gprimm

In the end I would rather have an engine that was inspected piece-by-piece and hand assembled engine by an experienced factory mechanic. The factory mechanics I know take pride in doing something like as it is their work and everyone in the shop knows who did it. Worked out extremely well. Now once it is back in go show him the engine in the car!!!!!

Should cost a couple hundred to have it set up, plus the oost of the bearings. The posi unit I recommend is the Tru Trac, just don't use posi additive to it; it is like sand to it. Straight gear oil. You can buy a used Eaton GM type posi and have it rebuilt at a shop.

Is there a reason you just don't want to add a posi unit and new gears (if you want)? You can use a 66-69 Chevelle rear end and it is 1/2 inch narrower for tire clearance.

My college English professor had a triple black '72 Monte Carlo. GORGEOUS. I wish she would have sold it to me. It was great. Was in Greenville, SC.

Bruce, it was the ACCEL cap that went bad. Probably 2 hours running time. Put the MSD cap on and runs great. All my friends notice the rubber on the rear lower chrome strips behind the rear wheels. NICE.

$50 ACCEL cap was junk. Live and learn.

FIX: Distributor cap. Brand new ACCEL cap that separates the plug wires on each side for a clean look. No crossing from side to side. Also replaced the wires too. Runs like a monster. Did a burn out that wouldn't stop. Idles great and no hesitation. WHEWWWW, nice.

UPdate: it is the #3 cylinder. Took the valve cover off and all the rockers seem to be working but tomorrow night going to put on the instrument to measure lift. Ran air pressure into the cylinder and the valves hold the air, so they are good (good news on new Eddy heads). Observation: When running it will do what it does but as soon as I disconnect the plug wire on #3 it runs fine. Very interesting. Anxious to measure the lift.

Love the "stuck in my head comment". I am going to begin looking tomorrow night. The heads are brand new Edelbrock RPMs, it idles fine so I don't think the cam is messed up (has about 4,000 miles on it over the last few years). It is so weird that it runs and "bangs". Will try wires, check the plugs, compression, coil and will call my carb guy and an engine builder. Can't wait to let you know.

O, I hope not. I even add Risoline Zinc additive just for that purpose.

It was running fine as tuned for weeks. It was fine until I stopped at one light and then it started. Yes, checked the plugs and will again. I will double check the rich/lean but the exhaust smelled right. Something simple, just amazing how it was running fine and then blam, it is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!!!

Ok guys, here's a mystery. Monte has been running fine after the winter redo. On Friday night I was driving and hear what sounded like a tire pop. Sitting at a stop light, heard it again. It was me!! Idling or driving it will "pop" every once in a while and is now about every 20 seconds. As if there is fuel loading in the muffler and then igniting. Changed the distributor to a new MSD and it is still doing it, but used the (existing) new wire "correction" cap with the old coil. Will try the new MSD in-cap coil tomorrow. I am thinking maybe a plug wire is bad and not igniting all the fuel and it is causing raw fuel to eventually ignite. On the left side. Thoughts?

The vacuum advance line is hooked up to The ported vacuum on the right side of the Eddy carb. The full time is on the left side. I believe I had it on the full side but after watching the Eddy online tuning videos I put it on the ported side as they did. The distributor worker fine before. I will book it up to the full vacuum side. My son drove it to work this morning. Thanks.

Just completed a 6 month redo of my small block Monte: Eddy RPM heads, roller rockers, 2.5" Pypes exhaust, GTA steering box, 12 bolt with a 3.42 posi, 700r4, tubular rear control arms, etc. LOTS of stuff. Well, it would run fine at idle but when driving it would surge. Last night put a timing / advance light on it and it idles great at 15 degrees but when I hit the throttle it would advance alot and could not see the mark. At a car show tonight before leaving, I plugged the vacuum advance to the distributor (has lighter springs). Guess what? It runs great now. No surge and it will light the tires very nicely. I don't think I can continue running with the advance plugged, but what do I do? Put heavier springs back in?

I have had several friends put 3.73's in their cars and they have taken them out because of the RPM's at speed. 3.42's, 3.31's or even a 3.08 (with a big block), made them happy. One put a 3.08 (big block car) and added a 700R4 and is getting 20mpg. 3.73 sounds sexy, but if you drive on the highway alot with a 3-speed automatic, it isn't all it's cracked u to be.

Yup, the float.

Love it. Would love to have a convertible Monte.

Yes, indeed. These are no urban legends. There are a few others he told us about. I find it fascinating that unlike Pontiac Historical Services, Chevy said they could not do it. What I learned from Fran is that the info was indeed available, and he had it. Also, he would get the Corvette guys mad. Why? They thought their engines were built differently; nope. He would tell them the Tonawanda engines were built the same, put on crates and then shipped to the plants. St. Louis Vette plant had no special engines. Also, how you they get crazy on the "TR" marked bolts, well, he said that's nuts. They had one guy assigned at the plant to chase down needed hardware. They weren't going to shut down a production line because they ran out of 1/4 inch bolts for the valve covers so when the stock got low, they'd send the guy out and he'd have a 50 mile radius of hardware stores to go get whatever was needed. Have lots more, but enough!!!

