1978 Malibu Barn Find
- Thread starter gearheaddrew
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Hooptie
adj.
a) Ghetto vehicle.
b) Usually lowered with cheesy aftermarket rims and bolt-on parts.
c) Exquisite samples will also have spraypaint.
"Man, check out that hooptie ride"
🙂
-Gonz
b) Usually lowered with cheesy aftermarket rims and bolt-on parts. You spelled WallyWorld hub caps wrong..
Going to be a really nice swap, also very solid that you kept all the harness and pedal stuff.
My fuel system is pretty much what you have planned, walbro 255 in tank, -6 AN feed and return from tank to factory truck intake. Put a fuel filter somewhere in the feed. If you weren't aware, you can get all the GM quick disconnect AN fittings you need to adapt to the stock fuel rail and whatever else, I did a quick disconnect fittings on my fuel filter as well.
These engines run pretty cool to begin with so any good replacement radiator with a pair of e fans will do the job. I have a fat champion radiator from my old 355, and it's overkill for the 4.8 in most instances.
I'm not sure of the dimensional differences of gen 3 vs gen 4 oil pans. I know the gen 3 oil pans will fit, but hang dangerously low. I have a GM muscle car pan in mine and it still hangs just below the crossmember, but there's better pans out there. Stay away from any types of sheetmetal type welded/stamped pans is my best advice.
I'm personally kind of over headers for a cruiser/street car but from experience most of the g body specific swap headers are pretty nice and fit well. I run shorty s10 swap headers and if I were to do it again cast manifolds for sure, just typical headers issues but nothing else to really complain about.
You really can't go wrong with most of the offerings out there as far as swap mounts and crossmembers go, it really boils down to budget more than anything. I run a set of 50$ carshop inc 1" setback plates with the new rubber factory mounts and it's perfect for a cruiser, engine dropped in like a factory piece. If you have AC you do run the risk of a valve cover hitting the ac/heater box depending on which mounts you run. Modified a g force crossmember I had originally for my 2004R.
Both those harness options are a good choice. I will say after doing a few LS swaps in different cars I've started to lean towards buying a new harness, just for the sake of having fresh wiring and connectors, but once again it's really budget.
Good Luck!
My fuel system is pretty much what you have planned, walbro 255 in tank, -6 AN feed and return from tank to factory truck intake. Put a fuel filter somewhere in the feed. If you weren't aware, you can get all the GM quick disconnect AN fittings you need to adapt to the stock fuel rail and whatever else, I did a quick disconnect fittings on my fuel filter as well.
These engines run pretty cool to begin with so any good replacement radiator with a pair of e fans will do the job. I have a fat champion radiator from my old 355, and it's overkill for the 4.8 in most instances.
I'm not sure of the dimensional differences of gen 3 vs gen 4 oil pans. I know the gen 3 oil pans will fit, but hang dangerously low. I have a GM muscle car pan in mine and it still hangs just below the crossmember, but there's better pans out there. Stay away from any types of sheetmetal type welded/stamped pans is my best advice.
I'm personally kind of over headers for a cruiser/street car but from experience most of the g body specific swap headers are pretty nice and fit well. I run shorty s10 swap headers and if I were to do it again cast manifolds for sure, just typical headers issues but nothing else to really complain about.
You really can't go wrong with most of the offerings out there as far as swap mounts and crossmembers go, it really boils down to budget more than anything. I run a set of 50$ carshop inc 1" setback plates with the new rubber factory mounts and it's perfect for a cruiser, engine dropped in like a factory piece. If you have AC you do run the risk of a valve cover hitting the ac/heater box depending on which mounts you run. Modified a g force crossmember I had originally for my 2004R.
Both those harness options are a good choice. I will say after doing a few LS swaps in different cars I've started to lean towards buying a new harness, just for the sake of having fresh wiring and connectors, but once again it's really budget.
Good Luck!
Ended up with Spohn mounts, F body engine side mounts, CTSV pan, Flowtech manifolds, G force x member and new GM adjustable mount. Copying the 81 turbo regal build from bigmandengo to try and use factory truck AC Compressor.
Got the seats disassembled and threw away all of the foam. Aired the seat covers out for a couple weeks, sprayed with resolve cleaner for pet urine, and now they are in a tote with cedar bedding for animals to try and absorb some more stink.
Waiting for my floor section to come in, in-order to move to the next step.
Added some Monte wheels and decent tires for rolling around.
Got the seats disassembled and threw away all of the foam. Aired the seat covers out for a couple weeks, sprayed with resolve cleaner for pet urine, and now they are in a tote with cedar bedding for animals to try and absorb some more stink.
Waiting for my floor section to come in, in-order to move to the next step.
Added some Monte wheels and decent tires for rolling around.
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Glad you went with the flowtechs. If I knew about them at the time I would have done those over my s10 shorties.
Quick update.
Haven’t made a ton of progress over the last few weeks. Picked up some parts from forum members that I always wanted for my MC but couldn’t afford in high school. Finally got all of my swap parts and new floor half.
Got the engine and trans home today and stripped the harness of to have re-worked. Pulled the front clip the other day, was super easy, wish I would have done that back in the day. It certainly makes it easier to get access to the engine.
Couple pictures of the progress, need to drop off my seats for re-foaming this week as well. The next few days I hope to have the old 305 and TH200 out.
Haven’t made a ton of progress over the last few weeks. Picked up some parts from forum members that I always wanted for my MC but couldn’t afford in high school. Finally got all of my swap parts and new floor half.
Got the engine and trans home today and stripped the harness of to have re-worked. Pulled the front clip the other day, was super easy, wish I would have done that back in the day. It certainly makes it easier to get access to the engine.
Couple pictures of the progress, need to drop off my seats for re-foaming this week as well. The next few days I hope to have the old 305 and TH200 out.
Attachments
I started watching your build and realized I live right down the road from you in Midland. I'm also a lurker here, this is my first post. I have almost the exact same car, only in blue. Got the car a year ago, a barn find too, and I'm almost done.
I did:
2004 5.3
4L60E
Quick Performance 9" with 3.70
UMI suspension all the way around
Lowering springs (front coils, worst job in the world)
All new fuel system
Disc brakes
All Holley swap stuff
PST drive shaft
16 inch Torq Thrust wheels
I still have to do the exhaust, the cooling fans, and the intake. Oh, and i need to flip the front sway bar that my son and I put on upside down. Got it running two weeks ago, but I stalled (my project, that is) when I ran out of ready cash. So close!
I also have some surface rust, clean interior, and a couple of rust holes in the floor pans. I think our cars were separated at birth! I'm excited to watch your progress!
Rob
I did:
2004 5.3
4L60E
Quick Performance 9" with 3.70
UMI suspension all the way around
Lowering springs (front coils, worst job in the world)
All new fuel system
Disc brakes
All Holley swap stuff
PST drive shaft
16 inch Torq Thrust wheels
I still have to do the exhaust, the cooling fans, and the intake. Oh, and i need to flip the front sway bar that my son and I put on upside down. Got it running two weeks ago, but I stalled (my project, that is) when I ran out of ready cash. So close!
I also have some surface rust, clean interior, and a couple of rust holes in the floor pans. I think our cars were separated at birth! I'm excited to watch your progress!
Rob
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