LS65Speed

Guys ....indeed I did log in several times to see what follow on posts came after the jack handle reply were put up. I am indeed a non dues paying member and have been for many years. Based on checking my profile a week or so ago during that research I think I posted maybe 130 times . For the mathematically challenged that boils down to just over 1 post a month if I indeed have been a non dues paying member for 10 years. I can't recall the "Member Since nnnn" number right now but let's just say 10 years for the h--l of it. In my opinion I offered info in at least 50% of the 130 posts I submitted. I am also of the opinion that I offered at least as much information, or more, than I obtained. Frankly I think I have more technical info to offer than the vast majority of the paying and non paying members, I do not have more info than every single member not by a long stretch, but certainly more info than most. Answers to Monte Carlo specific questions like the one I asked about the inner fenders can only be obtained here but the rest of the technical data about these cars is readily available from many sources. To the "jack handle" pic poster I suggest you buy some inner fenders and the use the lug nut end of the jack handle to pry open your butt and let out some of the s--t you are so full of. Doing some research after the jack handle I noticed that I am not the only one who has been honored with a wise [censored] arm twisting about paying dues. I felt good knowing I was not alone. You guys can call the shots at the Club and you certainly have the right to determine what is what concerning paying / non paying members, posting pictures, and number of posts per day. I never cared for the two class system, much less for the arm twisting sarcasm but it is what it is, you guys call all the shots except one. Having said all that I am outta here. Goodby.

Anyone have experience with the inner fenders offered by Parts Place? Wondering about quality, appearance and fit. Hate the idea of spending the $$$$ and then needing to modify the holes to make the inner fenders fit. Did that with the current set of Chevelle inners...once was enough. Also wondering about shipping, are the units prepared for shipment in such a way that they have a chance to arrived undamaged ?

What did ya order?

Has the block ever been flushed?

Thermostat rating 180 / 160 etc.etc etc. only determines the point at which the stat opens not necessarily the point at which the engine will run. You shouldn't assume that the t-stat rating is the temp at which the engine will run. That is not always the case. If the radiator is too small or all blocked up a 160 stat will open at 160 but the engine operating temp will go up until the cooling system reaches a stasis point at what ever temp the system is capable of maintaining. If the system can maintain 160 it will stay at 160 if it can maintain 180 it will stay at 180, if it can maintain 225 it is gonna go to 225. End of story

Hello John! Been looking at your 5 Speed plans. I kinda disappeared for a long time....three health issues but I hope they are behind me now. Tried to compose a new private message to you but the system thinks my Inbox is full and wants me to clean out the Inbox. I deleted a bunch of messages but the system is still mad to me . Give me a response to this post and maybe we can communicate outside the forum. Don't want to put e-mail addresses here in public.

I have some data, general as it may be, that outlines something that worked for me. As a kid I bought a crate L-79 and loaded it into what was once a 6 cyl 64 Impala. It got hot quick just running a few minutes in the driveway or running around the block while we checked the install over for things we might have overlooked. I knew the 6 cyl radiator was not gonna cut it but the objective was to have everything ready before I picked up a new radiator the following Monday. Went the radiator shop and asked my friend John for the largest radiator he could get me. He came up with a radiator for a 64 409 ci A/C equipped Impala station wagon. It was a copper core radiator that might even have been specified for A/C 409 and towing package. I will never know about that part of the story. Point is it ran at 180 no matter what the ambient temp was and no matter how long it was stuck in traffic. I even ran the 4 blade fan blade from the 6 cyl engine with the setup I outlined. It worked just fine cause the rad was way oversize for the engine. I am not saying this strategy contains your answer because I think you only said a "2 row aluminum radiator" is in your car. All the suggestions are valid in responses above but in my experience the solution is usually related to the heat transfer capability of the cooling system. If you engine is hot your cooling SYSTEM cannot off load sufficient quantities of heat per unit of time, at least that theory is my bottom line. You have A/C and that in and of itself effects the systems ability to off load heat load because of the condenser. Clutches and holes in t-stats and larger fans are IMHO ways to make marginal gains but only if (and I am not saying this just to be a pecker head) the radiator is up to the job. Along with some of the suggestions above I wanna add one more thing. Where is your timing? If it is retarded that alone will add to you woes. Back in the day we retarded the timing to pass required emissions inspections. Ya hadda get in, get tested and get out pronto before things overheated. You raced down the street outta sight of the test station bumped the timing back and went on your way. Hope this helps........just my $.02

Thanks for the info! Now I have to motivate this tired old body to actually undertake the job.!

