wallaby

If you are still using the cooler in the radiator, the fluid should pass through it first. The best your radiator cooler can do is lower your trans temp to equal the water temp. Most of the time it won't work that well even...So once the trans fluid comes out of the radiator cooler (at say, 180 degrees) it can then go thru your aftermarket cooler which at best can lower the temp to equal the outside air temp. If you have it plumbed the other way, the radiator can actually ADD heat to the fluid your aftermarket cooler has processed.

I've heard good reports about the crossovers. Claims are that it boosts the torque at lower speeds (what you like about a big-block, you will like MORE)and that they help quiet down the exhaust by smoothing out the exhaust pulses. On the downside they can make it a little tougher to access stuff under the car, and you can't simply drop one exhaust pipe anymore. I had a crude "H" pipe installed on my car, and it didn't cost but a few extra dollars to have it done when they did the rest of the system. Mine runs across just behind the trans crossmember....a little further back than optimal, but out of the way. I have heard that if you were to spraypaint your exhaust pipes, the crossover should go where the transition is between "burned-off" paint, and paint that stays.

Here is something else I just stumbled across: http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/solderit.htm This site has some pretty neat stuff. All kinds of home-plating kits and whatnot.

Hmmm...I wonder if a dab of Zinc-Chromate primer might work? Of course the areas where this is happening is the inside surfaces of my grille. You know, the gaps between the teeth. I want to repaint the grile and I don't want the darn corosion to continue under the paint. They talk about soldering holes in potmetal but that sounds pretty scary. I think the potmetal and the solder have close to the same melting point...and still there is no mention on how to prepare the surface other than drilling out the affected area. I guess it'll have to be fixed like a cavity in a tooth; I can't just put something over it. Here is some additional help: http://www.matronics.com/rv-list/hovan/tips/AlAnDef.html I see that DuPont calls it 225S cleaner and 226S conversion coating. Most of these treatments are meant for aluminum. I should check at my local auto paint supply.

I have some pieces of potmetal that are in near perfect shape but they have some areas where corosion is becoming an issue. The damaged places might be pinholes or missing plating, but they form a lump of corosion that grows up & out of the area and rubbing away the lump isn't really a solution. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a chemical or process that will stop the corosion so I can maybe paint over the area and be done with it. I know POR15 works to do that with iron oxide (rust), but any ideas what to use on potmetal?

The other important part that you might not know is that you (1)attatch the flex plate to the crankshaft, and you (2)install the torque converter into the front of the trans....THEN (3)you bolt the trans to the engine. The converter needs to be rotated several times to get it to engage fully into the trans and line up with all the splines and the trans pump. You need to be sure the converter is all the way in before you try to connect the trans to the engine. If everything goes right, once the engine and trans are bolted together there should be a GAP between the converter and the flexplate. This is important because if you don't have the converter fully into the trans, bolting it to the engine will force the converter back and put pressure on stuff inside your trans that will get ruined. Once the engine and trans are together you can just rotate the converter to line up the bolt holes and pull it forward to meet the flexplate.

I think the Custom had those goodies minus the air ride, but I'm not sure about the 454. Now I'm wondering if you could get the 454 in '72 without it being a custom?

check your fluid level?

Mine measures out to be: Top hose, 2" both ends Bottom hose, 2.25" both ends. I have a big block, not sure if small block is different.

I'm still learning. Somewhere here I thought I saw that the manual trans Montes had the saginaw trans and I remember thinking that wasn't as sporty as the Muncie. It pretty much put a damper on my dream of finding one. But if the Monte came with a Muncie...now it all sounds fun again. I am familliar with the M22, but are the M20 and M21 close-ratio or no?

I'm not a gear expert, but I believe that the "4 series carrier" is one that is used with gear ratios 4 and larger. So 4:11 gears for example would be mounted on 4 series carrier. If I were you I'd do some calculations to find out what kind of cruise RPMs you would have with that overdrive trans. Tire size is important, too...so gather the information and start plugging different gear ratios into the formula to see what works best for you.

It's pretty neat that they can add the wiring for the HEI, but the power source and the distributor are in locations that don't change. I was thinking that it would be near impossible for them to create a harness for EFI. I just don't see how they could route all the wires if they don't know the location you have installed the computer for the injection, or the exact spot you installed the oxygen sensor, or fuel pump, etc. MSD boxes and coils...even elecrtic fans would be tough for them to incorporate into a harness because of the custom locations we find for these add-ons. If they made a harness, you would have to install your components to meet up with the ends of their wires. I know the EFI makers supply their own harness to get everything hooked up; maybe the lengths are long enough that you could route the wires along your existing harness and cover them with that black corrugated plastic stuff used on newer cars?

The way I see it is the radiator water (at best) can only cool the trans down to 180 degrees...if you want it cooler than that, then you add your aftermarket cooler to cool it even more. If the aftermarket cooler was installed AHEAD of the radiator, then it's possible that the cooler in your radiator would actually RAISE the temp back up to 180. ...The point is that if your aftermarket cooler is going to do any good, it needs to receive the fluid AFTER it has been through the radiator.

