My 1976 Wagon LSx turned Ecotec Build

[iced98lx]

Hey Y'all new guy here, just picked up a 1976 wagon, and am excited to go pull it home Thursday and get started on blowing it apart. It's a 1 owner car with 36,000 miles on it. It'll require some rust repair and TLC but no dents and the body is very strait, plus interior is complete and in pretty good (dirty but good) shape. plan is to do an LS1/6speed swap out of a late model Camaro, huge cam, full cage, custom interior and a repaint to lime green. Generally a street car that can surprise some honda civic's at stoplights and sounds mean. I'm a Corvette guy and sold my 1998 to make room for the next project (the vega) but still have a very custom 2000 corvette that's getting a freshen on it's LS7 over the winter as well.

Pics as soon as i get it home and start teardown.. will be teardown and parts listing/hunting over the winter, then hopefully summer I'll start cleaning and reassembly.. spring 2012 is finish goal.

Glad to see a thriving H-Body community and am already reading threads and gathering information!

[Roccosvega]

Welcome, sounds like you will have a nice vega when your done. any questions you may have can be answered here.
Good luck on your build and take lots of pics,because we like seeing pics of each others cars.

Robert

[NixVegaGT]

Lookin' forward to reading your journal. Sounds like you've got a plan and some experience with the time it takes. Good goals.

[iced98lx]

Thanks for the kind words guys, can't wait to tear into this car. I had a shot at a really clean 74 wagon in high school with a 350 and TH400 in it, and passed so I could have a newer car (dumb!) and have regretted it ever since. finally have time for another little project as the corvette is about as done as it will get after this winter. (unless the mod bug bites and I toss some boost at it!)

[Astre-mutt]

Welcome to H-body forum. Sound like a great project. A LS isn't as easy as a regular small block, but the results will be very rewarding. Only one problem with your plan, it won't be just the Honda guys getting there ass handed to them at the light..........it will be the other Corvette guys too!

[iced98lx]

Welcome to H-body forum. Sound like a great project. A LS isn't as easy as a regular small block, but the results will be very rewarding. Only one problem with your plan, it won't be just the Honda guys getting there ass handed to them at the light..........it will be the other Corvette guys too!

haha a lot of them will, that's for sure. The LS poses some interesting challenges with motor mounts and headers, but the payoff is huge- such an easily modified, tunable and drivable setup. I think it's worth the extra headaches.

[waybad]

i'm in!!

[iced98lx]

Rained cats and dogs of course, but got the car and got it home. Still runs like a champ but the fuel lines are gummed up so it's a dump-start-drivefast operation to get it on the trailer. Tires had air after sitting for best the old guy could tell 12-13 years. Needs lots of cleaning and some rust repair, but it's solid where it counts. Has good glass besides the windshield, and has all the trim with the car.. no rust under the windshield.. Will need floor repairs and fenders /door bottoms. I think I'll probably get rid of the CB whip too...

Anyway, cheers, here's to the start of a beautiful project.

[iced98lx]

Started cleaning things out tonight after cleaning up the garage a bit to get some room.. Click photos to get bigger picture.

Trunk/rear of wagon- a little rust in wheel well/spare tire carrier naturally





I think I want to raise the floor up to where the highest point is (the whole floor, ditch the back seats and make a rear firewall right behind the front seats) to aid in the creation of a rear subframe. Thoughts?

[iced98lx]

Started cleaning up a little bit tonight.. fifty pounds of mud and pine needles later, might be a car under there.



Battery Tray:

[snoopy]

looks like nebraska plates.
can i ask where you picked it up at?

[iced98lx]

Sure is NE plates- got it from winside, NE.

[iced98lx]

UPDATE:

Start looking longingly at the garage again recently with the weather warming up. I'm going to be wrapping up my LS7 rebuild in the corvette, then it's back to the vega full bore. Lined up a body guy, getting a frame worked out and am looking at 2.2L Ecotec's and T5s for the car vs an lsx. I want AC, heat, Fuel injection and cruise control, I can accomplish all those with an ecotec, but not an LSx without significant silliness.

Anyway I felt I owed a few an update.

[iced98lx]

Okay. The corvette project is done and that car got sold. So did the mini. Needless to say the garage is lonely with just the truck and the vega.. so, it's time to get going on the vega!

Thanks to help in the engine tech section I've gotten it running but am having fuel delivery issues. Carb will likely need to be rebuilt. Why bother if I'm putting an ectotec in? Well, I'm not long in the funding department so it'll be a while till the ecotec shows up, and I'd like to drive the car some to see what i like/don't like about it. How much more power does it need? Hows the suspension? etc. I've never driven a running HBody, figure I can get the wheezy 140 going and at least put put it around and build some impressions.

Cleanup inside has started. My pasture find is pretty dirty and even has the added perk of some mold growing here and there. I've dried it out, and started with some mold specific cleaners and leather/vinyl cleaner / treaters.

[v8astregt]

Hmmm, somehow missed all these posts?

Anyways, sounds like a very cool project! I'm right there with ya on the LSx's since my daily driver is one. GM couldn't make a finer engine. But things are tricky enough on the swap with a Gen 1 SBC, so I agree, LS would be too much work there. Ecotec is a great choice. I've contemplated finding another H just so I can build a stick turbo Ecotec, zip around town in a fun car, but still get 30 mpg.

Hell, if you want to be really different, I've talked with a few different people in the last week raving about tiny diesel 4 bangers being amazing workhorses in fullsize trucks, and knocking down high mpg. Wonder how hard it would be to tweak a turbo diesel 4 banger in an H-body? 10-11 seconds while getting 30mpg?