robcas47

iTrader: (2)

I have plans to bring my 66 impala back to life. It's a four door and came with a stock 327/Powerglide. my first question is if it's worth it to rebuild the combo or just go with a complete swap? i have already yanked the package because the tranny needs work and i'de like to get some more power out of the engine. which brings up my next question. how much power can you squezz out of this engine without boring it out? i'de like at least 400 rwhp to help move this sizable car around.

T5Malibuwagon

400wrhp with a 15% drivetrain loss is 460 crank hp, thats 1.4hp per ci. Although it is totaly posable to get this much hp out of a 327 to me you will have to do it with a large cam and lots of rpm. Because of this you will more than likely end up loseing alot of the driveablity that you pereviously had. So if your goal is to be able to drive the car and get that much hp then look at a 383 stroker kit, you will be much happyer in the end if your goal is 460hp. That is if you dont mind paying for those cubic inches at the pump.

Boring a engine is normaly done to clean up the cylinders and not for hp. It adds minumal cubic inches and does little for hp. If you want more displacement than use a stroker crank, like a 383, or even just a 350 crank.

as for the pg, ditch it for a manual

robcas47

iTrader: (2)

i'de like to get a manual but i don't know anything about swapping out the current setup. i'm probably gonna keep the motor and get a procharger setup when i can afford one. a buddy of mine has a 5 speed i could get off of him for around $800 and i know i'll need to find a pedal assy. also i would probably have to change out the steering column. is there anything else? i'm sure there's things i might be leaving out. drive shaft would have to be replaced, ect... any additional info is greatly appreciated.

T5Malibuwagon

steering column could stay but you would have to get a clutch, flywheel, bellhousing, shifter, clutch linkage rods, bellcrank, ect.

I was just pullin your leg about a manual but if you want one they arnt that hard to swap. As for the 5 speed, if its a t5 stay away. It wont hold the kinda hp you want and in a car that heavy it would probably break with what ya got in there now.

EPP

iTrader: (22)

If that is a small journal 327, I know a guy who is looking for one. Bob

LS1 Coupe

With a blower, turbo or nos it is possible, bigger cubes will help to attain that type of HP at the rear wheels. Your engine if it has a lot of milage on it and without doing a full rebuild and then adding a blower will be short lived. A 383 naturally aspirated to get that type of power down is going to be somewhat radical. another option to do a swap to the later style LS series engines, they are easier to get HP out of, you can get engine, trans, wiring, ecm and pretty much all boltons for a lot less than trying to do a build of the older style motors, they can even be gotten with the newer style trans and controller. As for the powerglide I'd ditch it, the only place in my book for the PG is on the dragstrip, for a better trans and not dealing with the hassles of the stick conversion setup is to go with a well built 700R4 or 200R4 trans to handle that type of power, it will get you the best of both worlds in performance and fuel economy, going with the newer style trans with an older engine setup requires a controller and they are almost as expensive as a well built transmission.

robcas47

iTrader: (2)

i've looked around and found a couple of good deals on LS1/xmsn packages. it would probably be easier to just go that route and i'de definitely like to see that under the hood. this car is only going to be a weekend cruiser but i'de still like it to have a lil power just for gp. i'll be looking around some more to see what kind of deals are out there. thanks for the info guys

LS1 Coupe

Check Ebay, If your looking to do the whole swapout thing, try and find the complete setup Engine, harness, trans and all brackets etc. If your where to break it all down and buy seperately prices will certainly go through the roof. If you can get the ECM & harness with a complete package, sending the ECM out wait4me perfomance they will cleanup the harness and do a mail order tue and pull out all emission stuff as well, if your looking to do a recam on one of these they will also make the adjustments at the same time with no additional costs, price to do harness and tune is $300.

These are the guys I got my stuff from, included alt, PS and AC as well as ECM, wiring and trans module. There maybe other guys as well on there or check your local yards to see if they have any packages.
http://stores.ebay.com/Fparts