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New Guy Here


jft69z

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Got home from the sequestration at work last week, gained 7 pounds from all the food we ate, not much else to do but work & eat.

Started to get a few more things put together. Some A/C parts, and the main thing I kept putting off was running trans cooler lines, plus a trans cooler. Had to make the lines due to the odd routing with the 4L85, plus they use 3/8" lines anyways. Still waiting on a fitting for the cooler, but most of it's where it needs to be, plus some Hi-temp sleeve ordered for the area near the headers. Spent entirely too much time making 4 little brackets for the cooler, just have to pop it back off and paint the bolts black.

The 3rd replacement gas tank came from Aeromotive last week finally, that one looks good, no dents or rattles. Hope to get that mounted this week maybe, but a million other things. Off for another week and a half now (vacation) so hope to get a lot more done. Enjoy the holiday if you can & stay safe.

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It's looking good Joe.  I love the custom lines and component work you are doing.

Keep the pictures coming.

rob

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Drilled holes in the $1400 ARH headers today... The girlfriend cringed more than I did :grin:.

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15 minutes ago, cascaranorick@yahoo.com said:

This site is not a secure site, be careful

??

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  • 3 weeks later...

Busy as usual, managed to get a few things done though. Wanted to get the backdrive linkage working to lock the shifter when the car is off. Not an easy task with the different transmission due to the location of the shift shaft between the T-400 & 4L85. Managed to make something from the existing linkage by straightening up the hook end, adding a crank lever, & installing a 7/16" I.D. oilite bushing in an adapter plate I made out of aluminum for it to rotate. A couple of heim joints I had 'in stock' (as Tom would say), and threaded a piece of rod to join them. Seems to work fine for the intended purpose.

Original backdrive rod:

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Parts to make it work:

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Received the front speakers the other day from RetroSound (via Amazon). Pretty tight fit on the driver side, even with the smaller neodymium magnet, but made it work with the Dakota dash. Sanded the oil pressure back housing a little, but no big deal. Won't know if it affects the oil pressure gauge when in use until I power it up.  I think some people mentioned it would affect the factory one in that spot because of the magnets?

Going to pop the rear speakers & head unit in soon and power it up to see how they sound. Probably like crap with no windows, interior, etc, but at least it'll give an idea if the little speakers are at least an acceptable sound quality.

I may make a small brace to attach the back corners to the dash , but used pretty decent sheet metal to make the brackets in the first place.

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LOL, I won't be able to do the open header test because of the o2 sensors so close to the open collector. Good & bad I guess :grin:

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Hey Joe, Now that I put a face to this post I had to reread the whole post. lol     On the other hand your car is going to be gorgeous!!! She is beautiful, and we can see you have spent a ton of time getting her there. Also cant wait till she is done.   

Again welcome to the madness.

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Great work! These are the best pictures I have even seen, thank you!

Bruce

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Thanks Willie, I can't wait 'til it's done either, lol. Had to pull my parts from the chrome shop (after 9 1/2 months of nothing) & brought them to another shop Monday. The stainless trim went to another place Monday as well. At least I didn't need bail money, I was pretty pissed by that point. That'll set me back another couple of months probably, but I'm certain they'll be done, and will be better quality as well. Tried to support a local business, but that backfired.

 It was also great to spend the weekend with you at Carlisle, you certainly made the first gathering we attended that much better!

Thank you as well Bruce, much appreciated!

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Yes Joe, I think we all try and use local people and some times it does work out. My stainless guy was local but my chrome guy was in PA. both guys did a fantastic job and went beyond what was expected, as you know with my headlight bezel.

Also had a great time with you and Doug, showing you around all the ins and outs!!! Rob does a great job balancing 1000 things at one time, he keeps us busy all the time. lol Cant wait for next year to see all the progress you and I and the rest of the club members make on our cars....

I also checked for that part you need (I have it) no pics yet as I have to take it down first. 

TTUS

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I ended up bringing the chrome to Erie, PA that same day. I was 30 miles towards there anyways from the S/S trim gentleman, so figured I might as well keep going. Certainly going to cost a lot more than the local shop, but as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for", and in my case, I got nothing, lol.

No hurry on the part as we discussed, but if I need it, Doug said he'd go on a road trip to see you. He was just as happy to meet you as well.

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On a good note, got the stereo installed & powered it up with a jump box. The front speakers seem to sound decent. I put a piece of cardboard over the window opening to reflect sound and I think they'll do. Not too many options either way. I'll probably get an amp down the road & maybe a moderate sub to put in the trunk. Either way, I'm running RCA cables, amp turn-on lead, and power back there now for future use.

Ordered an exhaust system after looking at a lot of them at Carlisle and went with the young man's (so sorry, I'm bad at names) suggestion of a flowmaster kit because it seems to tuck the tailpipes up pretty high. I mocked it up a little last night and still think I'll modify the brackets even more to my liking, but it seems like a keeper. Ordered an AMD rear bumper too because I'll need something back there to set the exhaust system properly. Worst case, I'll sell it when the original gets back from chrome, or keep it as a spare. Still, just another roadblock due to the chrome shop. :doh:

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As far as exhaust systems, right now I agree that flowmaster pipes are good. The best was torque tech but they are out of business. 😞 I actually got their last 3" kit on my 70 SS. I have had kits from alot of different manufactures and the flowmaster tailpipes fit is good. 

My son and myself have the flowmaster kits on his black 71 and on my 71 barn find. They were previously installed on parts cars and were in stock. The only difference is that I swapped out the flowjunk mufflers for dynomax ultraflows. 

Have to admit tho, the flowmasters don't sound bad on my son's Monte.

IDK how original- ish  you are going with your system but I suggest looking at ground up for their exhaust hanger kit. Fits all pipes up to 3", mounts and looks like the stock hangers. Plus they have different style tailpipe hangers  to choose from. Have used the kits on 3 of our Montes and love them! Highly recommend!  

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Thanks for the input Tom!

I ordered their Super 44 mufflers, instead of the ones that came in the entire kit. I didn't want the 5" ones in that kit, wanted to keep it tucked up as high as possible. It's basically a stock LS6, with the original solid cam so I don't expect it to be too loud anyways. In the old Monte I had this motor with Thrush Turbo mufflers, no tail pipes & it wasn't bad. Same exact exhaust in my Camaro with the other LS6, large roller cam, ported alum. heads etc and that thing is just entirely a different beast.

As far as hangers, not a big fan of the hangers provided in the Flowmaster kit, so I also ordered the "Walker" version of the  original style muffler hangers last night, same as in the Ground Up kit from the looks of it (bolts to the frame in the 2 original holes). For the rear/tailpipes, I still have the original ones for the '72 dual exhaust that slip over the top of the frame in the very back. They're shot, but I'll use them to see how it works, then get new ones from Ground Up that are replicas of the originals if I like how they fit. Worst case, I'll make something up with a combination of the parts on hand (in stock, lol) & a welding machine :grin:.

Thanks again!

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I'm just throwing this in here.... I spoke to Nick at ARH when thy reopened about a different subject, they are doing A-Body exhaust systems. But as Nick told me that are NOT Monte specific so you need to do your measurements and leg work. I'm happy with my headers and the support from ARH so even though I didn't go this route i thought i'd throw it in here 

https://americanracingheaders.com/collections/classic-gm/products/chevy-a-body-1964-1972-header-back?variant=29943892292

 

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Looks interesting Mark.

I steered away from an 'X' pipe due to that series of Hemmings articles we saw before regarding the Chevelle 427 build-up. They had a 4L85 trans in that car & couldn't use the X, so I didn't even bother considering a X pipe for my setup. I actually have a X pipe setup that came with the car, including some generic looking box type mufflers. It hung so low & crappy looking, it'll end up getting recycled unless someone wants some parts off of it.

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The Flowmaster system has a 'H' pipe built into it, but it doesn't seem to be in the way like the X. Even if it didn't come with the 'H', I would have added one anyways.

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In my opinion the x pipe has more clearance for the trans than the h pipe style. 

My 70 SS starts with a 3.5 pipe from the collector to the x pipe then 3 to the ultraflows  and tails. No ground clearance issues what so ever. 

My son's 69 GTO convertible has 2.5 exhaust with x pipe and ultra flows. No clearance issues and it's also has an M-22 in it. 

The black 71 and 71 barn find have the flowmaster 2.5  h pipe systems.  No clearance issues either. Only difference I did notice is the tailshaft has more clearance with the x pipe should you have to remove the trans assy. 

The x pipe also changes the sound of the exhaust as compared to the h or nothing. 

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