Nine Deuce: The Official "Slammed Sedan" build thread

Seeing everyone else's progress got me all pumped up to start a thread about the '92.

For anyone who doesn't know, after Bowtiepimp bought another Caddy his white 92 Caprice went up for sale.
I was hesitant to buy because I really wanted a roadmaster sedan.
After weighing all the pro's and con's and NOT finding any RMS's I pulled the trigger and bought it from him on Easter Sunday (2014).

With a mod day at his place just one week later I got right to work on it!

Astro rims and tires came off for some steelies with moons and rings wrapped in 225/75r15 whitewall's

Did the air ride system in 3 days and I'm pretty sure I broke my thumb in the process. It was in there and all together but just barely. I took the ride up to his garage in Groton, MA for the mod day which was the car's maiden voyage with the air ride. Car ran hot the whole way up, drove with the heater on the entire way. Just when I think I'm in the clear the rear brake lines blew out on me at a stop light just over the town line in Littleton. Made the rest of the distance babying the car. When I arrived I also found a loose power wire that needed attention as well as it looked like it was dragging the ground for a while. 

With a little help from a few badass dudes we got the brakes all patched up so I could make it home. It made 2 other journey's. One to a stop and shop and one to my job. It's been parked since.


Engine was pretty beat with 186k on it. Overheating and blowing oil all over the underneath.
Planned to pull it anyway so out that came.





Next to come out was the trans and cross member.
I had planned to use the 4l60 mated to the 350 I have hanging around but after second thought decided to go with a manual trans.

While pulling the engine somehow one of the front bag brackets went crooked and I dropped the car down on it wrong and it tore the bag away from the lower mount. Had to replace both front bags!!!

While I had the bags out I notched the frame for the tierods, and took out the LCA's to modify them so the bags won't rub and to get the car lower. They still need to be cupped a few inches because I am still a mile from the frame touching concrete,





Some pics of the car at mod day and in the garage

Nice...3 days to bag is unbelievable..  

You LOW guys are whacked anyway...if it doesnt touch frame to ground it's no good?...  ..  

Cant wait to see this thing next outing...or before if it works out that way..  

So......stop leak & motor medic doesnt work?????.. 

I'm working to try and get to Justin's meet on August 10th.

Motor went in this weekend

So did the trans





Car is gutted now, found a few lovely spots on the floor that need attention.
Trunk is ridiculous with rot. Will replace as I go.

Pedals and exhaust are next as they both need to be present at the same time to find clearances .

Hoping to get it fired up this coming weekend!

Looks great

Hope that distributor is in the right place...cuz thats not coming out...  ..  

Do you need those valve covers for clearance or you just like them?...cuz so do I...hint..hint....are all centerbolt the same footprint?

Now just put it back together without getting sidetracked....get er running right & THEN start with the usual re-design.. 

Got them cuz I liked them. They also came in the stock height.

Distributor is a point's sized HEI. I made sure I was on number one before dropping it in, I have enough room to turn it if I'm off a tooth. I basically had an anxiety attack over clearance with the cowl. I hammered the shit out of the cowl to gain as much clearance as possible and didn't need to do any if it. Fit in there no problem.

The plan is to only modify what's needed at this point to make the car drivable again. So if I have to cut something it's only because it's a must right now.

I started the custom tail lights but it's turning into a huge project so it got back burner'd for now. So just moving forward with engine and trans mods for now.

The front suspension needs to be torqued down and I'd like to replace lower bj's while I'm there since they look beat.

Looking good man! When you build those pedals and linkage don't skimp on the pics and details. Need some direction on my setup.

You got it! Your blue whale post was part of the kick in the pants to start this thread.

I'm taking thurs and Friday off from work to see if I can get something done.

I melted one of the rams horn flanges trying to "burn out " a broken stud. Got that all welded back up and filled the hole with some high nickel 7015 rod... Looks pissah! We'll see what happens when I go to drill it and tap it. (Pics tomorrow)
I have a mechanical clutch setup from the c10 I think I can make work, V8Killer offered me a whole setup for a Good deal. If this doesn't pan out I might go that route.

