LIL QIK's '96 Impala SS (Project Daily Driver)

Well, the Syclone Project has been at a little bit of a stand still for the past few months.....so I figured I'd jack with the Impala a little. Went ahead and threw some LT4 Heads, LT4 Intake and Hot Cam on it. Then we through some old turbo stuff that I had laying around from a previous project. So far this is what we've come up with.



For those of you that are familiar with the old LT1 stuff....you'll see that we modified the accessory setup. Ended up moving the alternator and power steering over to the other side of the motor...along with adding a few idlers. I have to give a big thanks to QIK SS and BRYN for all the help they give me. Without these two guys I'd spend a lot more time trying to get things made and have a lot more down time. They help me in a multitude of ways. Seriously....Thanks guys.







We've got the motor sitting in the car now and modifying the harness. Lengthening some things and flat out deleting others. I'll get some pictures of it in the car soon. Hopefully within the next month and a half....we'll have the intercoolers, pipeing and exhaust in the car. Now don't get me wrong guys. I'm not trying to break any kind of milestones with this car....just looking for a little bit more ummmph out of it. I think we all know how heavy the B-Body's are. I'm going to do my damn-dist to keep from going over board with this thing. Once we get it on the road....my full intention is to just drive it. But then again...when I bought it...my intention was to leave it alone and stock....lol. Guess that didn't go over too well. Once it's on the road....I'll concetrate on the Syclone again. Then....once the Syclone is finished....I'll build the forged cu.in. setup and upgrade the turbo's......lol. Still a daily driver ofcourse. Anyway.....as of right now....just wanted to share a little bit of the beginnings of this thing. Hope to have it on the road soon.

looks good! That thing should make some killer torque!

XplicitPerformance wrote:

looks good! That thing should make some killer torque!

I hope so.....as of right now....it still has the 3.08 gear in it. The turbo's are only T04b's with a .69 a/r. Should spool up fairly quickly.

yeah but the motor isn't too extreme so the turbos should work out pretty good for that setup for now..

damn that looks killer , i bet bianca in drooling over that motor right now lol

Looking good man. It will be done before you know it.

I like the way you think the best things in life come in twins lol

1low04 wrote:

I like the way you think the best things in life come in twins lol

yea....I've tried to get the wife to let me twin turbo her Tahoe.....but she's having none of that.....lol

Can't wait to see this thing complete....looks like it would be alot of fun! Those turbos should be pretty quiet I would think and make for a hell of a sleeper!

XplicitPerformance wrote:

Can't wait to see this thing complete....looks like it would be alot of fun! Those turbos should be pretty quiet I would think and make for a hell of a sleeper!

You and me both....although I'm not sure how much of a sleeper a heavy car like this can be. To be a sleeper usually constitutes being fast. In current form....I'm not expecting anything better than a mid 12. Once I get the forged setup in and turn up the boost....then we'll see if we can call it a sleeper....lol. But yea....I'm definitely anxious to get it going. Job has me on 7 12's right now.....so not a whole lot is getting done anywhere.....

a forged 396 LT set up would be sick with a set of healthy twins!

XplicitPerformance wrote:

a forged 396 LT set up would be sick with a set of healthy twins!

Thought about that....but I'm also kind of thinking that the 355 and the hot cam that's currently in there should give me the sound that I want out of a daily driver. Not too radical and such. Besides I'm kind of hoping the turbo's will be good enough to give me the tq that I'm needing. We'll see when I get it on the road. If it doesn't get up and going fast enough....then I'll do the 396. But I'm kind of worried that a 396 won't leave me enough piston to handle the boost. We'll see though. I would love to do a 396. It's a shame that Dart never followed through with their LT1 block. I'd really like to get a 427 in there. Had even thought about doing the conversion to the LSX....but then the damn car would just be another project. I'm trying to keep this one simple....lol. As a matter of fact....if I hadn't had this turbo shit laying around.....I probably would have left it completely alone. Ok....I would have atleast stroked it....lol

Well I've got a butt load of stuff ordered for this thing....Intercoolers, charge piping, all the exhaust piping and even the new welder...lol. Now if I could just get off this jacked up 7 12's schedule...I just might be able to get something done on one these weekends....

Ok guys.....for those of you interested....we got a little bit done on the Impala this weekend. Finally got back on my normal schedule and had a weekend to work. I know you won't be able to tell....but we got a lot done even though we still need to do the charge piping and the exhaust. And yes....I know there's better ways to do the intake and filters....but I'm waiting until I change hoods. I'm not too cocerned about it being that I'm limiting the amount of boost and all....I'm not going for all out power yet. Anyway....here are a few pics of what the setup is looking like so far.....







