Blake350

key is to work slowly and carefully..yes , getting under the dash may prove a bit challenging for those of us "of a certain age"--- this writer included...did mine in 2011 and wasn' t totally horrible, but am not lining up to do it again!! you may want to search previous threads as well...i always find tips and hints no matter what the task at hand!!

that is SHARP!!

Thats exactly it these engines love to run and work...like keeping a fast horse in the stable all day and nite...not fun for anyone she looks clean and solid...enjoy!!

Paul thats right.. you don't see first gens that often and its great when someone at a cruise- in had one way back when,or my "dad,uncle,brother,you name it" -had one...universally they remember a great riding car that took them EVERYWHERE! just adds to the fun of owning any classic car,or the Monte in particular,of course!!

as stated,starting at around 12 degrees advance sounds good - watch for pinging or run ,on make sure your not running too lean then if you have an adjustable advance you can play around with that as well..not surprised and tend to agree the 6 to 8 factory stuff was too conservative...

Good to hear Rob! yes the worst part is the mind racing before you go in-the BEST part is it being over with a good result...now concentrate on recovery!!

Hi Steve and Rob!! im right there with you! just had hernia surgery last friday...all went well im sure you will do well also...whats going on here...are us fgmcc'ers getting old?? nah, lets just tune ourselves up then we can tune our montes up, put this all behind us and have a great time in Carlisle!!! and Canuck please try to come out again...last year we all had a blast Brian

i remember as a kid the standard speedo peaked out at 120....then yes as you said they lowered them to 85...it was a challenge to we 'juvenile delinquents" of the day to get them to pin and bounce off the top end...now 140 and 160 seem to be prevalent..wishful thinking for we Americans to fantasize we're on the Autobon? ah, the posssibilities are endless!!

The monte Carlo is one fantastic car...? bout time the rest of the world is catching on to what we've known forever..and yes, those body lines look equally well as a convertible!! too bad GM never got to pull that off...that article and comments are great-thanks for sharing!!

i too have hedmann with 2.5 flowmasters- nice combo and sound for a mild 350... can get the stock number later ......yes, one plug comes out with a box wrench -couldn't remember ,but yes its good 'ole #6-but really no problem at all !! They are the coated headers and have been in for 13 years and are in perfect shape.

At long last that is very good news for sure!! finally someone is thinking of us...now if they can just convince them to try fenders...yea right!!

Two quick questions...need to replace the turn signal indicator bulbs on dash- thought I had lost right side blinker but it was only the indicator out...what is easiest way to get at them?? is it with dashpad removed? Also since day one ,turn signals have flashed very slow--an upgrade to flasher maybe?it is all original '72 flasher and incandescent bulbs thanks! Brian

I have the same issue- visible pulsation of brightness on all lites when running-..and still have the old black box delco regulator up on left front..short of changing to internal alt/reg,-the original alt was just rebuilt-maybe switch to an electronic version of the external regulator?? i thought I remembered some of the members doing this? Brian

the numbers on the guage absolutely do not reflect a linear movement-as was shown the first half of the guage spans 110 deg with the 2nd half only 40!! yikes! another old school GM engineering mystery... if you had a real desire to know(And given your fellow members never ending desire for information,yours truly included, we would welcome the exercise) you could sink the sender in several vessels of known temperature and measure the sender resistance-a plot of resistance vs temperature might be very revealing-easier would be to just get a fully warmed up coolant reading with a lab grade thermometer and note the guage position-this would be the "relative normal" and would allow to see if you were running hotter or cooler than "normal"-I dont know if my cheap aftermarket guage is accurate just know were it should be and is 95% of the time-relatively speaking--this is interesting and forgive me if I,m rambling-just thinking out loud... As far as running cooler,I recently replaced an old stock style water pump with what looks like the same-I dont think the new one has a higher flow rate but not sure-also changed the 10 year old 195 stat with a 180 stat and drilled the small hole in it-maybe the stat was the trick,cause now the guage reads cooler under low load and does not rise anywhere near as much as it used to under heavy load...a step in the right direction to be sure!! Brian

oh forgot to mention ,mike take a look at the 'resources' area on the home page..there is a ton of great info on there...no matter how many times I visit it,it doesn't get old...good stuff!!

