wallaby

I think everyone goes through this stuff when they bring home a new car that's....old. My problem is I figure if that stock original part only lasted for 40+ years, there must be a better part to replace it with. LOL Some of the new technology is nice to have, but don't forget that the old analog stuff is tried and true. Do a double check to make sure your battery ground cable is firmly connected to a good clean spot on your engine. I was spending a lot of money on parts and had to use jumper cables to get any results, and once started I was afraid to turn it off. I did my diagnosis in the wrong order. New battery cables were the last item on my "replace" list, and when I was taking off the old ground cable I found that the hold-down bolt has backed way off and was hardly holding up that end of the cable. D'oh! Well, It's good to know I have a new starter, battery, and cables.... and I know my car is faster now with all the weight reduction I did to my wallet. Also, do you have some fresh gas in that thing? I know my lawn mower hates old fuel, same thing with cars. As for that funky clip, I've seen them plenty of times but don't recall a Q-jet using one. It is a part that usually comes with a rebuild kit, and might be a cheap replacement for a tiny hairpin (Jesus) clip. It fits over a groove in a shaft and gets squeezed with pliers so it can't fall off. You guys with mechanical choke coils might have seen it under the choke coil cover? All my stuff is electric choke. Geez... I can remember trying to manipulate that tiny hairpin clip somewhere..

For the most part, the float should be sitting level. There are different specs, but they are like 1/32" different from each other... with your eyeball the float should be level and no more when the needle closes. I would bet that it's just stuck. If the "friendly" tapping on the carb doesn't loosen it, it's time to take the top off the carb. The good news is that no fuel is going to dump out when you lift the top off. The bad news is that the top is kinda tricky to remove because of the accelerator pump linkage; you have to drive out the pivot pin just enough to release the arm... and then when you lift up the top, there are a bunch of metering rods dangling underneath. Pay attention which holes in the gasket those rods are lifting out of. There are a couple of hidden screws that hold down the top under the choke flapper if I remember correct. A magnetic screwdriver is great for this job, but the screws cant go far as they are pretty large and won't fall past the carb venturi and into the engine or anything. .

Yep. 2 bolt mains and a cast crank are good up to the 500hp range.

I agree with the above. The problem is GETTING that compression. The good-breathing heads are open chamber and finding a piston to fill it is a challenge. It seems they have lots of choices for 8:1 compression, and then it jumps to 12:1. Planning an engine build can be an exhausting process. You find the perfect part you need, and then you have to change a bunch of stuff to make it work.... But it doesn't have to be that hard. Save your money for the parts that make the most improvement. The cheapest way to get more horsepower is to put in a larger engine. That being said, the big improvements will come with a fresh set of stock oval port heads, and a cam. Don't forget to get the matching lifters and springs. If you're in there, figure on replacing the timing chain as well. A professionally recurved distributor makes a "seat of the pants" difference. Everything else for me was money spent, but little difference felt. Intake, carb, headers, all add little and can be added later if you want. I ran a stock 396 with nothing but a cam upgrade, and it was amazing. Very powerful, reliable, and cheap. That engine still had the iron intake, exhaust, and Q-jet carb and was good for low 13's.

The factory heads on mine had induction-hardened valve seats for use with unleaded fuels. My machine shop said I would loose the hardened seats if I wanted to install a larger valve. I could have hardened seat inserts put in, but it's pricey... it was cheaper to buy a new set of Merlins that were already set up. For me, the major problem with the Merlins was the raised exhaust ports. It's a big selling feature and improves flow, but it causes very tight clearance for the spark plugs. I had big issue with the stock cast-iron exhaust manifolds, as there was no air gap between spark plug boots and the manifold. Even the skinniest boot would press against the manifold. The boots would burn through in no time. I ended up going to a header, but those are bent for un-raised ports also, and came with a new set of issues.

The pertronix kit seems to be most popular, but it gets mixed reviews on Summit racing website. I have heard it burns up if the key is on with the engine not running. American Autowire has a kit without this problem, but it costs more than the Pertronix. There used to be many options for this conversion, but they have all become obsolete. I guess the world is just buying ready-made electronic distributors or using HEI.