Appreciate the reply. I am thinking the SBC should be a bit easier as far as the width of the SBC versus the SBC. Lifting vertically is likely the same effort more or less but there is a lot more room around the A/C evaporator housing with the SBC. Seems like daylight has trouble getting between the passenger side BBC valve cover / head and the evap housing ! LOL

Thanks for the reply Grant!!!! Does it have A/C? Stock exhaust manifolds? Stock GM BBC pan I assume?

Anyone done this? I am running a stock Corvette 65 / 74 oil pan, it has a larger rear sump area than the stock MC BBC pan but the area immediately above the frame crossmember appears close dimensionally to the stock BBC pan. I am already aware of the need to disconnect motor mounts, exhaust pipes and remove the distrib. and rotate the crank weights more concerned with if this is even possible? If you have done this, even with a stock BBC pan or and aftermarket pan, please state what pan you are talking about. Also interested in how far up the front of the motor had to be lifted. Any shared experiences appreciated

The A/C harness is a SEPARATE harness that was added to the car if the A/C option was selected by a given buyer. The harness plugs into the car harness at one male / female connection point inside the car cabin near the center of the dash. There is also a ground wire near the blower motor that has to come off also. Pulling the harness into the cabin or out to the engine bay is, I believe, gonna require removal of a couple of A/C ducts under the dash. Start by removing the plastic duct that is right above the transmission hump in the floor. Two bolts there, self tapping easy to get out. Put some lube on the bolts when you reinstall them because they can strip the plastic / fiberglass material they thread into. Next step is likely gonna be removal of the "Y" duct for the defroster. That activity requires removal of the dash pad. At this point you should be able to pull the harness in either direction, into the cabin or into the engine bay. If you decide to pull the harness into the cabin you are gonna have to remove the relay and hardware that is on the evap case.

Hmmm...... Yes I could be interested. E-mail me @ Hpexpatriot@yahoo.com. Those are powder coated...wondering if I could paint them black?

Anybody have experience lowering the rear end? Yeah I know raising the rear end is cool these days but I just don't like that look, don't like the look even a little bit. To each his own and no slam intended to those who have their cars raised in the back and who like it that way. To each his own. I want to drop the rear between an inch to 1.5 inches, maybe 2 inches. I have no idea what springs are in the rear and to make matters more complicated I just installed a 9 inch Ford rear that appears to have raised the rear a bit. I used the same springs and the same Bilstein gas shocks shocks before and after the rear swap but the car sits higher than it did with the stock GM rear. I think that the 9 inch Ford spring pads on the fabricated housing may be a bit too high on the axle tube. All that detail about the pads aside: I am very happy with the rear (it is from a respected supplier of 9 inch rears for A-Body cars) and the springs are easy to change but not expensive. Anybody had experience with coils that A: Place the rear at stock height OR B: Lower the car NOT MORE THAN 2 inches? I am really in the air about how to go about this because I am not starting at a stock height and the lowering numbers I am after are relative to the "jacked up" height I am seeing and not liking. Brand name and part number would be very helpful. Thx LS65Speed

Did the same thing back in the day! Not in a Custom however. Currently runs a 67 Vette Rect. port 3x2, Edelbrock 110 CC oval port heads and a 5 Speed Stick among other mods. Got some pics of the engine and the car? Love to see any pics you have.

Don't confuse "weather" with "climate".

Looked quickly at Summit.... prices are way above what i would consider spending. The idea sounds good but considering that expensive rear springs are maybe $200 a pair and easy to install I can't see that kind of money (air ride) going under the car. First I gotta decide what I want then figure out what rear springs will deliver that ride height.

Love the backdrop for the PICs. Perfect complement to the car color with the whitewall tires. Still tossing this around, went and looked at the Gallery section for pictures that showed ride height. I see one that is level and more or less what I have for ride height and I say "That is OK leave it alone" then I see something closer to what you have and say "Maybe I really want that ride height". Who knows where I will finally come down on this. Thank you for the response.

