Hey guys, just registered yesterday and made a post in the general discussion section. Figured I’d post my car up in the wagon section. I posted quite a bit about it but I’ll post it up here too. It started out as a father son project with my dad, older brother and I back in the late 90’s if I had to guess? I was only 12 or 13 at the time and didn’t have the slightest clue what was going on (36 now). I actually didn’t care for the car until we got it going and since I’m the only one that really liked it he transferred the title into my name a few years back. It’s a 79 Malibu wagon factory 4 speed car. Bench seat, radio delete from the factory, crank windows, had power steering and air but both are gone. We just did a mild 350 and an after market clutch at the time and took it racing some with the stock rearend and wheels and managed some really low 14 second slips. This was all back in 1999-2002 because the tags that are on it expired in 2003. After a while we put a 9inch ford in it with a 4.56 gear then opened the motor back up and put a fairly radicle solid lifter cam in it, victor jr. Intake, and a Holley 650 double pumper in place of the 600cfm demon that was on it and never raced it again. I decided to start tinkering with it a few years ago and the first thing I did was took the 4.56 out and put a 3.89 gear in its place to make it a little more cruising friendly and bought some wheels and tires for it. I mostly had some questions about the Saginaw 4 speed in it because I was gifted a Muncie (m20 I believe) and t10 by a friend of my dads incase the Saginaw ever goes boom and the members here already gave me some great insight. I doubt the motor has over 5k miles on it but it’s been sitting so long that the paint is starting to flake off the driver side head. Here’s some pictures
New guy with a 4 speed wagon
- Thread starter Mighty
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Nice looking wagon. Thanks for sharing the pics and giving us some history about the car...and once again, welcome aboard!
It's cool seeing another 4-spd wagon. I like the radio delete plate.
It's cool seeing another 4-spd wagon. I like the radio delete plate.
NICE!! The Saginaw can take some abuse but by having good gears out back that helps take the strain off it. I used one behind a Pontiac 400 and it lasted 10 years of my stupidity. The Muncie is not as strong as they would have you believe, and the T-10 is even weaker. The SUPER T-10 is what you want and came in some 1976-81 models like the F bodies. The deciding factor would be the gear ratios. What rear came stock in the wagon, what first gear is in the Saginaw? What is the first gear in the Muncie and T-10? Most Muncies were geared for steep rear gears and could be as low as 2:20.
Longroof is there write up or any info about your car floating around on here that I can take a glance at? I see something about a basset hound in you signature thing? I just had to put mine to sleep a couple of years ago. Bonnewagon, I’m going to snap some pictures of the Muncie and t10 trans I have tomorrow evening and post them on here to see what forums members can tell me about them. I’m not super worried about the Saginaw since I won’t be drag racing it much, I’d just like to see what it’ll run but after I put the 26x9 Mickey Thompson et street tires on the rear I was worried about traction and the Saginaw.
I have a build thread on the forum somewhere. I'll try to dig it up and post it, or send you the link.
As for the Rocket powered Bassett hound. It was not my choice to put it there. I'll have to change it once I figure out how to. Sorry to hear about your Bassett hound.
Here's the thread I promised. https://gbodyforum.com/threads/working-on-the-wagon.33260/
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Bonnewagon, I’ve got no idea what the stock rearend was in the car? I’d assume a 7.5 inch??? Any maybe a 3.08 gear but that’s a complete guess I could be way off. I also remember reading about different Saginaw transmissions and how to identify them but that’s been a while ago too. Once I get the car up on a lift again to install the new gas tank I’ll look the transmission over as best I can.
3.08 is the only listed ratio for the wagon & El Camino with the 305/4 speed combo. The Saginaw's first gear will be 2.85. The 267 wagons & El Caminos will also have the same ratios. 7.5 is what you got.
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