Reaper

As long as you have common sense and pay attention to what your doing you should be OK to do it yourself... I did myself all by myself for the first time last year... I never even seen it done before and I was OK... Just make sure you have a chain around the spring and it cant go anywhere! Tom I used big block springs and I didnt use a compressor... but that might be because I used 1"lowering springs? dunno... Maybe I just got lucky....

I bought a chroms dual booster that is 7" I think with the master cylinder for about that off ebay... might be 8" but it works and looks good. The master cylinder has two screws in the top of it instead of the bar that slides over the top. If I think about it I will take a pic.... Tom

Do you guys think 1350 joints are a must? I was thinking about just going with the TCI 1310s from Summit... If I did that I wouldnt worry at all about trying to get an aluminum one... Thanks, Tom Hey Bob, how much you think they would charge?

Just curious where any of you in Ohio might have taken your driveshaft to be shortened... I was going to spend the money to get an aluminum one made with 1350 joints but its not in the budget yet so I just want to shorten mine for now... What do you think it should cost and where can I look? Thanks guys Tom

I think Im gonna fab up something at work.... It was a pain to keep the engine somewhat clean... and now that I think about it... my hood got pushed up pretty good a couple times... Tom

Wish I could help you with the tubbing info but I cant but I will say I think it will look a lot cooler if you do that than go with big rims I dont think you would have to lose your back seat unless you put a cage in the car.... but dont know for sure Tom

Oh and Nate, I will have videos this year of it goin down the track... lots of them!!

I cant wait to get back to the track this year!! or back on the road for that matter... Tranny shop has takin forever to finish my trans! Im finally going to get it tomorrow.. but then Im still waiting on my converter but atleast I cant mock it all up and measure for the drive shaft... I also still need to finish the rear suspension... I have it all torn apart... last couple days have been nice but Ive been out driving with the top down in the LeMans... Next time it gets warm the Monte gets finished!! Cold front coming and it might be in the 30's by Monday!!! man I hate the cold Tom

Bill got to see my Monte do a 17 sec run or something like that... Very first time it ever went down the track I had all kinds of carb issues.... Was embarrassing

One thing I love about my car is its completely streetable will be even more so this year with the addition of the 4L80... I drove the heck out of it last summer drove it back and forth to the track (about 50 miles each way) Runs great and its fast This year I am finally putting the upper control arms and lift bars on, bought axles, shocks and springs and Im going to a 3.73 gear. Then I have to get the drag radials After that I think Ill be atleast flirting with 11.90's I would think.... If I can drop my 60' times to the 1.6 range and rev the car to about 5800 instead of maybe 5000 it ought to be there... I hope Tom

I cant really say because it was like 10 years between driving and I went from a small block to a big block and rebuilt the whole front end and I have no front sway bar.... But I dont think it would really feel like a lighter car... but then again from what I remember driving the car before it doesnt feel like a heavy nose car with the big block in it... I recently drove a small block 71 Chevelle and I would say its about the same.... 12's are very exciting... When I ran the 12.57 it was my first time in the 12's and I was jumping up and down for about 5 minutes getting all kinds of weird looks from everyone at the track Cant wait till I get some traction! Tom

Haha Chico My Monte will go a lot faster than the 12.57... I ran that on cheapy all season radials not going over 5k RPMs... I havent gotten anyone to race me because of the way it sounds.... Not much of an exhaust.... As far as the Lexan goes, Im not real worried about the law for the back window... If I was doing the windshield also I would be a little worried about it... Hopefully I get no probs if I even end up doing it... Tom

Haha yep!!! So far even with no traction to their slicks Im faster One of em even running nitrous

Let me think what all I have done to drop weight....... Back seat gone of course, aluminum radiator, heater/air gone, controls for heat and a/c gone, bunch of extra wiring gone, fiberglass fenders, fiberglass hood, inner fenders gone, hood springs gone, heat and a/c ducts gone, radio gone, stratco buckets replaced with comfy racing seats, ground a bunch off the core support, hood latch gone, extra brackets gone, front sway bar gone, most seat belts gone.... I think thats about it.... On the list to drop weight is, fiberglass bumpers, aluminum rims, aluminum drive shaft, lexan rear window and maybe fiberglass trunk lid...

Where did you get the lexon from? Did you cut to fit or direct fit? I want to atleast swap out the back window... Those things are HEAVY.

Not tryin to put you down at all man.... but 2700 pounds is like escort weight.... maybe escort station wagon.... Im gonna try to do some of the stuff you did to get my weight down!! My friends mostly have fox body mustangs so I need to get the weight down to keep competing with them

My monte weighs 3500 pounds without me in it and about 1/2 tank of gas... and I have a big block with iron heads.... Few glass parts... with a small block you should beable to get down to about 3200.... but without making it a full out drag car without a roll cage I dont see how you could go much lower... I think the scale Nate was on is a little off... but who knows..... Tom

Ive gone over 120 and havent noticed a problem...

Get up under the dash and pull out the air ducts too They are a pain to get out and dont weigh much but its something to take out and then sell and get pretty good money for If your not gonna use the heat just put a piece of aluminum over the hole on the firewall... Thats what I did and it looks pretty good. Fiberglass fenders are good but mine took about 6-8 hours each to mount and cut and blah blah... Aluminum radiator, take all the extra crap off of the core support... get rid of all the hood latch stuff and use hood pins... I even took a cut off wheel and chopped up my core support a bit Ditch the inner fenders.... I have done a few things to put my car on a diet... dont remember what all I did but so far Im down to 3650 pounds with me and in the car and about 1/2 tank of gas... ( I weigh about 160 ) and its got a big block and at the time a Th400 (will have a 4L80 now) You can buy fiberglass bumpers and doors also if you so desire The back seat has a little weight to it... I made an aluminum radiator support bracket... prolly didnt save any weight but looks cool..

Get one like mine! They can be found a lot cheaper than the $250 or what ever I paid for it... Works great and I dont have to worry about any kind of clearance issues...

Im not saying I wont spend the money and I know it has to get spent... Just saying it sucks that everything is so much money I just turned 26 I have no kids, no wife and renting an apartment and buying a house is the last thing on my mind so I have a little money, but it sucks to spend so much at one time... I just got done paying a couple grand to get it going and now I gotta spend another couple grand again. I will gladly pay it versus not being able to drive my car and I will gladly pay more to make it faster I just gripe about it to talk I guess...

I talked to a guy last night from a company I got the converter for my 4x4 and he suggested a 10" converter... To run a turbo the converter I need is $1000.00 sucks.. So basically Im upto about 2k for the trans rebuild and then 1k for the converter. I hate spending money like this... Trans better hold up! Tom

The 110 will work you just leave power on the table... you want a cam with atleast 114... Tom

How much of a difference you think the diameter of the converter would make? Say an 11" converter or a 9" converter... I know a bigger converter keeps the heat down better but also takes away alittle more power/responce... Anyone know how much of a difference it is? Im looking at converters right now for the 4L80 and Im thinkin either an 11" or so converter with a little higher stall.. about 3300 or so... or a 9.5" converter with a little lower stall... about 2800 or so... What are your thoughts on this along with the thought on stall speed... Tom

I have built half my car off ebay! What a wonderful thing! Only have about 9-10k in the whole car... Without ebay it would still be waiting for me to get it on the road and Id have a few more grand in it