Mine is more or less level front to rear and it is very close to the. factory spec for ground nto lower frame rail height. I just have a burr uner my saddle about this and I keep waffling back and forth about what i might do about it, or not do about it. I don't like the rear high short deck / nose low long hood...it just doesn't work for me. Stangeba's car seems level front to rear also but it mis lower overall from what I can determine

Whoops I screwed up. I meant to be sending that to Stangeba. He is the first and only owner of his car so if he can figure out what rate spring is in there I know what spring produces the ride height he has. I you still want to take a look for me great! BTW the new shop / garage is "to kill for". What is your opinion on the ride height of my rattle trap...opinions always welcome.

It's not a terrible amount of work if ya go slow and call a "time out" when ya get tired. Once I realized that the non A/C and A/C firewalls had the same positions for the studs that hold the air handler on the passengers side of the firewall and the Evap housing on the engine side as well as the blower motor mounting portion of the evap housing I powered forward with the conversion. Below are a couple of pics that I might have posted to another thread already, maybe you saw them maybe not. First pic is the firewall with the new A/C air flow transition hole cut and the old non A/C airflow transition hole still open. Second pic is the plate (from the third Pic) in place covering the non A/C transition hole and the A/C air handler in place under the dash. On another subject...I have been messing around with the idea of lowering my car a bit and was considering contacting you to see what springs are on the back end of your car. I think the rear end of my car is too high and I am NOT a fan of that jacked up rear end look, not even a little bit. Honestly I go back and forth on the spring idea but the fact that I can't make a decision tells me I am not satisfied the way it is. Perhaps you are still running the stock springs from the factory? Any chance you know the code that is (was?) on the paper tags that is used to identify what load the factory springs are rated at?

That is a factory A/C car based on the firewall. People take them out all the time and I cannot figure a move like that out for the life of me. Look around for "take out" parts on www.chevelles.com. Guys over there are often selling complete systems that they have removed ( ???????? ). Again it beats me but to each his own. Most all parts are still available new and there are places that specialize in A/C parts for these cars. Easy research via the net can get you what you need. Also, the A-Body A/C systems are common to all 70 / 72 A-Body cars Buick / Olds / Pontiac so don't limit your search to just Chevies. Some of the softer parts like wiring (because of different control locations) may be different but the evaporator housing / evaporator and blower motors are the same.

The old saying goes "never say never" and I want to inject something different......"never say always" as far as the common occurance of this body to fame mismatching No offense intended here but my take on this mismatch is a bit different in that I think it can occur on eather side.. My 1972 was the exact opposite of the pics posted above, maybe not to the magnitude mentioned / shown in the pics above but certainly opposite as far as which wheel stuck out closer to the rear fender lip. I bought the car in 1973 after knowing the first owner. No accidents and nothing that would have bent the frame happened since it was a new car, I am absolutely sure of that. I should add that the car has likely been in a climate controlled garage storage for more than half of its life. The car has had a 67 12 bolt for years and I placed 15x8 Vette rims on the rear after learning that the 67 rears were narrower than the 68 / 71. Never knew that when I was looking for a 12 bolt to replace the original...back in the day. The fender to sidewall spacing was OK to my eye on the drivers side but I never liked the look of the passengers side spacing. Recently I installed a 9 inch QP rear with 1967 overall width dimensions. The tire spacing was the same as it was with the 12 inch GM 67 Chevelle rear so I know QP got all of it it right. I was not up for the "fun" of moving the body so I had a 15x8 rally rim modified by Stockton Wheel to reduce the backspace (pushing the tire sidewall out) by slightly more than 1/2 inch

Ok on the coffee when you get back to "The Atl". Have fun in Fla, enjoy Thanksgiving. Will get in touch as we get near Christmas. Looks very nice, greatworkmanship. I am looking at all the room you have around that engine! Wish I had some of that but the BBC and A/C sure eat up a lot of space when it comes time to do some work under the hood. In the summer I am so glad I converted it to factory A/C but things get a little close with all that A/C equipment.

My issue was pasting the link to FGMCC. For some reason after I pulled up the PDF then highlighted the URL in the browser window I could not "paste" it to the response area on this thread. Didn't just wanna fool with it so I just gave you guys the text for the inquiry. Patience is another thing that fades along with stamina as we get older. Some who have known me for years and years would say I was never patient and that might be so but one thing is sure I am not getting more patient as the days pass! LOL