I'm planning on moving the ball stud from the trans to the block like they were back in the day. Looks like I have a better angle there.

I also wanna mention that I removed the ABS and about 100 lbs of wiring from the engine bay....
I don't get it    some guys want to ADD more wire to their cars (lt1/ls1).
You can get the same HP/torque with as little as 6 or so wires in a gen 1 setup. I guess it's all about fuel economy.

Anyway... Got a few more items to track down (mechanical fuel pump, coil) and I gotta finish de-rusting the accessory brackets. I'm also looking for a power steering pulley that takes a v-belt.

Glad I could be an inspiration.    Been wanting to see how your T10 swap was going.

I have a v-belt power steering pulley kicking around. Yours if it'll work for you, its the 2 row pulley, very clean.

I'm not decided on hydro vs mechanical yet. I have a linkage set from a 2nd gen Camaro, but if I have to hack up the car to fit it then I'll be looking at hydro.

Honestly, I'm sold on fuel injection. I've never gotten into working with carbs, always had fuel injected cars. So it's what I know and the wiring isn't all too bad. I just finished the harness for Jessie's LQ4 Z28, really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Found a mechanical fuel pump that will work with the car today. Got a 3/8 fitting to use and flare the end of the stock fuel line to mate the pump to the factory nylon lines. Piece of rubber line will take care of the return line.

Also got some 3/8x16 studs for the ram's horn manifolds.

I forgot that on 265/283/327 intake manifolds there is no spot for the alternator bracket to bolt to, the oil filler neck is there and the thermostat housing is moved to the drivers side slightly.
Going to have to cut the bracket and weld in some metal to make it reach the gooseneck bolt.

No pics, didn't have time to take any. Tomorrow is another day!!

I got the manifold drilled and tapped this morning, installed studs and got the new flanges in the mail today from Bear River Converters in Utah.





Already ran into a problem.... Slight clearance issue on the cradle. Nothing a little cutting won't solve!!




I also tried installing the fuel pump and after adding the rtv sealant realized the cam eccentric is in the compression position which made installing the pump impossible. Gonna have to crank the motor over a little to get the rod off the lobe.

Out of time today. Tomorrow is a bust ass on it all day kinda day!

So of course per usual today was almost a complete waste so far.
The passenger exhaust manifold won't even bolt on it's hitting the cradle so much.
Gonna have to do some serious work in that area. I'm almost tempted to just run the dumb stock manifolds at this point!!

BUT got the starter mounted (not the small high torque one I thought would fit either   )
And hot wired it to the battery to get the engine cranked enough to install the fuel pump....

Which leads to a total epic fail on what I wanted to do for gas lines. Now it's a complete mess so I walked away from that.

Installed plug and wires and then went to help Justin with his wagon.

Need to grab a few more things at the store and maybe I'll revisit it tomorrow with a clear head .

Pretty much buttoned the engine up today. Only thing left is to alter the alternator bracket so I can have coolant circulate.

Added oil and tried to hotwire the coil to get the thing fired up for a few seconds.

Discovered a few issues when it did NOT fire.

1) apparently you CANNOT install a mech fuel pump AND leave the electric on in the tank... Even though I've been told numerous times it will pull right through the electric one. (Still diagnosing this)

2) distributor was installed 180* off, and YUP you guessed it I can't get the damn thing back out to fix it.

I pulled it up and turned it and now it won't go back in because the oil pump turned ever so slightly.
I walked away from it today so tools didn't go flying into the drywall.

Also still need to mod the cradle for the exhaust manifolds. I ended up removing the studs so I could bolt them in but no pipes can be bolted in until I notch the cradle.

I also have a dead battery now from cranking the engine.

But at least it's getting SOME progress.

I'm thinking of cutting the cowl a little so I can get the distributor back out and making it a permanent mod.

I have plans to run a different engine, where none of this will matter... But it's a long ways away and this 350 is pretty much ready to go.

sdstick wrote:

Looks great

Hope that distributor is in the right place...cuz thats not coming out...  .. 

Steve put the Revere curse on it.