Aaron good point...I didn't think in that direction...as material science wasn't nearly what it is now-sometimes because of the timeless value and enjoyment these cars provide, one might forget we are dealing with half-century old technology in most areas of these machines-maybe a binder or stabilizer has left the stage,and the materials are breaking down to there base...not to dwell on it,but I'm still imagining how annoying that would be-like someone smeared honey on it...oh boy!!! Brian

Yes my small block custom also has the NK2...it is comfortable enough and just fine for me..but being the only first gen i've owned my sample size is non existent...however on that chronically sticky wheel issue-that would drive me absolutely nuts!! it would have to be rectified and quickly..maybe someone used a very harsh solvent on it softening the material and permanently altering the surface..uugh!

Haha Steve yes thats a good point..don't we save nearly everything? in fact isn't that what empty coffee cans were invented for? an endless collection of nuts bolts washers clips shims and who knows what...but every once in a while you turn that thing upside down and presto!! you DO find just what you need!! Another ?...the new pump came with a spacer just under a quarter inch thick, as well as the half inch thick one that was behind the bracket...since it had been several weeks apart I forgot where the thin one was originally?? it was somewhere, since now I have an extra one of those as well...otherwise no extra do- dads for the coffee can!!

wow so this issue does come up now and then...I used washers to make up the slightly smaller space and it all worked out fine...I noticed the alt bracket has a slotted hole at the water outlet mount, but even fully forward there was no way the original spacer would fit...only thing changed was the pump... I know some of you guys who build engines all the time may be saying this guy needs to "put the ratchet down and step back slowly" ...but no, its not that bad...this was really strange...on a related issue: I pulled the 12 year old 195 stat,went with a 180 stat with that air bleed hole drilled into it-running bout 55%water 45% prestone and thru in a pint of this "water wetter" stuff--and lo and behold I used to be at 205 to 210 on a summer afternoon-now she sits just under 190 no matter what...better than expected!! Brian

I recently installed a stock style cast iron water pump-the pump and power steering bolted up fine...but when trying to re-install the alternator bracket,there isn't enough space between the back of the bracket and the threaded boss on the pump .The spacer supplied with the pump is the same thickness as the old one-bout half an inch-but we miss by almost an 8th of an inch. Of course the space can be made up with washers,etc. but this seems strange-almost as if the front of the boss to the mounting surface at the block is larger by the 8th inch-seems a bit much tolerance even for a casting...anyone have this happen? any thoughts? thanks guys!! Brian

It certainly was stripped down to almost nothing... to see front fenders go in there,among other things, woulda been a bit painful..altho the roof skin from our viewing angle looked pretty good yet. And it was kinda cool seeing how she kept bumping the right side of the crusher like "no no i'm not going and you can't make me!" So thats how they get them so flat and fitting together so nicely...I've seen flat beds full of 'em going down the road many times..now the secret is out...

Holy cow Rob has it been that long!!?? yea you sure had us worried...so glad you are still hangin with us...this past eastern meet...just like "old times"...now just don't put us thru that again...(not to mention putting yourself thru it...) Brian

those and some other shots are posted from time to time...always enjoyable and bring a smile to my face...there was one post a while back that showed all the GM plants, the histories behind them and what became of them...also very interesting!!!

oh one last thing... Willie and CK as I've gotten to hang with you both on meets past...you were missed..surely catch you down the road...we all had a LOT of fun!! Brian

thats rite Vinnie but normally the car cleans up better than I do...but then again I generally spend many more hours grooming her than i spend on "the old man in the mirror"...its usually dark during most of the bench racing, so it turns out ok!!!