First time towing with my own vehicle (83 Caprice)

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Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
I do believe it was a bit too far forward. The first is a bit closer to the front than the back and most of the heavier pieces to put it up were right inside the door and toward the front.

Was likely never an issue pulling it with his cargo vans.

Just make sure you've got some decent tongue weight after your adjustments. A bit too much is better than too little in terms of stability.
 
Nice car! I love the old B-body GM cars, especially the Chevs. I used to have an old Custom Cruiser wagon I'd tow with. I bought a set of airlift air bags for that car and it wouldn't sag at all if I pumped them up. They are cheap and easy to install. I also recored the rad to a 3 row high efficiency and added an external transmission cooler.

Is your car a LG4 TH700R4? An LS swap would be a nice upgrade. I recently saw a Caprice like yours on Kijiji that had a LS swap.
 
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Originally Posted by Oldswagon
Nice car! I love the old B-body GM cars, especially the Chevs. I used to have an old Custom Cruiser wagon I'd tow with. I bought a set of airlift air bags for that car and it wouldn't sag at all if I pumped them up. They are cheap and easy to install. I also recored the rad to a 3 row high efficiency and added an external transmission cooler.

Is your car a LG4 TH700R4? An LS swap would be a nice upgrade. I recently saw a Caprice like yours on Kijiji that had a LS swap.


Good to hear from you again. I'm going to plan to install the air bags for sure.

I have a stock rad but the 305 doesn't seem to have any issues with heat. I do have an auxiliary trans cooler I need to install.

Mine is the original lg4 305 with 235k miles, it had a th250c which I replaced with a 2004R overdrive transmission from an 89 I bought for parts and swapped the 2.29 open rear diff for a 3.08 posi 8.5" from an 83 Delta with trailer tow package. Much better gas mileage now. Over 25 on a long trip once.

The 5.3/4L60E will be light night and day difference for power and slightly better fuel mileage.
 
My first car was a 85 caprice. I would love to ls swap one but keep it carbureted.
 
Originally Posted by Gasbuggy
My first car was a 85 caprice. I would love to ls swap one but keep it carbureted.


Part of the beauty of an ls swap in one of these is it makes converting to EFI the simplest thing ever. The reliability of the ls powered trucks where I work has me sold on them. No more adjusting the carb every couple of years. No worries about ethanol in the gas. Etc.

I've ran carbs from age 16 to 36 now and they're nowhere near as bad as many people make them out to be (at least my quadrajets or a 2 barrel motorcraft in old Ford's). But I'm ready for the EFI upgrade now.
 
Everybody used to tow with their cars. When I was a kid, it was less common to see a trailer being pulled by a pickup. I don't know for sure, but I would imagine that the full-size American cars used to have a higher trailer towing capacity than the majority of the mid size, non BOF SUVs on the road today. Of course, today's mid-size SUVs get better gas mileage and hold almost as much stuff as the big old cars.
 
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Originally Posted by Gasbuggy
My first car was a 85 caprice. I would love to ls swap one but keep it carbureted.


Part of the beauty of an ls swap in one of these is it makes converting to EFI the simplest thing ever. The reliability of the ls powered trucks where I work has me sold on them. No more adjusting the carb every couple of years. No worries about ethanol in the gas. Etc.

I've ran carbs from age 16 to 36 now and they're nowhere near as bad as many people make them out to be (at least my quadrajets or a 2 barrel motorcraft in old Ford's). But I'm ready for the EFI upgrade now.



I agree with this too. Having driving and ridden more carb'd vehicles than fuel injected, I know carbs inside and out, but I will take modern EFI any day of the week.
 
Originally Posted by CBR.worm
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Originally Posted by Gasbuggy
My first car was a 85 caprice. I would love to ls swap one but keep it carbureted.


Part of the beauty of an ls swap in one of these is it makes converting to EFI the simplest thing ever. The reliability of the ls powered trucks where I work has me sold on them. No more adjusting the carb every couple of years. No worries about ethanol in the gas. Etc.

I've ran carbs from age 16 to 36 now and they're nowhere near as bad as many people make them out to be (at least my quadrajets or a 2 barrel motorcraft in old Ford's). But I'm ready for the EFI upgrade now.



I agree with this too. Having driving and ridden more carb'd vehicles than fuel injected, I know carbs inside and out, but I will take modern EFI any day of the week.


I will keep the carb on my Oldsmobile because buying a stand alone efi kit for the existing olds v8 would cost more than doing an ls swap with a used running engine. Not worth it considering how well the carb works now.

But it's cheaper to keep efi when you do an ls swap so no reason not to.
 
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TBH most of our long trips are done in the spring, summer, fall and I would rather take the long trips in my carbureted vehicle (carrying a spare ignition module and distributor rotor and some tools) than the EFI engine which I would want to have a spare in tank fuel pump, crank position sensor (both of which are probably much harder to change than the 2 most likely parts to fail in the carbed car.

However with the exception of the peace of mind on the long trips I would like having efi.
 
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Originally Posted by Anduril
Airbags (if they make them for that car) will be a huge help. It was a night and day difference when I put them on both my Tacoma and XTerra.


I will check the price. I know they're available for these cars. I paid $1500 for it over 10 years ago, so it's been the best purchase I've ever made but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it if I don't have to.

About ninety bucks.

https://www.sdtrucksprings.com/inde...VgA8_oy41zMfccYLG00oPXCaChRoCVOEQAvD_BwE
 
Thanks to everyone especially the ones who gave me recommendations for air bag setups. I'll definitely be looking into them shortly and plan to do that next year.
 