Have to chime in here. I have an engine built by Vortecpro. (Mark Jones). I was surprised to find peanut port heads on this engine. On top, he has an Edelbrock RPM intake. It's interesting to see the tiny ports in the head, and the large runner size of the intake. It has an abrupt change there...It's like the air going down the intake, then meeting with a wall that has a window in it. It just seems to go against the smooth sides theory of keeping airflow undisturbed. The good news is that it seems to work ok. I asked him to build me a strong street motor, and this is the combo he sent. He sent a dyno sheet with good numbers (502 hp, 600 tq) but this is not an engine that is good at the dragstrip. It feels very powerful on the street, with instant throttle response and very good driving manners. Sadly, all the excitement fades away as the engine revs above 4500 or so. (my dyno results showed peak numbers happening at about 4500). And to say Vortecpro doesn't keep any secrets? well, I can't agree with that. Getting any details on what my motor had inside was like pulling teeth. I didn't even know it had peanut port heads until I had to replace an intake gasket. The end result? This engine feels very strong in daily driving situations. It has no trouble spinning the tires, and drives well at freeway speeds. It makes the Monte feel like it has shed a lot of weight. I was happy with the engine until I tried it at the track, and was surprised that it was slower than the old engine that it replaced. (the old engine had cast iron Merlin heads, and higher compression). This engine would be ideal in a boat, but can't pull strongly all the way down a dragstrip. Merlin heads have their own quirks, so those are still on my shelf waiting for "someday".

I replaced mine a while back. I must have been the exception, as mine leaked from the O-ring that seals the pump to the reservoir surrounding it. Turns out that somewhere in the past someone had tightened the drive belt by levering the pump with a tie iron or something and had disfigured the reservoir enough that the O-ring didn't seal fully. I ended up having to get a new reservoir. Rebuilt pumps are available alone or with reservoirs...might be worth the piece of mind to get the full assembly.

I didn't build my engine this time around and it's so much more rewarding to do it yourself. I had Mark Jones build mine and it makes 600 lbft with 8:1 compression at about 2600 rpm and above. Horsepower is something around 520. Mark doesn't give away his recipe, but I know it is running the smallest Isky roller cam and heavily ported peanut-port heads. I also went with a Mahle piston; an upgrade he said was worth 40 hp. It's hard to get 40 hp from any one upgrade...but the poor thing is all done at 5000 rpm. It feels really strong on the street, but is a poor dragstrip performer. Your build sounds like it should reach your goals easily.

You would be much happier with a distributor that has a vacuum advance. The vacuum can adjusts your timing depending on the load the engine is seeing. Right now, without the vacuum can, your distributor only adjusts the timing dependent on the engine speed. With a mechanical advance it should be "all in" or fully advanced by 2500-3000 rpm. For timing, it adjusts just like any other distributor; check the timing at idle then bring up the engine speed to 3000 and check for the total advance. The mechanical advance distributor is really a race item, and doesn't work well on the street. With mechanical advance on a race car the main concern is idle and full throttle. There really isn't any need for anything in between. A street car spends most of its time in that in-between range, where the vacuum advance can bring in more timing at cruise and part throttle than the mechanical-only dist can. It makes for a cooler running engine and better mileage, and generally makes the engine much happier, and throttle response is much better. The vacuum advance can also back off the timing as engine load increases preventing pinging or detonation. Imagine you have a cruise control and it's set at 60mph. Everything is working fine, and you start to climb a hill. With a vacuum advance, the vacuum will start to dial back the timing as the engine load increases. The mechanical advance doesn't do anything because the engine is still going 60mph and it doesn't even know you are trying to go up a hill. We all know that to keep a steady speed when you encounter a hill it requires more throttle... and that tells the carburetor to put out a richer fuel mixture. The vacuum distributor is on top of all these changes and adjusts accordingly, while the mechanical distributor does nothing because the speed in our example has remained constant. Because of the non-response from the mechanical distributor, it often takes even more throttle to overcome the sluggish performance to get over the hill. Set your timing and it will be as good as it gets, but think about changing to a distributor that has vacuum advance.

I also have fond memories of how things were in high school. I had a Monte back then and it was somehow affordable. Things are different now... it seems to cost a fortune to do anything, and perhaps my standards have risen as well. My advice is to hold out for the one YOU want, and get one as nice as you can afford. These cars aren't new anymore, the newest 1st gen is going to be 45 years old. Trust me, there will still be opportunity for "hands on" type of repair and maintenance, but try to steer clear of major repairs. I started with a very clean rust-free example, and sunk 10k on paint, then 10k on an engine right away. Never mind the interior, suspension, transmission, rear end, etc. My advice is to NOT add up your receipts, and love the car enough to not worry about it's resale value. For me, the fun is in the journey. I enjoy the wrenching and take pride in knowing I did it myself. If you want a car for the fun of driving it, start with a car that does that well to begin with.

Get it all clean and then check where it's leaking. Brakleen works well for that. Leaks can be hard to find; they leak up high, but drip from down low. For clean oil, or transmission leaks I use baby powder... get it clean and dry then dust the area with the powder and the source shows up quickly. Old dirty black oil is easier to see and the powder probably isn't needed. Those "speedy sleeves" are wonderful. If your harmonic balancer has a groove worn in it the sleeve will fix it, and it will last longer than the original balancer did. The balancer is cast iron, the sleeve is stainless steel. It's a permanent repair. I had an old Dodge military truck and it had a driveshaft between the transmission and the transfer case. Every driveline exit; the rear ends, transfer case, transmission...leaked. Those darn sleeves fixed the whole thing. It was impossible to get new yokes for that truck. Thank you speedy sleeve.

Wow. Lots of opinions here, and different results. I did everything all at once and it was a tremendous difference. I did the body mounts, suspension bushings, and springs. I chose polygraphite bushings for the front suspension and body mounts, and stock rubber for the rear suspension. I used the 1" drop Hotchkis springs all around. I have had no issue with anything except I felt the rear sat a little low to my liking. The cheap helper bags inside the rear springs solved that. The important thing to remember with poly bushings is that they rotate around the bushing center tube. That center tube gets clamped in place when you tighten everything down, so it is motionless. The key to this knowledge is that the lubricant is put between the center tube and the poly bushing; not between the center tube and the thru-bolt. Drag racing is different: for drags, the thru-bolts are left loose and everything pivots on the thru-bolts. So for good measure, apply lubricant to both the inside and outside of the center tube before assembly. The end result for me was like getting out of a Monte Carlo and stepping into a Formula Firebird. Much, much better connected to the road, but not harsh. New rubber bushings will give a good result, but poly might be better up front if you are willing to take the risk....there is hope. My old bushings were toast; everything was oil-soaked and had turned to goo. I know with poly that won't happen again.

First it's important to establish: was everything fine BEFORE you changed the covers? Chances are good if you don't have performance mods like a rough idle cam, you have the stock stamped steel rocker arms. Aftermarket rocker arms are pricey and don't offer performance gains really, so money is better spent elsewhere as someone starts beefing up a motor. It's easy enough to pull off the valve cover and look at the underside for signs of contact.

Yep, Monte was standard front disc brake. Most have the round bushings. There are some that had an oval bushing on the rear leg of the lower control arm (I think). Give some thought to replacing the springs while you are in there, you're going to have them out anyway. I went with a hotchkis spring and was very happy with the result. Doing the bushings is a rite-of-passage kind of job. Very dirty and exasperating at times. I hope you have the engine in the car, it's almost impossible to do without the weight up front.

There is a buss bar on the original regulator where voltage is sensed. The alternator gets its charging signal from this spot. The battery is also hooked here by a wire that crosses over the radiator. Any accessories should be hooked to this buss bar. If any voltage draw occurs, the buss bar will see it and tell the alternator to put out more. Check the connections there. There was also a 10ga wire that connected the negative battery post to the fender. Grounds are funny... you need to connect things that are isolated by rubber mounts. The engine to frame, body to frame, even engine to body, and of course engine to battery. I have seen headlight dimmer switches go bad. Lets face it, they are in a bad spot for road water and stuff to get kicked up on them by the front tire. No real solutions here, just things to check.

This is a tough one. As I picture the event, it's like you are just fine cruising the highway, but when you exit it gives trouble at the next stoplight? Does the problem show up at every stoplight thereafter? Is it going to die every time, or is there some driver input that will keep it going? Does it idle ok at the stoplight, but only gives issue when the light turn green? My first reaction would be to check the internal fuel filter of the carb. They are kind of a pain to get to, so they tend to go un-serviced. Try a full throttle run from a slow speed up till she shifts into third. If it handles that without issue, you can figure the filter is ok.