I'd have to guess semi-flat or semi-gloss. It's semi-something. It would be the same sheen as the pulleys, or AC compressor.

Get it clened up under there and find where the leak really comes from. You'd be surprised how far the fluid will travel from the source. I had a bad seal in my steering box, and I swear everything under the car had fluid dripping from it EXCEPT the steering box...even the floorboards and trans were wet. So step one is to clean up the mess as best you can and then try to find where the oil comes from. Sometimes the fluid is hard to spot when it's seeping out onto clean aluminum; I dust the suspected area with baby powder and any fluid shows up pretty good.

I dunno....it sounds like you have all the clues to point you to a bad modulator. You have shifting problems, you have a loss of trany fluid, and you have a dead or weak cylinder in the engine most noticeable at idle. It sounds like the modulator has ruptured and is letting the engine suck your trans fluid out thru the vacuum hose. In my experience, the bad modulator will give you a shift from first to second, but it is delayed and happens at a higher RPM than you would expect. Ditto for the shift from 2nd to 3rd...in fact it will be delayed so far that you might think the engine will blow up before the trans will ever shift. With no vacuum signal to the trans the broken modulator is telling the trans that the engine is running at wide-open throttle and even though it isn't....the trans behaves as if it is. The TH350 is a little different and uses a cable for the kickdown function and I wonder if that could be misadjusted and cause the shift problem? None of this has anything to do with reverse. Lets hope that reverse is stubborn only on the days when the fluid level is low.

I started out with a cheap 14" open air cleaner assy, and I expanded the diameter of the base so I could enclose it with sides later, and then I lowered the base as close to the engine as I could so I had room for filters.(that was the hardest part) Mine has a flat spot in the back to give clearance for the distributor. I have the inlet tube go thru the plastic inner fender and it ends below the battery tray area behind the bumper. The entire assy is fashioned from .045 aluminum and hammered rivets. I wasn't after any ram-air effect, I just wanted air that was cooler than the underhood stuff that has been pre-heated by the radiator. Mostly it was an effort to reduce pinging on hot days. (it did) I have the inlet high enough and shielded by the bumper that debris aren't a problem. I can't say I really notice any seat-of-the-pants performance difference, but the closed filter with remote intake are super quiet. I don't hear the secondaries opening at all anymore.

Here is my home-made version of that idea. Mine has two filters stacked inside. http://www.firstgenmc.com/album/04WMeet/04WMeet324.jpg

Welcome to the boards! There are a great bunch of guys here that can help with almost any issue. The modulator could cause your problem. That's the easiest thing to check anyway. Make sure the vacuum line is connected at both ends. If you have a broken or leaking vacuum line going to the modulator, it will cause the trans to shift weird and the engine to miss at lower speeds.

Ok, thanks. I'm thinking maybe on the seats, but what about the headliner? is that going to be worse? It looks to be pretty straightforward, but maybe I'm wrong?

I'm thinking seriously about ordering all the stuff I need to update my interior. I think I can handle doing the door panels and carpet and maybe even the headliner, but how hard is it to recover a set of seats? I want to get new seat foam and cloth covers. I have bench seat if that makes a difference. There are items like the headrest covers that make me think that there might be some sewing involved? Maybe some special tools besides the hog-ring pliers? Has anyone installed their own interior with reproduction parts and can give me some advice about whether I should do this myself or gather up the parts and take it all to an upholstery shop for install.

The valve body isn't too bad. Heck, you have to remove it just to install a shift kit. The only problem with doing the job is gravity. There are some BB-sized check balls that will drop out when you remove the valve body, so have your eyes open for those so you don't loose them. Putting them back in is easy with a dab of grease...your instructions should be good enough to let you know about that stuff. Some kits require that you enlarge some holes with a drill, so be sure that you have your car up high enough so you can stand the drill & bit under the trans pan. Mechanically though, it isn't hard

Well, the wires can be hooked whatever way and it will work fine. The switch just closes and lets power run through it, so it will work either way. As for the adjustment, when the pedal is all the way down on the floor, the switch should be just short of bottoming out. That way the pedal and the carb can reach full throttle without the switch stopping it short. Mine looks as if it contacts and starts sliding the switch at about the same time that the throttle starts opening the secondaries, but it was hard to tell from under the dash.

Just from the info we have here, it sounds like a loose set of bolts or a cracked flexplate. The cracked flexplate isn't too common, so bolts should be #1. It sounds as if something is rattling back & forth when the engine idles, but the sound goes away when you speed up (smooth out) the engine speed. Does the sound go away when you put a load on the engine? My first guess would be the torque converter to flexplate bolts, and if those are loose you want to tighten them right away.

I just had a thought. I believe all the trans fasteners are torqued in INCH POUNDS. If you tried to torque them in FOOT POUNDS that would explain why the fasteners broke. Double check those torque values, it may not be the fault of the wrench.