I'm a die-hard Ford truck guy, but I have to say something good about this car. It's a '91 Chevy Caprice wagon with a 305 and 170k miles. A friend gave us a great deal on it (*well* under blue-book value) and we snapped it up - now that the Expedition has gone back to the uncle from whom we were leasing it, we needed another car. I drove it 400+ miles home from Southern Illinois today and loved it - the handling is kinda "floaty" but not uncontrollably so, and it's a smooth, quiet, comfortable highway cruiser - 75-80mph is comfortable with plenty left.

The part I'm most excited about, however, was the gas mileage. I averaged 23.3mpg on the trip home - that's better than my Taurus!

We'll have to see if I continue to feel this good about it as the novelty wears off, but so far, I'm impressed.

Isaac

 

New shocks will help that "floaty" feeling tremendously.. I was surprised at how much different my '79 Olds 98 Regency was after a new set...

 

My boss had an '89 Impala ex cop car. He drove it w/ original engine and tranny til 265k miles. Thats when the tranny started to go. He said the only major repair he did was a rearend replacement. After that, he got a 94 Impala.

 

i've had a 78 chevy impala (same thing as the caprice, diffent stickers) and its been a pretty good car. it has a 350 and gets 16 town/highway, 22 highway, but only averages 12 mpg on the freeway at 85. Not many people can or want to set the cruise at 85 and go. why is it those stupid ricers have to use up the WHOLE road in the mountain passes and their only going 60? for a land barge these cars handle extremely well- most of the mountian passes i can set the cruise at 80 and not have to slow down for the "45 mph" warning signs. did i mention leg room? (6'6''). dont get me wrong, i'm a diehard ford guy, but when it came time to buy a vehicle, there wasnt a ford to be had in southern alberta!

 

I had a 96 Impala SS, a Caprice in drag with better engine. There are several associations around that cater to the SS and B Body Caprice. NAISSO is one group I participated in. They have websites that are a wealth of info on care and feeding and tantrums of the B Bodies. Look them up.

These cars do get surprisingly good mileage for such a large car, and as far as the SS a performance car.

The things that gave us most problems were trannys, leaky intake manifolds(just tighten the bolts periodically), broken exhaust bolts, they just pop off, usually in the driveway. Yours does not have the performance LT1 350 so a lot of the issues on the web do not apply for you.

Overall this car was pretty reliable. A few had problems but most just drove and drove. My only major problem in 108,000 miles was the tranny blew at about 90K even with good maintnenace. The Sun shell is a known weak spot. I also had the Dexcool clogging issue, but that was for 95 and newer. I also had the falling rear window problem. Easily fixed, instructions on the web.

Your rear end is probaly not the high performance one that requires the differential gasket with oil holes, but read up on it.

I miss my SS, no plans to sell it but some bozo totalled it for me this year.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Jim, did they use the same 4l60e that found it's way into the 1/2 ton trucks? If so then that was about right for the trans failure... My dad was a shop manager for a local ag place, they had 2 chebby 1500s one was a 93, the other a 94.. Both lost the trannies at ~93k miles... In the same week..

 

"Needs shocks" was my first impression upon driving it but when I mentioned it to the owner, he said (and I believe him) that it's had shocks within the last year and that that's just how it drives. I can deal with that - once you get used to the feeling, it'll actually take curves at 25mph above the speed advisory. That's as good as the Expedition was, so I can't complain.

Isaac

 

Congrats! Chevy had it nailed with the caprice. Too bad it's gone now. The 305 in those things were a little short on power, but some nice exhaust and a cold air intake free them up quite a bit. I love the true road cars, and the caprice was about the epitome of the big body cruisers.

 

we grew up in an 83 wagon then an 89 station wagons Rule

 

From what I recall the 4L60 was indeed essentially the same as on the trucks. The Caprice was even built either adjacent or right on the truck line if I recall the history.

As I mentioned. I performed better than recommended maintenance. The book says 100K miles I did a fluid change to Valvoline syn blend at 50K and the pan was beautiful. I got to 90 and blam. The fluid looked and smelled fine before the failure. I even checked the fluid when I imagined something was funny and still no classic symptoms.

The shop told me that the 4L60 was notorious for the Sun shell failure and there are several beefed up aftermarket alternatives. The Sun shell does fine until one day it starts to wear and deposit metal shavings into the atf. This is bad. With 50K or worse 100K fluid change intervals you may never see the first signs of this problem until the tranny starts to act a bit strange.

The shop said this is why he recommends 12K fluid changes no matter what you drive. Not so much good fresh fluid etc. Rather, it is a good opportunity to inspect the contents of the pan. This is also an argument against the machine flushes, you don't get to inspect the pan. He also said this is a reason why he is against auxilliary fluid filters since they remove early evidence of impending failure.

BTW, not that many of us have this problem, but the 4L60 does not like extended high speed(120+mph) runs. Apparently the lubrication capacity is insufficient for sustained 120mph, say like the Autobahn. One member of NAISSO did have that problem and he got to rebuild several times until they figured out he needed lots more lubrication, cooling and he just had too much horsepower. Many of us got over 140mph, but I don't think many of us stayed at that for long so we didn't see the problem like that guy did.

Just my experience,

Jim Henderson

 

Anyone that can compare the Caprice with the Crown Vics? I would love to have an early 90's vic and build a sleeper Luxury and butt kickin. Who knew. haha

 

I want an 84 or 85 CV, and a blown 460...

 

The Clown Vics, as us SS'rs called them were never a match for the LT1 (350) powered Caprice or SS. This was especially true with the modular engine CVs, ie the 4.6L engine just didn't have enough torque to out haul the LT1. I think the CVs were something like a 16-17 sec quarter mile performer. Even the Marauder(CV in drag) was not up to the SS at around 15s(depending on who you read).

Both engines can be modified to put out quite respectable power. The key with the CV and Caprice was that the car was heavy so you wanted low RPM torque not necessarily high RPM horse power. This is a problem for the 4.6, it can be made to be a good HP engine but not so good low end torque.

Still, there ain't no substitute for cubes. There were some project cars with 460 engines, them's some cubes.

The CV is a good sleeper and they can be found dirt cheap. The Caprice also can be found cheap but there is more of a cult with them so I think they may be more expensive, my totalled 96 SS with 110K on the clock got me almost $14K as a settlement. new it was $25K, not bad depreciation eh.

If I was looking for a CV, I would look for a Police Interceptor, cool badge on the tail between the lights and plate, and I think it had somewhat beefier components, but not necessarily faster.

Those big fast 4 door family sedans were sure nice on long drives.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson