MGD72Monte

That's a nice Monte Aaron, a beautiful road to drive to work and a great parking / office location, no wonder you enjoy going to work on Saturday!

That should help your gas mileage. Sounds like the parking brake cable just needs some adusting.

Great album, I did my 10 bolt as part of a rear end overhaul a while back so it was out of the car which made some of those steps a little easier. Good job and fast! You seem to be immune to the power of the snowball, good on you .

I think most of them were 3" except for the rad support bolts which were a bit longer but the best is to simply look at the ones you are removing to compare. Good luck

Here are my two cents, I bought those same valve covers about 15 years ago. At the time they came unpainted and had no baffles at all. I installed a baffle grommet on the pcv side which I later improved upon. For the breather side I simply have the breather grommet i.e. no baffle at all. After thousands of miles I have never had an issue with oil coming out of the breather. This makes sense when you think about it as engine vacuum sucks air out of the engine crankcase from the pcv side, this results in air being pulled in the engine on the the breather side so there is a force counteracting any oil wanting to get out on that side, plus these valve covers are taller than stock so any oil would have to be splashing very high. I suppose other engine designs could kick up more oil but the SBC does not in my experience. With no baffle in the way, oil replenishment is quick and easy, especially with a funnel. Good luck with your decision.

Even though the body mount kit number on the Summit site is correct for a Monte, I think their picture is wrong. I used that kit from OPGI and it had 16 mounts as stated above. Here is the same kit photo from the OPGI site. SB614K Note that the price on the OPGI site is much higher. If you are going to order from Summit, I would call them up and confirm this is the same kit. For Larry: With 16 body mounts you have all the mounts required, no other kit is required.

I ordered the OPGI kit some years ago, and found the bolts to be simple grade 5 bolts you can buy in a bin at a harware store. The OEM bolts were also grade 5 but they are nice tall flange head bolts for better grip and better distributing the load on the washers. The closest I found were Grade 8 flange head bolts from Ace Hardware and used those. I also found the washers to be too small on their own and added some others to compensate. I also found that the OEM torques were way too high for these aftermarket bushings. Here is what I used to overcome all of these problems linky. More on this experience linky. From what I can see, the bolts for the Ground Up kit look a lot better.

Holley Model 4160 - 600CFM vacuum secondaries

Cancer in my family as well. Tough times indeed, I wish you courage, hang in there.

Looking good, solid car to start with but clearly lots of hard work. I'm liking this colour!

I've had problems with pickle forks before when dealing with the centre link, had to pull out the big hammer and hit the taper area of the link to shock the stud out of its taper wedge.

Here is a pick of body mounts replacement one side at a time with floor jacks. and like others have said... welcome to the snowball

I also use Valvoline VR1 10W30, usually order a case through Amazon. With delivery to my door my last case of 12 Qts was $70 so $5.83/Qt. I did some research before choosing this oil and although I still have my doubts about the criticality of using this vice another type of conventional oil for a relatively mild build, the price is not that unreasonable when compared to the cheap stuff I have been using in my daily driver for years (and it also is a flat tappet engine).

Like others have said or a big flat blade screwdriver (tape the blade with duct tape to avoid scratching).

Thanks Mike, I know oil consumption is higher initially and on the first build it was about 1 QT every 100 miles then went down to what I have now (1 QT/800 miles) and after a few thousand miles on both builds, there is no furher improvement. I don't have access to my records here, what I do remember is that the block was honed with torque plates and it was decked (0.010 I believe), the rings on the first build were molly rings gapped to the recommendations that came with the KB pistons. I think we went with cast the second time to see if that would make a difference but I'll have to check. Oil rings are standard type. Complicating factor: the problem may be due to the carb running way rich until I got it on the tuning dyno only after the second build and realized I had to drop the main jets down but by then the motor had run for a few miles during break in and driving to the garage. Some have said that that was enough for the rings not to break in properly and it might burn oil for the rest of its life, not sure. I just don't feel like trying a third rebuild so thought it might be nice to have someone say that this is normal with KBs. Thanks

I saw the above in a separate thread which sparked my interest so I stole it to explore further. I put in Keith Black pistons as well and had oil consumption issues. After a couple of thousand miles I took the engine apart, thinking I had messed up. I found nothing wrong but for good measure I had a different machine shop look at the bore work and re-hone. I added a better baffle to the valve cover, changed valve guide seals from umbrella type to the stock GM seals, put new rings in, and had a tune up done on a tuning dyno. I still have the same consumption issue (approx. 1 QT/800 miles). The only time I actually see smoke seems to be after acceleration, when I take my foot off the throttle, and mostly from the pax side exhaust. I`ve thought of doing tests (leak down, pressure, etc...) but after a double rebuild I have not been overly motivated to dig into it further and it works fine other than that. Anyone else with Keith Blacks with this problem? Any other thoughts? Thanks

Okay, no comment on the hoes, to each his own but I have to ask, why do you need a block heater? Are you planning to drive 'er to work in the dead of winter?!

Nice Monte, in great shape. That's the time to restore them, way before they start rotting out. Good luck.

I'm with you on that one. I find the engine compartment look so much cleaner, easier access to the sides of the engine without all that stuff and as you mention, lighter. I weighed the items and the difference was 72 lbs less. Good on you for going through the process of making the modification stock like. Good luck with your project. Pls keep the pics coming.

Nice! thanks for saving another one.

It is under the pax side fender. Here is a picture as seen with the wheel and wheel well off. Always check the fuse first but failing that you can disconnect the power line (purple wire) and use a wire connected to the battery to see if that will wake it up. Good luck.

If you are looking to work on the tranny then remove it with the engine but if not, I would just remove the engine. Removing both makes for a much heavier load on the crane. Also you will have to separate the tranny from the engine when you get it out in order to put the engine on a stand to disassemble it, then the reverse to reinstall. In my opinion it would be easier to have the car hold the tranny for you.

If I remember correctly, a black urethane type sealant will to the trick.

Good work, it is always nice to be starting the reassembly process, bet you've been dreaming about getting her back on the road for a while.