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2000 impala build thread

3K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  CraftsmanQuad19 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey all, just thought I would consolidate and make a place to post my future updates. But first a little backstory on the car...

Grandpa ordered it brand new in 2000, base model with power/heated mirrors, alloys, LS wing, and some other odds an ends that I can’t remember right now. He drove my mom and I home from the hospital in it when I was born, so it was always kind of “my” car. Got it just before I turned 16 and was my daily for two years. I named it Jadah after my bipolar ex girlfriend because she’s got her good days and her bad days. I love her, but she’ll turn on me in a second. Haha so anyway I blew the head gasket on the 3.4 about a year and a half ago. Replaced it, and 8 months later fried the transmission. After that, the car has sat dormant for a year until I picked up a 3.8 Grand Prix donor car.

Full engine and trans swap happened at school, 2000 Grand Prix engine and trans, 2002 Monte Carlo wiring harness, and the 2000 impala body. With the swap came INTENSE racing PCM, and speed daddy headers/cat delete.

Mods before the swap were spyder auto halos, glasspack, middle resonator delete, strut tower braces front and rear, and a Milzy Motorsports tuned PCM for the 3.4 (obviously not being used now), and an ENORMOUS eBay all aluminum radiator. Seriously this thing is massive

Future mods I have planned:
-Top swap for high compression supercharged 3.8
-Lower the ride height, haven’t decided on BC racing coilovers, expensive but good quality
-shorter dog bones
-ZZP tubular lower control arms
-tubular rear trailing arms
-bigger sway bars
-full brake upgrade kit (looking for advice here)


Mods with the top swap:
-Ported heads/intake/blower
-e85
-cam
-LS7 rockers
-possibly some higher ratio rockers, haven’t decided
-northstar throttle body
-at that point if I don’t have any KR I’ll drop the pulley size


What do you guys think? Are there any 7th gen “must haves” that I’m leaving out? Toying with the idea of swapping in tan leather buckets and converting to console shift instead of column, but dunno how hard the shifter location will be to deal with.



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#3 ·
Following!
 
#4 ·
Just got word from the seller of my manifold. They never had the part or something, so I’m waiting on them to figure their sh!t out.

Looks like the manifold will be delayed so the car most likely won’t be running by this weekend like I was hoping.

What confuses me is the tracking link they sent says the part was shipped the day after I ordered it (May 1st)....how do you ship a part you never had!?

Idk, blows my mind but I have to figure this out before I can even play with the car again


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#10 ·
What confuses me is the tracking link they sent says the part was shipped the day after I ordered it (May 1st)....how do you ship a part you never had!?
Sometimes sellers print a shipping label for a carrier like usps, when they do this sometimes it will queue that carrier to initiate a shipping status even though the part has not been boxed or picked up yet.
 
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#6 ·
Autoplicity on amazon. They sent me an email saying I would get a full refund plus 20 for the inconvenience, but I don’t really want my money back I just want the damn part I ordered.

I’m sure they’re an ok company, I read lots of reviews before buying, but I should’ve looked around more. I paid 86 and the same part on rock auto was 67 and both had free shipping.

I went with the ATP manifold because it fixed the egr issues these manifolds had


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#8 ·
I just remove and block off the egr completely. Fixes that problem and keeps the intake clean. I also block off coolant flow to the throttle body.
Keeps the coolant from inadvertently going into the intake.
 
#12 ·
Haha, I've got almost the same factory options you do, save for the wheels. I wouldn't worry too much about switching to floor shift....a column shifter is a relatively rare thing to have, and I recall reading that Chrysler switched to those stupid dials because "the floor shift takes up too much room that can be used for other things, like storage". Then they oohed and aahed over the Chrysler 200's dial shift with storage below the center armrest, like a center console with holes to slip folders through on either side rather than a traditional lid. Like they'd never heard of column shifters before. Besides, a bench seat is another nostalgic touch with just the right rarity. Gives you a 6th seat in the car, and maybe lets a nice girl(if you find one) slide over to the middle with you while ya drive. Wouldn't want her all the way over on the other side of the car, now would you? ;) Plus I've found the front middle floor is a pretty decent place to put a CB radio, if you get the notion.
 
#13 ·
Haha actually I’ve done the bench seat things before...almost put it in a ditch lmao

Jokes aside I just miss the feeling of the shifter where I can rest my hand on it or bang it manually through the gears (had a loaded 2000 LS with leather buckets, loved that car). Plus my daily is a stick shift ranger so I just got used to the placement. More fun for spirited driving.

Maybe the bench will be desirable someday, grandpa sure kept it in good shape. But if I find a nice set of tan leather buckets at the junkyard imma snag them and the console because you just never find them


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#14 ·
Lol, guess I got a bit of an advantage there, having the Patriot if I want bucket seats and the Impala if I want something that seats six.
 
#15 ·
Got the manifold in the mail yesterday and installed today. One broken MAP sensor later and she runs! Has a bit of a miss though. Is that typical of a crank position sensor that needs “reset”? I replaced that short harness to the ignition module, cam sensor, and crank sensor so it did get unplugged

I only ran it for a minute or less and I didn’t rev it up since there’s a little bit of coolant in the oil. Just enough to establish that yes the car runs.


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#16 · (Edited)
As soon as I was finishing up my buddy got a text saying someone wanted to trade an 04 SS Indy 500 edition for his 96 3.8 5 speed Firebird. My buddy jumped on it and we got a few pictures. Afterwards we went for a drive in my car to get my battery warrantied and my fkn starter went out. Ugh. Dad came and got us with the trailer though so it made it back home with some help haha. Anyway here are the pics!



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#17 ·
Pretty sure I blew up the 3800 a couple weeks ago. Been too busy to look into it but if it does need a new engine it’ll be getting a refreshed series 3 bottom end. I just invested a bit of money into the NA top end so I would likely leave it alone, I do still have the supercharged top end for later use but would rather dial in the chassis first


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#18 ·
Did a couple preliminary tests, zero compression on cylinder 6, blowing oil out the plug hole. Really hoping it’s just a valve guide or bent pushrod or broken rocker stud. Something in the upper valvetrain would be nice.

My boss has a borescope he said I can use, so I’ll take a look down in the cylinder before I take anything apart. Fingers crossed!

My last trip to the junkyard I grabbed a gen V blower off a GTP as well. I’ll be running a north star throttle body on it when I do the top swap




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