Funny you should say that because when I realized it wasn't coming out I muttered "F@*%king Steve!!!!" out loud!!   

lookin good   

i know you dont want to hear it, but id be pulling the engine.
mark where the cradle needs to be notched and the firewall for the dist, pull the engine, climb in there
and take care of all that stuff at once. if you cut a corner or run diff manifoldsJUST to keep
progressing youll kick yourself in the ass later.

i had many issues putting the v8 in my brothers s10
just when i thought the engine was in for good, nope, back out, and then back out again.
it was worth it in the end not having to work in a really tight place tryin not to hit anything that could be damaged

thats just my .02

It's a good .02¢

My only reason for just using other manifolds is the fact that this is probably not the final engine to go in the car and I know with the engine I have in mind I won't have to cut the cradle. It's only a bitch to work with because I don't have a lift and to get to that area properly I would have to go from the bottom (with engine in)

However I am now pretty screwed with the distributor so it just might end up having to come out anyway.

Pulling the engine is no big deal . The REAL issue I'm dreading is the trans... It was SUCH A PITA!!!

And we have IGNITION!!!

Cut the cowl away to be able to pull the distributor, cranked it over to #1 turned the oil pump and dropped it back in.

Fired up almost immediately!
Gotta dig out the timing light and set the idle and we are in business!!!

I'm not sure whether to shake my head or cheer...

Shake your head at the cutting of the cowl?
It's an access hole   

I DONT plan on doing too much pulling of the distributor so it will probably just get welded back up.

I also had to disconnect the wiper arm because (of course) it was directly in the way.

Does the part you cut channel water? You could make like a temporary removable access panel thing like Tom made for his fuel pump that time and then seal it up with Phenoseal, lol.

It used to channel water but it won't when I'm done. This is only a temporary thing just for this engine.

Today I got the dash stripped out and the z-bar pivot ball moved from the trans to the engine block.

Starting a 1st shift position tomorrow at work so hopefully I can get things done in the afternoon now.

Congrats on the shift change. Looking forward to progress

Thanks! It's really not what I wanted (prefer 3rd shift with the other ghouls), but it beats the piss out of working 2nd shift!!!

Besides buttoning up stuff here and there with the engine, my main goal and focus is now on the clutch setup.
After that im on to re-wiring the car so it will start with a key and not me rubbing wires together.

I decided to NOT pull the engine, bought an adapter and some 3" cut off discs for the die grinder and was able to notch the cradle on the passenger side with no issues. So I'm assuming there will be no problems on the drivers side as well.
So as soon as I find some good lt1 exhaust pipes those will go in as well. (Again for clearance checking the clutch linkage, I'm still focused!!!)

I did 3rd shift for awhile, I won't do it again. Money wasn't worth it.

Looking forward to seeing your clutch linkage solution. I'm grabbing my 2nd gen Camaro linkage from storage tomorrow to mockup and see whats in the way.

Alright here we go.

Even though it was hotter than a Witch's a**hole today I found the courage to go into the garage and get some stuff done.

Removed the brake pedal assembly (    ) and started to get the new ones built.

After thinking this over a few weeks I concluded the easiest (and cheapest) route would be cutting and welding both sets together.
Measured both sets to see what the difference was from pivot to mounting surface, then cut them apart and welded them together adding the difference to the assembly.
Still need to do some re-enforcing and add metal to tie them both together.

And the pics for proof:





They are just loosely in there held by 2 nuts finger tight for now

Brakes hookup nicely, and the pedals have good swing. I could still add a hydraulic setup at this point but I am determined to get a mechanical system to work..... Nothing like the feel of it!!

Next step is the actual z-bar and see what I need to cut/ add/ bend to get the pedal to the z.

Knocked out both lower ball joints, tightened and torqued the entire front suspension, removed a ton of crap I don't want from the car this weekend.

Got the hole cut in the firewall for the clutch pedal rod to pass through also.

This weeks project is going to be making a mount for the z-bar to frame, and bending the tabs on the z-bar to reach the rod coming through the firewall.

I'd like to get this thing's timing set, waiting on exhaust to do that.
I also have to replace every brake line in this damn car!!!