I have come to a slightly different opinion for the 1971 production year dates. The correct answer, of course, is that the dates should be before the car's build date. Based on presentations of Fran Preve, former employee of the Tonawanda, NY engine plant, 1971 was a strange year. Based on what he said, you could have any date prior to that due to the following. In 1986 the Northern Illinois Chevelle Club hosted the National Chevelle Owners Association National Convention in Peoria, IL. Mark Meekins, President of the NCOA invited Fran to speak to us to answer questions. Fran had recently been "given the production information keys" by Chevrolet as a kind of unofficial source for production information. Fran was a long time employee and a Chevrolet racer. He patiently answered many questions, one of which was from me regarding the infamous and yet found LS-6 Monte Carlo (never made per Fran). He was even writing columns in national car magazines on the topic of engine production. In 1971 GM made the decision to reduce their number of SKU's used in the engine production to about 25% of what it was. With that edict the Tonawanda plant went into the inventory, including the repair area, and dumped all the parts into the production. One of our members then piped-up and said he had taken his original small block engine apart, 350-245hp 2-barrel and the heads were 69 production. Fran agreed that this was possible as the engine production line was using whatever was given them. I got to know Fran and over the next few NCOA Conventions we would walk around the show field and listen to people ask about production. Here are two cars that he knew were built from the production information he had, but could not advertise it due to someone trying to duplicate them: 1). 1972 El Monte. Yes, in 1992 at the NCOA Convention in Nashville, there was a 1972 El Camino with a Monte Carlo front clip. For sale for $6,000. That night about midnight we were at a table talking and the owner of the El Monte comes to chat. He said he didn't know who did the work but it was done well. Fran asks him "where did you buy it". The answer was Virginia and Fran said that the Baltimore plant had built that El Monte, but it had gotten away. He asked if the owner had taken the door panels off and if so, were there any weld seams. The answers were "yes" to the door panels and "no" to the seams. Fran then said that fits and he would ask the plant production guy from Baltimore to verify the El Monte, but that was probably the car. After telling the owner I would pay $6,000, he ran to the El Monte, took out the for sale sign and we have not seen the car again. I have pics and video of the El Monte. 2). Z-16 mysterious missing car. An NCOA member in Bloomington, IL had ordered a 1965 Z-16 396 Chevelle to replace an Impala he raced. It was delivered with all the Z-16 unique items, but when they popped the hood,it was a 327. He refused it and it was sold and he bought a 65 L-79 Nova. Then while Fran and I were walking around the showfield in Columbus, OH for the 1991 NCOA Convention, a fella from Detroit walks up and said "my shop just worked on an odd 1965 Chevelle". It was not a Z-16 but had a 396 and being the shop owner I know it wasn't swapped in. Fran's response was "what color was it and what model". Upon getting the answer he said "go find that car". He said that a GM executive had ordered the Z-16 goodies in a plain Chevelle and he got it. That combined with the Z-16 in Bloomington coming with a SBC, verified both accounts. Interestingly, about 11 years ago we found the 1965 special ordered Z-16 equipped plain Chevelle. The GM exec died and his brother in TN got it. He then pulled all the Z-16 drivetrain, sold the drivetrain and installed Buick or Pontiac drivetrain in it. We know where the original Z-16 engine is. Love stuff like this.

I just put a pair of repop hood hinges on my 71 and am very happy with them. I put white grease on them before installation. I know old original hinges to buckle a hood. Buy with confidence.

If you go to a home improvement store (Loew's, Home Deport or Menards) they have chrome spaces in various lengths and diameters. I use those for My Monte. They also sell stainless & chrome hardware (bolts, flat washers, lock washers, nuts). Awesome.

On the rebuilt items, some are fine, others not. Depends on the company rebuilding them. Being in banking, I have visited many companies over the years. Within the last few years I visited a rebuilding shop by me that does work for national companies (their products are sold at shops and Jegs and Summit Racing). Beside rebuilding they also assembled new starters and alternators. They said that NAPA would buy new units from them and package them as rebuilt so that their reject numbers were better in industry reporting. So, if you buy a "rebuilt" at NAPA, it may be brand new. By the way, the shop manager say I could bring them any alternator and they could build it to any output specs I wanted. Very interesting in a sometimes other boring or frustrating job.

Do the heads. I had the same issue 14 years ago and it was a bad valve spring.

Found it: flows top to bottom. Found it on a Nova forum.

I am nearing the end of my project and am bending new lines for the 700r4 I put in. I know the pressure line is the bottom on the trans and the return is the top. QUESTION: Does the hot trans fluid go in the top of the radiator and flow down to the bottom? I would think so.