1980 Buick Century Estate Wagon

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Buford T. JuSStice

Master Mechanic
Aug 16, 2010
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Howdy guys, new to the forum here!

I own a 1980 Buick Century Estate Wagon (like the Topic suggests). I affectionately call it "Louise". The car has literally been with my family my entire life... my grandfather bought it in 1985 around the time I was born from a friend of his. He popped out the motor, rebuilt it, and popped it back in. Along the way he also worked on the under-carriage and frame weather-proofing it his way (his way was always super-heavy duty or nothing) and setting up the suspension to be weather proof. (In other words, he put a big-thick sway bar on the front and put over-sized radials on it)

About a decade later, the car was handed over to his son (My Uncle) due to my grandfather's failing health and my Grandmother not needing the car anymore. It was taken to Maine for heavy duty use (hunting, fishing, carrying hundreds of pounds worth of building supplies around for his house, and such). Things meant for cars with much larger engines and hardier transmissions. To fulfill these duties the rear suspension was beefed up with adjustable air-ride shocks.

He had it until about 2002, when he handed it down to me. I being a kid, didn't appreciate the car and abused the hell out of it, rode it around like the Dukes of Hazzard until eventually the Transmission gave out, and the engine blew. Having done so much in this car, I grew quite attached to it... knowing it's history didn't hurt either. What most people would have junked a car over, I worked hard to pay for to get fixed. It sat in my garage, the driveway, and the street for almost 5 years... until eventually it received a rebuilt transmission, a new motor (nothing radical, just the same as it was before... just heavier duty to survive longer) and I rebuilt the carburetor.

The frame is still strong and rust-free from my grandfather's work... the body is only plagued by a few, small patches of easily fixed rust and dents. It's tougher than a tank, and handles like a dream. Only a few more things need to be done to it to really finish it.

1: Exhaust - The exhaust on it now is detached (almost completely) from the Y-Pipe back. What I'll probably do is remove the Y-Pipe, and install a simple dual exhaust system with the tail-pipes coming out behind the rear wheels.
2: Rust and Dents - The body is in pretty good shape, but I'll probably have a body shop fix up whatever I can't get with a dremel and sand paper.
3: Radio - It's never had one... never really minded that so much but it'd be nice to have.
4: Center Caps for the Rally Wheels - I have a set of Rally Wheels on the car, but only one Buick center cap... I'll buy them eventually, but they're a lot more expensive than they seem to be worth in my opinion.
5: Paint - Okay... this is where pictures come in.

This is what I have now:


This is what I plan on doing:


(This picture was taken before I really went over the car and cleaned it. Yesterday I literally took 4 hours cleaning the car from top to bottom with a Scotch Brite Pad, and all that gunk near the gas door is cleaned off... along with many other places it was filthy.)
 

Longroof79

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Welcome aboard!
Nice to see more wagon guys coming board.
 

Buford T. JuSStice

Master Mechanic
Aug 16, 2010
341
192
43
Thanks for the welcome guys!

Quick question in case anybody knows, or can point me in the right direction. The exhaust system on my wagon is shot right to hell. The Catalytic converter is practically severed from the assembly altogether, so exhaust fumes come out of the Y-Pipe. On the bright side, the car sounds like a friggin' tank so people know I'm coming from a couple of blocks away, no chance of running over even hard-of-hearing pedestrians. :lol:

Since it's exempt from State and Federal emissions standards, I don't need a catalytic converter any longer, and was wondering if a Dual Exhaust set up was viable on a 3.8L V6 with no major modifications done to it. What would be the best way of going about doing it? It's got the stock headers on there now, so I'm willing to bet that they would have to be replaced, the Y-Pipe would obviously come off, and either an X-Pipe, or two separate pipes would have to be installed. The tail-pipes coming out behind the rear wheels would be a nice bonus too.
 

