NWmonte71

Haha!

I have been wondering if anyone is interested in doing a Monte Convoy when traveling north to the US/Canadian border? We are taking 97 north once across the mountains. Even if its 2 or 3 cars, it would still be neat to drive up together. This will be the longest distance trip we have taken in our 71.

Bump................

Wow! What a great weekend! We made it home safely from the western meet. Me and my wife had a great time attending, (even though our 71 wasn't present). Meeting Aaron and all of the other great club members in person was awesome! You guys are real passionate about these cars and have a real knowledge base on them. Everyone was very friendly and quick to answer questions about car "tech" and location/club activities. We are definitely looking forward to attending next years meet! Thank you everyone.

Looking forward to the meet for sure! It's a bummer that my 71 will stay home, but I have a plan to get it back on track. It will be exciting to see so many 1st gens all in one place. See you guys down there Friday (mid-day).

I decided to check over at Chevelles.com forum for some Holley Sniper info...................lots of good information on this thread:

Canuck, I sent you a Facebook PM earlier explaining my current situation. Me and my wife will still make the drive down, just not in our 71. Too many mechanical events have happened within the last 2 weeks for us to feel comfortable making the long haul. The car left me dead tonight at an intersection leaving a local cruise-in. I had to be pushed off the road to safety. I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but it's not enough time to "proof" it out before the weekend. I'm terribly bummed about it, but at least the car did not get hit by a car tonight when it died or caught on fire. In the meantime I don't want to miss out on the fun (meeting club members and checking out cool cars). Perhaps a member can give me and my wife a ride in a 1st gen around the block to make our visit to the Dalles official, haha.

I am curious if anyone is running a Holley Sniper EFI setup on their Monte. I am very interested in putting one on my 71. Looking for "real-world" feedback.

Tonight I went out and started the car and warmed the engine up to full operating temperature. The engine seemed to idle smooth in both Drive and Park. I then decided to block off the vacuum line to the booster and check for any differences in how it runs. After blocking off the vacuum line, the engine rpm stayed the same for Drive and Park, just like before the line was capped off. Welp, that busted the theory of a bad brake booster. Also at no time was the pedal hard (no powered feeling). Everything seemed to be working/running correctly. The only thing that happened was the car sitting overnight from the time it ran poorly to this evening of starting it up. One side note was that the fuel tank level was below 1/4 tank when the car started acting up real bad. I guess it could be possible that running the gas tank down that low caused me to start picking up condensation (water at the bottom of the tank) and small pieces of settled crud into the carburetor? I did fill up the tank to approximately 1/2 tank and let it sit over night. Perhaps the tiny pieces of crud settled back down to the bottom of the tank, along with any water? I'm trying hard to justify why one day is ran horrible and now it runs perfect. Any thoughts or theories?

Hey everyone! My 71 monte carlo has been my daily driver to work for the last 3 days. Previously it has been sitting in the garage all weekend. The first day of driving is ran great with no issues, on day 2 the engine's idle started becoming erractic and dropped rpms. Day 3 (Today) the car's idle is so low, it barely runs and lopes bad. You can bring the rpms up and it runs silky smooth. I also noticed over the last 2 days that the brakes would occasionally be harder to push when slowly idling around on streets. Finally, today I drove the car around in my driveway and the pedal has turned completely hard and no longer has a "powered" feel to it. I also noticed the last 3 days that a strange vibrating/humming noise is intermittently coming from within the engine compartment. What I would like to know is if the failing power brake booster is causing the erratic super low idle and hard brake pedal feel? The booster visually looks old and crusty. The main vacuum hose from the booster to the engine is brand new and not leaking. One thing I tried was to press the brake pedal with the engine off and then started it, the brake pedal only moved maybe an inch once the engine started. Didn't matter, running or not the brake pedal feel was rock hard (non-powered feeling). What do you guys think? Does all arrows point to the booster with the bad idle & sudden hard brake pedal?

I ended up ordering the ECP radiator. My plan is to keep the stock one as a spare. I'll have to contact my local shop and see what kind of money it will take to thoroughly clean it. In the meantime, this will get me back on the road and improve the cooling.

Thank you for the photos! This definitely helps me determine what is the most common style of light the Monte Carlos are using. I am still looking around for an original one to add onto my 71.

The ECP radiators sounded very familiar to me............ turns out that I put one of their aluminum radiators in my 1957 Chevy pickup 8 years ago. No issues and I have put a lot of road trips in with that vehicle in hot weather.

RealRed70, Thanks so much for looking! I appreciate it very much. Let me know what you end up finding. Thanks.

Thanks for all the replies. I was also wondering if the radiators are different among AC & Non-AC cars?

Yes, I am looking to buy one. I would honestly like to buy an original "used" one that is in good shape with all wiring intact.

Thanks for the replies! I found a few original units on Ebay that appear to be the correct one. The real funny thing is that OPG (Original Parts Group) shows a trunk light kit in their Monte Carlo catalog for the 1st gens. It looks nothing like what everyone has been showing me on their cars. Goofy.

Alright folks, I had to recently drain my radiator for some work I was doing. Once the radiator was drained down, I noticed the cooling tube ends inside were coated with deposits........(not good for cooling). At this point I am seriously thinking about replacing the radiator with a new aluminum unit. I am not concerned with original authenticity, but rather something that fits good, dissipates the heat efficiently, and works with the stock automatic transmission cooler lines. I have heard of several people buying the Champion Radiators and liking them, but also complaining the welds look horrible and quality is questionable. My small block 350 is stock and so is my air conditioning system, so I just need something that works. I like the idea of aluminum because it's lighter and transfers heat better than the old copper/brass stuff. Besides the transmission lines, is there anything else I have to remove/detach in order to pull the radiator? I really do not want to disturb the AC system.

I checked the square cutout on the underside of the trunk deck lid, no light housing is there or wiring. I did see a single drilled hole, I assume it is pre-drilled for mounting the light. As far as I can tell the Chevelles and Montes share the same trunk deck lid, therefore a "chevelle" trunk light kit would work? I'm going to check Ebay and see what I can come up with.

Wow! I had no idea the trunk light was located on the trunk lid deck itself. So......... is my mystery "orange wire with connector" specifically for the optional trunk light? Even if my car did not have one to begin with, I would like to install one. This whole time I assumed the light itself was located inside the trunk under the package tray deck or something.

I have a really nice colored wiring diagram that shows my monte carlo is "possibly" equipped with a trunk light. I opened my trunk up and looked inside and traced out all of the wiring. No light bulb or light housing exists that I can see. I did find an orange wire leading to a female connector. The connector is currently connected to nothing. I hooked up a test light to it and it illuminated, so it has 12v at all times. Perhaps this used to plug into the trunk light circuit? I have no idea if all monte carlos came standard with trunk lights or if it was an option? Does anyone have a factory installed one I can see for reference? If my car is supposed to have one, where can I buy one? Thank!

Just to better explain what is going on with my printed circuit board...................

The new gauges and tach are all Shiftworks products. I bought the gauges directly from Shiftworks. All of the gauges take the place of the red "idiot" lights, the wiring is still present for the red lights, but it will no longer be functional due to analog gauges being replaced in those locations.

I followed your link to buy this one on Ebay. Thanks everyone else for suggestions/feedback, I appreciate it. I'll update with how it goes once I install the new printed circuit board.