Another One!: picked up a new project 83 Monte Carlo SS

[6spdg37s]

So I was very happy to have pretty much completed my 01 SS camaro build. All that is left is my front weld RT-S skinnies... Very happy to not have to spend any more money...

then my phone rings...come check out this 1-2 owner 83 Monte Carlo SS

long story short, I now own it lol. it appears to have a modded 305 or 350 in it however it is blown (its dark out and I didn't get to look that closely) trans and rear are good, car is all there, interior, etc; minimal rust, 2 hoods, 2 sets of wheels.

I think I am going to go the 383 stroker high HP crate motor route on this but not sure. to be honest I need a little break from projects but couldn't pass this up.

pics to follow

[Jersey Mike]

One of my favorite pictures. Congrats on the new acquisition!


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4b/b0/73/4bb07346947cb888144361fb5c0e0811.jpg

[Blackbirdws6]

Buddy of mine had one in high school that he would tinker with. Fun cars with a nice amount of room. It is scary to think back how many times we should have died with him behind the wheel.

[6spdg37s]

here are some pics i grabbed.

dumped it in the yard behind my shop. having laser eye surgery today so cant mess with this for a couple weeks prob

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Those centercaps massive three point stars?!

[6spdg37s]

Those centercaps massive three point stars?!

yeah lolol knock off spinners i think they might be weld wheels.... not sure there ugly tho whatever they are gonna clean them up and sell them

[madness410]

sweet ride i love montes. good luck with her.

[NJ Torque]

My first car was a 87 SS, Still love the G bodies.

[maroman88]

ive been looking for a monte forever. where the hell u find one

[6spdg37s]

ive been looking for a monte forever. where the hell u find one

same way I got my F-body ... I wasn't even looking... long story short but my best friend and his dad have a car shop, theres this italian guy sal that hangs around (good family friend) he calls the shop i answer the phone , his friend owns a tire shop, an employee of the tire shop bought it from his friend but decided he didn;t have time to do the work , he said the car was mad clean to come take a look, so i did and ended up buying it.

[6spdg37s]

so i guess I will use this as my build thread:

got a chance to check the car out a little better now that i can see lol

motor is def done but its a 305 so who cares lol

i started pulling all the **** out of the engine bay (seized ac compressor, all the ac BS i dont need anymore, seized air pump, etc; etc; )

[6spdg37s]

okay so here is the deal. decided to go carbed LS route.

grabbed a junkyard 5.3 LM7 motor for 600 bucks, started pulling it apart got lots of goodies on order. motor is super clean inside no dex-cool gunk build up in the coolant valleys no sludge on the pistons/rotating assembly or oil pan.

-holley carb intake manifold
-holley street avenger 670 CFM vacuum secondary, electric choke
-MSD LS 6012 box
-comp cams 232/234 duration, .595/.598 lift and 110LSA
-gm 243 heads, ported and milled (to keep compression high)
-.660 BTR dual beehive valve springs
-7.350 or 7.4 push rods not sure yet need to measure
-LS7 lifters
-comp cams rocker trunion kit
-CTS-v oil pan kit
-chevy truck accessory drive (minus the A/C compressor)

things I am still trying to figure out-

-radiator and electric fan situation
-im not sure what else lol i still need to get a torque converter i know i am going to do around 3500 rpm stall

[Jersey Mike]

Man, you waste no time :lol:

[The_Bishop]

That's a lot of cam for a 5.3 and a relatively heavy car.

[6spdg37s]

That's a lot of cam for a 5.3 and a relatively heavy car.

it weighs about what my SS camaro weighs I believe

[6spdg37s]

Man, you waste no time :lol:

yeah i hate having things lay around... I want to get it moving as soon as possible because its taking up space in our storage yard

[PolarBear]

Put a distributor on it too! No one does that on the LS engines

[6spdg37s]

old motor is out !

going to clean up the engine bay

[Jersey Mike]

Saw on IG this morning. Good stuff!