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv


Good to hear from you again. I'm going to plan to install the air bags for sure.

I have a stock rad but the 305 doesn't seem to have any issues with heat. I do have an auxiliary trans cooler I need to install.

Mine is the original lg4 305 with 235k miles, it had a th250c which I replaced with a 2004R overdrive transmission from an 89 I bought for parts and swapped the 2.29 open rear diff for a 3.08 posi 8.5" from an 83 Delta with trailer tow package. Much better gas mileage now. Over 25 on a long trip once.

The 5.3/4L60E will be light night and day difference for power and slightly better fuel mileage.


Thanks, good to see you still are running old iron. Sounds like you still have your Cutlass too. We had an '84 Parisienne with 305 and a TH700R4 and it was a rock solid car for 200k miles. It would get mid 20s mileage wise. I also had a couple of Oldsmobiles with the 307 and TH2004R, and I also had got similar mileage but were slower than the 305s.

I agree with you too on the carbs being not as bad as people say. I don't daily drive cars with carbs anymore but I still own a couple and I actually love the simplicity of a well tuned carb. I have a Colonnade Malibu with a 350 in it that I considered doing the LS swap too, but I now I am leaning towards going with an performance built 350 and carb to keep it more old school. I definitely want to upgrade to an OD trans though.
 
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv


However with the exception of the peace of mind on the long trips I would like having efi.

And better fuel economy + no worries with heat soak. If it was me, a TBI/CSPI Vortec truck engine or an LS1/LS2 with a (built) 4L60E would be the perfect swaps for these. The LSx would be better for top end and pass snuff for emissions as it is a "car" engine. I would imagine the TBI/CSFI Vortec 350 would be a physical bolt-in swap.

The old LT1 does have the Optispark, which means the water pump and most of the front-end accessory drive has to come off and while the triggering part of an Opti is reliable, the cap/rotors in them do fail quite a bit.
 
Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by caprice_2nv


However with the exception of the peace of mind on the long trips I would like having efi.

And better fuel economy + no worries with heat soak. If it was me, a TBI/CSPI Vortec truck engine or an LS1/LS2 with a (built) 4L60E would be the perfect swaps for these. The LSx would be better for top end and pass snuff for emissions as it is a "car" engine. I would imagine the TBI/CSFI Vortec 350 would be a physical bolt-in swap.

The old LT1 does have the Optispark, which means the water pump and most of the front-end accessory drive has to come off and while the triggering part of an Opti is reliable, the cap/rotors in them do fail quite a bit.


I would never swap an lt1 in. For me a 4.8 or 5.3 LS is the best swap. Even to swap a regular small block Chevy in (or vortec or lt1) I need to change engine mounts and wiring etc. Probably the same amount of work as an ls swap. I have the Oldsmobile 350. The only thing I think would be worth spending the time and money on is an ls swap and any of the aluminum block engines are out of my price range. My budget is a $300 engine as I already have 2.

With a return line on the fuel pump on these cars you shouldn't have any heat soak issues with the stock quadrajet carbs.
 
https://www.sdtrucksprings.com/inde...VgA8_oy41zMfccYLG00oPXCaChRoCVOEQAvD_BwE



Screenshot_20190905-072409.png
 
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Originally Posted by Oldswagon
I agree with you too on the carbs being not as bad as people say. I don't daily drive cars with carbs anymore but I still own a couple and I actually love the simplicity of a well tuned carb. I have a Colonnade Malibu with a 350 in it that I considered doing the LS swap too, but I now I am leaning towards going with an performance built 350 and carb to keep it more old school. I definitely want to upgrade to an OD trans though.


There is not a fuel injected car that I have encountered, that started even remotely as quickly as did my 1982 Malibu, 229 V6, with the stock Rochester 2V carb. A simple tap of the ignition key would start her right up.

***

OP: I would opt for the 5.3; the 4.8 is short on torque.
 
Originally Posted by NDL
Originally Posted by Oldswagon
I agree with you too on the carbs being not as bad as people say. I don't daily drive cars with carbs anymore but I still own a couple and I actually love the simplicity of a well tuned carb. I have a Colonnade Malibu with a 350 in it that I considered doing the LS swap too, but I now I am leaning towards going with an performance built 350 and carb to keep it more old school. I definitely want to upgrade to an OD trans though.


There is not a fuel injected car that I have encountered, that started even remotely as quickly as did my 1982 Malibu, 229 V6, with the stock Rochester 2V carb. A simple tap of the ignition key would start her right up.

***

OP: I would opt for the 5.3; the 4.8 is short on torque.


Yes, a hot start immediately after shutting it off or a cold start my carbed engines start faster. It's when they heat soak a certain amount of time then you have to crack open the throttle and crank for as much as 2-3 seconds at most until it fires up.

Driveability and reliability has never been a major problem with these cars but I know I can gain some mileage with efi.

I have 2 running 5.3 engines. One I pulled from our retired work truck the other I bought before I purchased said work truck from my employer.

The truck I drive daily at work has a 4.8 and it is low on torque but pulls good when it winds up. It's loaded with a lot of weight (iron survey bars, equipment etc). A 4.8 would be fine in the Caprice and possibly slightly better mileage but no guarantee there. The 5.3 work truck was 2 wheel drive so it's an unfair comparison, it would blow the doors off all of our work trucks and my cars.

Both my girlfriend's father's vans have the 4.8 but I haven't driven one with the tent trailer on it.
 
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