80 Malibu Wagon

[87 WE2]

Well its 3:10am and I am bored out of my mind at work, very slow around here lately. So I figured I would type up some info on my next project.

It’s a 1980 Malibu wagon, previously converted to a turbo regal drive train. It was my friend Jim Dunn's daily driver / race car for about 6 years, and has been sitting outside under a cover for about 2.5 years as a roller, no motor/trans. I have always liked the car, and in talking we agreed on a price. I am buying it as a roller should have all the $ to Jim in the next few weeks, and will be putting it back together, and giving it a little TLC to bring it back up to snuff after sitting for awhile.

I picked up a used stock motor for the car on Jan 18th, I have been working since collecting performance parts and new sensors I wanted for the project to make it a nice driver and reliable, I have rounded up almost everything I need but still looking for a few things.

So far with a few brakes in the winter weather I was able to clean, degrease, & pressure wash the motor. I broke it down to the long block assembly and got a coat of low gloss black plasticoat paint on the block and heads and that’s the way the motor sits for now.

Since things had been slow at work, I had some free time while on shift so I was able to get some things done here. Over the last few weeks while on weekend nights I ported the stock turbo inlet/comp housing, ported the exhaust elbow for a bigger turbo in the future (this is a fender dump elbow), slightly ported the stock TB, port matched the stock plenum, opened up the stock manifold ports up to match the felpro gaskets, and also opened up the cross over connections on the manifolds & smoothed out the jagged pipe connections inside the manifolds, repaired the cracked drivers side header with a gusset and 1/8" stainless diaper welded over the gusset. I cut the turbo shield to clear the fender dump elbow, degreased, cleaned, and painted all the nuts and bolt for the motor, and machined wastegate hole larger to accommodate the larger puck in the elbow.

Friday I went to my friends shop to use his sand blast cabinet to clean up the parts for the motor so I could paint everything. He does industrial painting & powder coating and has been slow due to the economy, long story short instead of me bead blasting & spray painting the parts everything will be powder coated. I could not beet the price, and I didn’t have to do anything and he makes $ a win-win for both of us.

For the motor upon breakdown everything inside was very clean, nothing on the pickup or in the pan, minimal ware in the timing chain, and a nice tight thrust bearing, so as long as the rear main bearing looks good when replacing the rear main seal I am just going to use the assembly as is with the exception of installing new ported front cover/oil pump & front seal, new GM timing set, 90lb valve springs, new intake seals, new water pump, real main seal, etc...

I'll be running a low 12 / high 11 sec combo: 009's, accufab adjustable regulator, turbo tweak chip, stock ported turbo (for now), dutt big neck stock IC, 3" MAF pipe with K&N cone filter, 3" kirban style down pipe, fender dump, ATR 3" single shot stainless exhaust. Still deciding on a fuel pump.

For the trans I had a spare BRF transmission already laying around with a PTS shift kit, hoping to drop it off for a rebuild around the end of Feb.
And will probably go with a 12" or 10” 2800 rpm converter keeping in mind of the future turbo upgrade not sure which yet.

I have to wait for a few more pay checks to pay off the parts I bought and finish paying for the car hopefully somewhere end of March early April I'll have the drive train in and running and will then begin the TLC to make it as pretty as it was before the 2.5 years of downtime.

So that’s it for now, I'll post pics of my progress as I get things done.

[mjdwyer23]

Looks like a good project Ed. I had a teal 79 with an lc2 swap that was fun as hell!

[Grumpy]

I looked at it last month on my way down to Fl... I was hallucinating using it as a driver/racer. Cool car . Super sleeper

[Squid4life]

I love those things! Keep us posted with pics and progress, it is going to be a kickass project.

[87 WE2]

Well I got my stuff back from the powder coater today, almost too nice to use on this build. I should be putting these parts on my GN. Painting the headers, & other misc stuff tonight. Had to take a breather, here are some pics of the powder coated stuff.

[87 WE2]

Finished my painting for the night

[87 WE2]

Repaired/Ported headers, just painted.

[mjdwyer23]

Looks great! I parked next to that car back in 01 at Kirban's with my wagon, anyone have pics? I have one pic of that car left I think!

[kenny]

Those parts look a HELL of a lot better now.

Cool project.

[87 WE2]

Thanks guys, Matt I remember that wagon it used to run around up my way many years ago.

[blackmonte]

Looks nice and clean, what kind of silver paint are you using?

[87 WE2]

headers vht 1500 deg flat alluminum, other parts vht 550 deg universal alluminum with a plasticoat 500 deg clear.

[blackmonte]

Or are all those parts powder coated? Looks nice I need to do my parts like that.

[87 WE2]

Post #5 all powder coated, post #6 all painted with a spray can.

[liquidh8]

looks good, if my century wagon wasn't in such nice shape, I'd be dropping the LC2 in my 79 'bu wagon. Looks good!

[87 WE2]

Dropped the transmission off Friday for a rebuild, etc...

Fuel pump & chip came in today.

Tonight I was working on modifying a stock turbo regal sending unit for the deep Malibu fuel tank so the gas gauge works, as well as painting the rest of my parts. Also got my blue hose coupe links I picked up used all cleaned up.

I have not had time to assemble anything yet. Hope to get the engine together in the next week or two.

And I picked up a TE-44 turbo for the car this week as well, going to run the stock D5 converter for now to save on cost since I have one laying around.

[UR50SLO]

Hopefully you can make it down to the Nats! Wagons RULE!

I was very tempted to buy this car.. I had to stay away from the ad!!!!

Glad it's in good hands... looks great man!
~Scott

[87 WE2]

I won't make it this year, maybe next. Spent all my $ on this project and still have work to do the to GN this year. Thanks for the compliment

[Steve V]

Very nice Ed!

[DaveLC2]

Sweet looking parts and pjoject car!

[87 WE2]

Thanks guys.

Quick update:
Picked up the rebuilt trans yesterday
Installed 90lb valve springs & new intake seals
Installed new timing chain, gm unit
Today we installed new rubber felpro rear main seal

Going to let the RTV set up from the rear main this week.
Next weekend I am going to hopefully assemble the engine. Then I just have to get the car to my house and clean up under the hood & install everything. Hopefully around mid/late april it will be alive I'll post pics of the motor when I get it together.

[rwrows]

damn that's gonna be a sick whip! i was in that car once. gotta love the wagons!

sticking with the T wheels? i think it looks awesome.

[87 WE2]

Thanks Rodger, Yes I plan on sticking with the T wheels, but I'll probably refinish them at some point.

[87 WE2]

I got some time to start putting the motor together today, have a little more to do yet.

[mjdwyer23]

*damn*

[87Regal3.8SFI]

Good for toting the family around in. Is the powder coating expensive?

[87 WE2]

Powder coating everything I had done should run about $300-$350 I had it done at 1/2 price. There's allot of prep involved that makes it expensive.

[87 WE2]

More progress:

[blackmonte]

Looks great , is that some heat tape wrap around the fuel ines?

[87 WE2]

Yea it was on the feed line when I bought it so I just left it on there.

[87 WE2]

Trying to decide on the wheels? Leave them alone or black them out like the 84/85 GN wheels?

[mjdwyer23]

How about polished T wheels? Cermachrome?!?

[rwrows]

i definitely like the right pic better. how did you do that to the pic? i really like the blacked out t (hot air GN) wheels too but on a white wagon i like the plain t wheels for some reason.

[rwrows]

you should somehow put a bump on the hood and the 3.8 turbo sfi emblems. that would be awesome!

[87Regal3.8SFI]

I think the black inserts would compliment the trim and tint better.