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MGD72Monte

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Posts posted by MGD72Monte

  1. None of you asked me if my e-brake was on... blush

     

    Turns out my e-brake was on a little. Very odd since I rarely use it. The release does not seem to pull it up all the way. The car moves fine now...

     

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

  2. while we are on this subject my body mount kit did not come with bolts..what is the correct length for the bolts..thank you muchly

    Bill

     

    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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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).

  7. 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

  8. I ran with Keith Black hyper pistons and didn't like them. They have rings situated higher than usual, and require big ring gaps. My machinist thought he knew better than to read the instructions, and gapped them as normal...they tore up my cylinder walls. Even after a re-hone and re-ring job, they were poor at oil control.

     

    My new engine has Mahle pistons with low friction rings, which were recommended as an upgrade by my builder. They weren't cheap, but good for 40hp with the same compression ratio. It's hard to find 40hp with any single upgrade. A bonus is better mileage and quicker reving with the low friction rings and lighter pistons. I have no complaints.

     

    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

  9. I hope I don't lose some of you with this but I'm not a huge fan of A/C cars with the large factory firewall box, hoses, compressor and condenser. So I'm going to go with the factory heat only setup. I will keep all the factory a/c stuff so it could go back on one day if someone desired. It will knock a bunch of weight off the front of the car too.

     

    The conversion will look totally factory in the end. I have the firewall section and all the needed air boxes (inside & out) from a non-air car and I will graft in the needed section. The vin stampings will be unaltered and if put back to an a/c car in the future it wouldn't be difficult and nobody would be able to tell. No harm no foul.

     

    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.

  10. 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.

     

    DSCN2860.JPG

  11. 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.

  12. Attempting a swap with a rack and pinion from another car would be a great project. As mentioned, at least one person has installed an aftermarket rack and pinion kit. Others have installed steering gearboxes from mid 80s Monte SS cars, some have installed aftermarket closer ratio gear boxes with notable improvements but I believe no one has done what you propose and I would be very interested in the outcome. The steering is one of the areas where the stock system has a lot of room for improvement.

     

    Pls keep us posted if you go forward with this and good luck.

  13. A lot of combinations will "work" but if you are running 15"x7" rims, I would recommend 235/70R15 or 275/60R15 if you want to maintain fairly stock speedometer accuracy. This is as close as you will get to the overall diameter of the stock bias ply tires the car came with unless you want to go with 215/75R15 but that is a fairly skinny tire. I have 225/70R15 and will switch to 235/70R15 when comes time to replace to get better accuracy.

     

    Good luck whatever you decide.

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