My vote goes for a timing issue. 10 degrees won't work with my motor, mine likes 12-14. Also make sure your choke is opening all the way when warm.

Well, there were a bunch of Montes it was like 9? 12?. There were more on Saturday than Sunday. It was a good show. There were something like 700 cars there. It was perfect weather for a show and we had plenty of shade. It was nice to see old friends again.

Yep, that 3-day weekend fell in just the right spot. I pretty much spent the entire time bonding with my machine. It has been a long time since I've done that. I hope everything is in working order. I will probably spend some time at the show cleaning some of the last bits, like the engine. lol Everything at my house has gone wrong. I have 4 different crews set to converge on my house Tuesday morning. It sure is going to feel good getting away for the weekend. I am planning to arrive at the club motel Friday morning before the foothill cruise. I'm going to try to be there around 8:30 or 9:00. Vroom vroom. If you see me drive past the motel, just yell "WALLLLABY!"

The secondary plates at the bottom of the carb pretty much snap open, but the plates at the top (secondary air valves) rotate more slowly based on engine demand. Normal adjustment of the spring tension keeps them from opening when the car is stationary... so you won't see them working when you goose the throttle in neutral. You need a substantial load on the engine and a drop in engine vacuum to trigger them to open, and you can get that from a test drive.

Here is some nice info on the system. Mad electrical has a lot of technical pages for reading. http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/chevymain1.shtml

Maybe I can win the procrastination award this year. If not, I can wait till next time. LOL I booked today at the Holiday Inn Express. No issue, they still had rooms. (whew) I plan to drive up Friday morning. Do you have an idea when the club will set out on the Friday cruise? Just trying to figure how early I need to get up there.

I ran electric fans for a long time, and without any engine driven fan. I had issues from day one. It couldn't maintain the temps in traffic. If the car didn't have enough forward speed the temp would slowly rise and get to the scary region of the temp scale. It was impossible to keep a good idle mixture or timing adjustment, as the engine liked one setting at 180 and something different at 210+. I knew that whenever I would exit the freeway I was in for an experience. But I was stubborn; I tried different electric fans. I tried custom shrouds. I tried large fans and multiple small fan setups. I tried different fan switching schemes, electrics, wiring, high output alternators, etc. Nothing worked well for me... I spent most of my driving trips constantly eyeing that temp gauge and worrying. It never boiled over on me, but it ran crappy as it got hotter and frankly, I got tired of the issue. I just wanted to go back to watching the fuel gauge instead. LOL I converted back to the original heavy steel fan and thermal clutch setup. They say it uses a lot of horsepower to drive it, but I couldn't feel any difference in power or gas savings. It was obvious that the engine-driven fan moved mountains of air... much more than I ever got from electrics, and now my temps are stable again. It's ugly, noisy, and not even a little bit custom, but it WORKS. I don't like solid-mounted fans or flex fans. The stock setup works best at slow speeds then lightens up as speed increases... it's a good design and a properly working heavy duty thermal clutch is key. That's my rant about electric fans. Using one in addition to the stock setup might help, but I often wondered if it might actually impede the flow of air the engine fan is trying to move.

Ok. Starting at the beginning, you said it ran sluggish and backfired. Did it backfire through the carb? The pressure from a backfire can blow out gaskets or push off hoses and cause a vacuum leak. I still believe the engine is running lean and a vacuum leak could sure cause that. Now looking at your pictures, it sure looks like you are missing one of the hold-down bolts on the base of the carb. Maybe it's just the photo but it looks like the carb is held to the intake with just 3 bolts and is missing the one in the right rear... in the back near your yellow vacuum plug. You need all 4 hold-down bolts to keep the carb sealed against the engine. If that one bolt is indeed missing, your backfire probably blew out the gasket seal in that corner and now you have a sizeable vacuum leak. Maybe putting in a new base gasket and a bolt will fix your problem. I'm lazy, so I'd put in the bolt and tighten it down first and maybe your old gasket will continue to work.