[The_Bishop]

Did you buy the cam already? If you didn't you might consider downsizing it a bit. You'll enjoy the car a lot more with some more torque.

The 5.3 is smaller than the 5.7 in your LS car. It will not react the same. It's also hard to keep compression high with the 5.3 util you get into milling a *lot* off the heads, which will bring it's own headaches. With that cam you're going to need a lot of gear and a 4k+ converter and valve to piston clearance may become an issue.

If you look at the specs of this EPS cam, it has far less duration and they're still calling for a 3500 converter and 4.11 gears as a minimum...
http://www.engpwrsys.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=6

I think you'd be happier with this one, personally:
http://www.engpwrsys.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=5

[6spdg37s]

Did you buy the cam already? If you didn't you might consider downsizing it a bit. You'll enjoy the car a lot more with some more torque.

yeah the guy who is doing the heads for me speced the cam out. im gonna rev the piss out of this and have a 3500 stall so it should be fine.

[The_Bishop]

I'd go with a 4k, personally. What gears in the rear?

[6spdg37s]

I'd go with a 4k, personally. What gears in the rear?

not sure whats in there now but eventually will prob do something around 3.73-3.90 maybe low 4's not sure really.

[The_Bishop]

With that cam in a 5.3 you will need a 4k+ converter and 4.10+ gears or you're going to hate it.

[6spdg37s]

Slow day in the office so I installed the cam , ls6 oil pump, ls2 timing chain, ls7 lifters and lifter trays, timing cover, oil pickup , windage tray and oil pan.

pretty much waiting on the heads to be finished and the remainder of the motor can go together. I have all the parts for it.

still not sure if there is a wiring issue or not with the car. since the car has no motor in it I am thinking that the grounds are all screwed up and that is why I don't get power to things...

[sweetbmxrider]

Does that thing have fusible links? Might want to give them a look.

[6spdg37s]

Does that thing have fusible links? Might want to give them a look.

yes it does but they are good !

[6spdg37s]

some updates :

installed the nightmare of a a/c delete box, got the trunk open, no rust all good, and cleaned the old paint/undercoating off of the frame to get ready to paint it tomorrow with chassis saver paint

[6spdg37s]

painted the frame today:

[6spdg37s]

well this was my current situation lol

im waiting on my heads to be finished, once they come in measuring for push rods and finishing putting the motor together.

just got a shadow box I am going to run auto meter gauges

3-3/8 GPS speedo, 2-1/16 (s) fuel , oil pressure , water temp, A/F ratio

[MDSheds_SS]

I have 3 sets of brand new push rods 7.500 7.525 7.550 and used 7.4s if you need them. All trickflow

[6spdg37s]

I have 3 sets of brand new push rods 7.500 7.525 7.550 and used 7.4s if you need them. All trickflow

there gonna either need 7.4s or 7.350s

[6spdg37s]

took some time today to do my trunion kit

[6spdg37s]

quick update :

when it warmed up the other day I was able to put new fuel tank and sender in, started running new fuel line, I need to install the pump, filters and regulator

waiting on the heads still there is a chance I am getting them tomorrow

decided on doing the cragar 8 black steel rims found a few pics and the car looks sick as hell with that setup.

[Jersey Mike]

Who is doing the heads? Seems like you've been waiting on them forever

[6spdg37s]

Who is doing the heads? Seems like you've been waiting on them forever

Tony @ Xtreme CFM...there done as far as I know we have conflicting schedules he's supposed to drop them off to me tomorrow.

He hand ports them and was rebuilding them and everything... Its only been about a month but with all the holidays and **** its much less...

Maybe he had more important stuff to get done first not sure but I wasn't in a rush initially then everything else progressed much faster than I expected

[6spdg37s]

and the heads are in my possession and one is installed already !

the snow really fdk me up so thats why...

[6spdg37s]

made some more progress today...

spark plugs going in tomorrow... pulling the accessory drive off the other LSX motor we have and swapping it on mine.

as far ass the car itself, need to change the steering shaft to the jeep one and finish running the fuel lines and pump and regulator and the motor can go in and be fired up !

