task, but not reconnected.