Anyway.....the cooling system is all together, power steering is in and plumbed. We're at the point now that we just need to get the downpipes in, exhaust in and charge pipes in. Hopefully we can put a big dent in those things. Also....I went ahead and let it run for a while today and let everything get nice and warm. Surprisingly it ran really nice considering that we didn't even have the MAF or o2's plugged in. Next weekend I should be able to let it run with those two things functional and get the valves adjusted.

looks good! Looks like its on the home stretch. It won't be long now. What kind of transmission do you have in there? is it stock?

XplicitPerformance wrote:

looks good! Looks like its on the home stretch. It won't be long now. What kind of transmission do you have in there? is it stock?

Right now it's just a mildly build 4L60e with a Century Trans billet stall converter. The transmission was built by a dealership buddy of mine that calls it his stage 3 tranny. But I wouldn't put it past just having the shift kit in it. So I'll be taking it easy on this tranny until I can get the next one built. I've got a 4L80e that I was thinking about throwing in it....but for what I'm planning on doing with the Impala....I'm pretty sure we can get the 4L60e to hold up with some better parts. But who knows....time will tell.

i would love a 4L80 but not sure I want that headache with the swap just yet. I am hoping this 4L70 now holds up for some time.

XplicitPerformance wrote:

looks good! Looks like its on the home stretch. It won't be long now. What kind of transmission do you have in there? is it stock?

Same here....don't want the headache. All I'm looking for out of the Impala in the long run is mid 11's. I'm pretty sure I can get a 4L60e to hold up to that even in my heavy ass car. In all honesty....I don't see any reason you can't get yours to hold....especially if you leave street tires on it. May be a different story if you go throwing slicks on it and head to the track though...

LIL QIK wrote:

XplicitPerformance wrote:

looks good! Looks like its on the home stretch. It won't be long now. What kind of transmission do you have in there? is it stock?

Same here....don't want the headache. All I'm looking for out of the Impala in the long run is mid 11's. I'm pretty sure I can get a 4L60e to hold up to that even in my heavy ass car. In all honesty....I don't see any reason you can't get yours to hold....especially if you leave street tires on it. May be a different story if you go throwing slicks on it and head to the track though...

I wish it was that simple. I am on the 5th transmission in the truck so far. This last time they replaced all the hard parts that they normally re-use with brand new OEM parts. So far it is holding up well but you never know. I think if I go into the motor anymore I may have it freshened up and a billet output shaft installed because I think that will be the weak link in the transmission from now on. *knocks on wood*

Ok guys....here's some updated pics. Just remember...I never claimed to be a professional or anything like that. I just had an idea and went with it...lol. So try not to be too hard on me. My tig that I had bit the dust quite some time before we started this project....so we went with my spool gun on the aluminum. I would imagine at some point....I'll clean them up and make it all look a little better. When I come back in with the forged motor....that's when I plan to get everything redone and setup with some high temp coatings.... I just want to get the system working first and see how she acts.....

One of my main goals with this car was to keep it looking as subdued as possible. Was attemping to make it look like it could have came from the factory that way. I more or less like where we've gotten to....and still believe that when it's all said and done...I will have accomplished what I was trying to do....

Couple of exhaust shots....








and a few pics under the hood....














Got a vid that I'll post up as soon as I figure out how. Nothing special....just running and idling. Don't really like the way it sounds...but will try and fix that later...

so whose goin to do the tuning on the vehicle? Looks good and functional and thats what matters. I bet boost + LT1 = one torque-y son of a bitch!

XplicitPerformance wrote:

so whose goin to do the tuning on the vehicle? Looks good and functional and thats what matters. I bet boost + LT1 = one torque-y son of a bitch!

Tuning has already been started by Bryan Herter from PCMforLess. He's real familiar with programming the boosted LT1's and familiar with the boosted heavy ass Impala's. I can only give it a little less than 1/4 throttle or the fuel pump can't keep up. But even with that little bit of throttle....I'm really happy with how fast it gets on up to 80. The other fuel pump won't be in until next week....so I'll just have to wait to see how well the wide open throttle is programmed. But so far I'm happy.

what pump u going with? very nice daily driver.

Sleeper wrote:

what pump u going with? very nice daily driver.

I went with the Denso 1020....

LIL QIK wrote:

XplicitPerformance wrote:

so whose goin to do the tuning on the vehicle? Looks good and functional and thats what matters. I bet boost + LT1 = one torque-y son of a bitch!

Tuning has already been started by Bryan Herter from PCMforLess. He's real familiar with programming the boosted LT1's and familiar with the boosted heavy ass Impala's. I can only give it a little less than 1/4 throttle or the fuel pump can't keep up. But even with that little bit of throttle....I'm really happy with how fast it gets on up to 80. The other fuel pump won't be in until next week....so I'll just have to wait to see how well the wide open throttle is programmed. But so far I'm happy.

Yeah Alvin and those guys up there at PCMforLess seem to be like great people to work with. They are very popular on the TBSS website.