[MDSheds_SS]

When do the turbo parts come in.....?

[6spdg37s]

got the accessory drive on today ! its gettin close...

[6spdg37s]

When do the turbo parts come in.....?

NA BABY ! lol the heads are milled down a decent amount so the compression is way up there a turbo would blow this thing to pieces lol

[6spdg37s]

heres some pics of the LS going in tonight

[6spdg37s]

couple more

[Jersey Mike]

Nice to see you moving on this again! You decide what you're doing exhaust-wise yet?

[6spdg37s]

Nice to see you moving on this again! You decide what you're doing exhaust-wise yet?

1-7/8 TSP Long Tube F-body headers which should fit very well supposedly...

then we have a hydraulic exhaust bender at the shop so going to make something but plan to try out dual black widow widowmaker mufflers to a dump pre axle

[V]

1-7/8 TSP Long Tube F-body headers which should fit very well supposedly...

then we have a hydraulic exhaust bender at the shop so going to make something but plan to try out dual black widow widowmaker mufflers to a dump pre axle


What trans crossmember will you be running? I know running true duals or at least LT headers gets tricky without a double hump crossmember.

[6spdg37s]

What trans crossmember will you be running? I know running true duals or at least LT headers gets tricky without a double hump crossmember.

I got a double hump from JEGS (I believe) and put it in last night didnt fit right so modified it a little n its all good now.

[V]

ah ok, nice. Fitting headers was the biggest annoyance back when i built a 87 monte ss with a 350tpi/T5 manual setup, that and rust repair. After that car, I grew to dislike g-bodies, with a small tolerance for Grand nats and t types of course.

[6spdg37s]

ah ok, nice. Fitting headers was the biggest annoyance back when i built a 87 monte ss with a 350tpi/T5 manual setup, that and rust repair. After that car, I grew to dislike g-bodies, with a small tolerance for Grand nats and t types of course.

I can see how that can be bad... but now tons of aftermarket stuff that people have used/tested so u know if its good or not.

When doing a project like this the stuff that bothers me the most is finding stuff like :
-trans line fittings
-running wires
-finding coolant hoses and such that fit...

but i got a pretty good idea from the forums of stuff that fits and dont

[6spdg37s]

Gkrd2hZhVzk

[Jersey Mike]

Nice! What's next before you head to EFX?

[6spdg37s]

so much stuff left to do idk where to even start lol

[6spdg37s]

bqZ18clJmJg

[6spdg37s]

so I spent alot of time looking into what else I will be doing... going to convert to buckets and a factory console, doing white procar buckets to match the white and blue interior theme the car has from the factory....

going to integrate a hurst or B*M ratchet shifter into the factory console

been cleaning up the wiring i currently have the dash out.

[V]

What shape is your dash in? I have a blue one out of an 84 SS I parted out back in 2004. Been tucked away since then in my basement. Not sure of exact condition but was good enough to keep, I could check it out if you may be interested.

[6spdg37s]

made some serious progress on the custom exhaust tonight...

[6spdg37s]

oh and the shop foreman

the setup is 1 -7/8 LT TSP F body headers to mandrel bend 3" pipe to a pypes 3" x pipe to (2) black widow widowmaker mufflers to (2) 3" turndowns

[MDSheds_SS]

Looks good man. I expect a video clip on IG later.

[Jersey Mike]

pretty bold of you to call those things mufflers :lol:

[6spdg37s]

Looks good man. I expect a video clip on IG later.

Maybe not till next week but yes of course ...

Took it down it's all tacked together , going to weld them when he gets a chance

Need to loosen the headers to weld the flange on them . Put up hangers etc

[6spdg37s]

couple of vids of the car

https://youtu.be/pJNwxc6FEaI

https://youtu.be/EHfKoAY9lUk

[ar0ck]

Sounds phenomenal!

[6spdg37s]

i really wanna sell it to be honest but gotta finish it up first to get the most out of it

[sweetbmxrider]

Does sound good man