Ok so im one of those guys that joined because of matt's private message answering videos. but i already have a thread going over on gbody forum so i figured id transfer the most of it over here to share seems as the car will be turbo ls with 4l80e ill link the original build thread and some of the funny points along the way from where i started and where i am now

thread:https://gbodyforum.com/threads/proje...l-wagon.60559/
i hope you guys enjoy its gunna be a long process but i like obscure things. dont like out of box or cookie cutter.

 

So to start the thread ill get completly off track and talk about how the build didnt start as a regal i started with. I always had a love for vega's my uncle had a cosworth when i was young and i loved the car he was pretty much the one that got me into cars and i finally got the chance to buy a clean vega builder(they do still exist) in a kamback wagon. always liked wagons
So ill start the build thread with a story. Some might find it funny, maybe not think there lucks so bad..

So I started out about a year and a half ago. Acquiring parts for a new build project. Find a car in North Dakota, arrange shipping back to Michigan. Buy it. Company backs out end up going with a friend to get it. On easter weekend on the way back in Minnesota hear a grinding noise going thru a parking lot. Bail out to find a dollar bill size hole in the transfer case. No parts anywhere and 10pm at night on a Saturday had to work Monday and we were 800 miles from home we slept a little and woke up to snow. Got the idea to pump the t case full of grease and duck tape the hole shut. So we did, stopping every couple hours and babying it till we got to Michigan. Once we were in Michigan we were running 80+ hoping it was gunna break prior to the bridge if it was going to. Stop in st Ignace to find only the winch and park break holding the car on out for 3 strap's. Put more on and crossed the bridge to make it home.

for a reference im 6'6" about 320 and im remembering a car from my 10 and 12 year old memory not remembering the size of the car the interior space or the chincy ness of the tin foil fenders that you could bend with an over exerted fart. It was misguided lust for the car that i had remembered more then anything but i bought it cheap and figured i could sell a clean vega for good coin back home

 

and that is what i did. I tore the interior out and measured for a cage and just had a sinking feeling. i told myself im not gunna dump tons of money into a car that doesnt fit my needs or that will be uncomfortable to drive. i ended up selling the car and making a bit of money on it but just kinda felt like **** from my childhood memories. fast forward i was bummin for a little while. Bought a motor and found a trans but didnt have a car to put it in but proceded anyways cuase its all gotta get done. I end up seeing this craigslist ad for a regal in kalamazoo(drug house lol) guy wants 800 no pics and cant send me any so i blow it off he keeps texting says its solid no motor. I end up getting a trailer ready and set to go for the next day he text me the night before at like 11 that hes taking out the steering column i said im not interested if he does. So he said he isnt going to. I told him id be there by 10 am tomorow to look at it. He says ok and gives the address.

we get 15 mins away and he tells me there isnt a column and trans was gone. so we go anyways to look even tho i wasnt happy i drove almost 2 hrs one way. Car was pretty clean im just gunna bone it out for a race car anyways. but I low ball the crap out of him and offer him 100 cause he pulled the parts after he said he wasnt going to. he said 400 i said 200 and then walked to the truck to leave. long story short i ended up with a fairly clean shell with good title for 225$

 

This is where ill lose some people. Bought this shell for cheap, still kinda bummin from the vega not working out and that im in another widely owned car I come across some pics of a couple 2 door g body wagons I think the most well known and seen is the 2 door malibu wagon which i dont have pictures to share but i do have a half *** photo chop of what im thinking tho the person I had running photoshop apparently didnt have an eye for cars cause the advice i tried to give him wasnt really taken into the picture I want the car to hand well, make good power and be drivable

i bought a cheap g body wagon cutlass cruiser to steel the roof off and a c4 corvette front suspension to replace the junk g body front end

 

Dood...you got the disease real bad. lol
People like you make me feel better about my own condition. Thanks man

 

thanks for the support man.

so along the way I had a friend of mine on the fence about swapping his old square body chevy. He had just retired his old work van lq4 and 4l80e and he was redoing the truck didnt have a garage at the time. i helped him pull body off and motor and trans out. he put it up for sale a couple of times then. asked if I could help get it running out of vehicle so i brought over my vats deleted ecm and wired it temp. He heard it run and smiled from ear to ear, asked when i could come over to help him mount the motor and trans . long story short over the summer this truck got swapped in his yard in the dirt and grass pretty big encouragement to anyone thinking about swapping to ls. and even on stock computer no tune this thing rips

 

lastly ill bring you all up to speed on my motor. It was originally a 00 model lq4 with iron heads on it I bought it for a cool 150 with oil pressure issues. i sold the heads from it for 150 bucks and ended up at 0 invested. Not having any luck finding a reputable machine shop the engine went to one machine shop after another. 8 months later finally came back half done. no hone, no deck just line bored cam bearings and half assd hot tanked. crank was good cam bearing is what failed originally so it was all line bored to same size and used 3 partial kits for bearings. used atf and ran dingle ball hone thru the cylinders to clean them up a bit because i would be using new moly rings
Installed old crank after plasti gauge checked good. bought and installed gen 4 rods and pistons. gapped rings to .026 and shoved them in. Have custom ground powell cam 225/230 600/600 lift 114lsa +4 installed that with morel link bars on top. painted the block some time in that time frame with por15. wanted purple ended up with cadillac blue heads i bought are 317s hand lapped and tried to use an old cheep wrench as a spring compressor. It gave up after a few valves and had to buy the real thing. So hand lapped and cleaned combustion chambers changed seals and installed the btr 660 kit. new ls9 head gaskets and arp pro studs. Ended up ruining one valve seal so im waiting on that to finish the other head which ill probably do this weekend

 

You might be able to tell but when i built this bottom end i was working mostly outside cause i didnt have a garage where i was renting it was more like a shed and I would carry the block thru the man door to work outside lol

 

More photos, finally bought my own house with a garage so that I can work on stuff in it. Most of the winter i was working on customer projects, im a diesel mech during the day
and the new shop mascot i put on my tool box. names bob for those of you that played nintendo when you were younger lol

 

rest of the engine build pics

 

Cool stuff. And I like that rich blue color. What are you expecting as far as compression with those pistons & 317 heads? I'm picking up my 317s later this afternoon.

 

the engine is a 6.0 lq4 it had dish pistons from factory. These are just gen 4 pistons and stock 317s they are unshaved so it'll probably be around stock compression which if I remember correctly is 9.5 to 1

 

So if I've got this right, you intend to make a two door Regal styled wagon out of the Cutlass and wagons you picked up? Sounds pretty neat!

 

correct attached is a pic of a car that was done up like I mentioned. The thing is when most people do this conversion they use a wagon and steal coupe doors and graft them onto the wagon. The wagon is the same wheel base as a coupe but doors are longer in the 2 door obviously. So I was kinda bombarded with "I'm going about it the wrong way" hence the name. But I want to keep the regal tail lights which are one of my favorite parts of the car. You see alot of people will take a wagon weld the rear doors shut and call it a 2 door there's been very few conversions, and I've never seen a regal done

 

G body ftw👍.. This is going to be really cool.

 

Cleaned lapped the valves on the other head installed new seals and BTR springs new ls9 head gaskets with a resurface still waiting on a few odds and ends

 

Cool project, a 2 dr would be cool-I thought once about making one, use the 2 dr doors, cut the back doors up to make filler panels-I saw a vid where they made 55-57 chevy 4 dr into a 2 dr, was pretty cool.

 

Ah, gotcha. I had it in my head this was a 5.3 project...I even went back and re-read. lol

 

 

these are both cars I have done to two door conversion