Buford T. JuSStice

Master Mechanic
Aug 16, 2010
341
192
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Back after a long hiatus, haven't really done anything with the car yet, I've been using the car as a secondary daily driver... I had an epiphany just recently and I wanted to share it with you guys because I know some of you may be able to appreciate this.

Right now in my garage is a 1973 Pontiac Catalina. For the time being it is home to a 400 cubic inch power plant. Nothing special, it's the low end 400, with a 2 barrel carburetor, and it originally came with single exhaust. Probably has the low end heads as well. Well... as soon as I am able (I need to fix my engine hoist still) I am pulling that engine out of the Pontiac, and I am rebuilding it. Here is what I plan from top to bottom:

Cliffs High Performance Quadra-jet @ 750cfm
Tomahawk crosswind Spread Bore intake manifold with partial split plenum (basically, a clone of the popular Edelbrock RPM manifold but modified to broaden the RPM power curve)
Kauffman Racing Heads: 74cc chamber, 310cfm flow, D-Port style exhaust ports
FelPro Head Gasket: 4.3" bore diameter, 0.039" compressed thickness
PRW Stainless Steel Roller Rockers: 1.52 ratio
Tomahawk Camshaft: Dur: 274/280 (224/[email protected]) Lift: 480/485 Overlap: 56 LC: 112
Keith Black Forged Pistons: 15cc dish
Tomahawk Crankshaft: 4.12" Stroke, 3" main
Block: Bored out by 0.027" and honed 0.003" (4.120" current, 4.150" after) Pistons flush with deck (0.0" clearance)
Desired end results: 0.039" quench, 10.5:1 Compression, 455 Cubic Inches

Then, it's likely that will get shoe-horned into my Station Wagon paired with a 200-4R transmission built for whatever appropriate horsepower (Will have to see engine dyno results), a mild posi. rear diff. (ballpark of 3.08 - 3.42) new spindles and axels to accommodate 15x8 wheels in back, 15x7 in front, disc brakes all around, tighter suspension, and new paint (probably the paint job in the original post) as well as a 2" cowl hood since the Poncho plant will likely be too tall for the stock hood.
 

Bonnewagon

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Sep 18, 2009
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Actually, even the stock 2 barrel small valve heads 400 motor would overwhelm the wagon. The hood should fit just fine as long as you don't use any spacers under the carb.
 

Buford T. JuSStice

Master Mechanic
Aug 16, 2010
341
192
43
Bonnewagon said:
Actually, even the stock 2 barrel small valve heads 400 motor would overwhelm the wagon. The hood should fit just fine as long as you don't use any spacers under the carb.
Yeah, I believe it too. Pontiac V8's were torque monsters. If it fits under the hood without any modifications then that would be awesome, it'd make a nice sleeper.

In any case, the idea right now is if it goes into the Buick as a blueprinted 455, there will be plenty of precautions taken to ensure the car is safe to drive. It'll mostly depend on the driver of course, but bigger brakes, better suspension, and frame strengthening will be part of the plan. My goal is to be able to use it as at least a fair weather car if not a daily car. (Even with gas prices being as high as they are, the transmission, differential, q-jet and mild cam should help me maintain tolerable mpg as long as I don't hammer it constantly)
 

Bonnewagon

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Supporting Member
Sep 18, 2009
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Yes, good gears and a Q-jet help a lot. I got 16 mpg highway with a 400 and 3:23's out back in a Malibu wagon.
 

Buford T. JuSStice

Master Mechanic
Aug 16, 2010
341
192
43
Bonnewagon said:
Yes, good gears and a Q-jet help a lot. I got 16 mpg highway with a 400 and 3:23's out back in a Malibu wagon.
Damn, that's pretty good! That's better than what I'm getting with my LT1 Caprice right now (Then again it's only been crappy for a couple weeks, and I'm pretty sure it's an easy fix, probably just the O2 sensors, EGR, or something stupid and emissions related... no MIL yet though.)
 
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