Project SicMonte

[SicMonte]

i was wondering what kind of pulley set up you have i like how its still a v-belt set up but use serptine belt. my stock set up use the serptine belt for the water pump alt and crank but ps uses vbelt

Sorry that it took so long to reply to this post!!!!!

The set up I have now is a mix of March and Jones Racing. The alt, water pump and crank are from March and the complete Power Steering set up is from Jones Racing. I called up Chris at Jones Racing and told him what I had, and he got me set up with that really nice P/S set up. I went for that power steering set up b/c I had two stock pumps and two aftermarket pump leak on me. I was fed up and spent the money for the good stuff that I wanted and have no regrets what so ever. Anything from Jones Racing is money well spent. If I was ever going to build a new motor...it would have a complete Jones Racing set up on it.

[SicMonte]

So if you all remember, last year at this time I broke my trans up at Run To The Shore. IUt turned out that the front pump sheared off and sent metal fragments all through the trans and it was just a horrible sight.

So I had the mother of all 200r4's built, one that could take the heat and abuse of a day at the autox, a track day at Mid Ohio with Danny Pop as your instructor, a SCCA Hill Climb event in 98 degree weather, and even a serious thrashing at an American Streetcar Series event. This bad boy trans had the works. It had a billet front drum and input shaft, hardened sun gears, billet servo, billet output shaft, "blue" bands, heavy duty clutch packs, Pro Torque Converter, even had -6 braided lines going to a huge Derale cooler with a fan on it, and a semi deep PML aluminum pan with cooling fins on it (thanks Tom!!!). After every event I had the trans fluid flushed with GM Dex VI fluid (perk of having a shop). The trans did great all summer and fall........that is until this weekend.

This weekend I planned to drive the car to the bi annual Cruising Ocean City MD weekend. I do this weekend twice a year and it is hot rod heaven! Car was running great until I had to stop to pay a toll at the bridge. When I accelerated from the stop it sounded and felt like I was running over a set of rumble strips. I didnt feel it again until about 45 minutes later when I was in a town and hit some stop lights. At each light the same thing happened when I left from the light. Then at the fourth or fifth light I noticed that the car wouldn't move forward when I let off the brake. I gave it gas and it wouldn't shift at all and had maybe 1% power. I was taching out the motor to just get it off the road and into a gas station. It has reverse but nothing in the forward gears.

So naturally I called the trans builder and was like....ummmmmmmm. Of course he says its the torque converter. So I called the converter company and they say that its definitely the trans. Oh man here we go. I called back the trans guy and he said that he would look it over to see whats going on for free.

So my plan is to pull the trans out and send it to him. In the mean time I am going to just bite the bullet and do a T56 swap. This will most likely stay on the SBC since I am on a pretty tight budget. We shall see....

[SicMonte]

Starting the whole process tonight!!!!!!!




My exhaust......custom!!





This looked like a perfect place for a driveshaft!

[monteboy84]

Man, that sucks, sorry about your trans :(

I love your exhaust, I actually bought stock C5 Vette mufflers to do something very similar on my car, the difference being that on the C5 mufflers the inlet and outlet are on the same end.

-matt

[Norm Peterson]

This link may shed a little light on things even though it's a 700.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/700r...rs-115152.html


Norm

[SSLance]

You are going to LOVE the T56 swap Doug, I wouldn't even spend any time trying to fix the 200R4...just go straight to rowing gears.

[silvermonte]

I have a question for you Doug. Im getting ready to do a cheap paint job on my cutlass. Assuming you have seen people do the $50 paint job, http://www.rickwrench.com/index79mas...llarpaint.html , and you would paint your car again would you do it with the rattle can like you did or do the bit of extra work and try this method? As far as im concerned i have more important things to pay for at the moment besides a fancy and pricy paint job.

[SicMonte]

I have a question for you Doug. Im getting ready to do a cheap paint job on my cutlass. Assuming you have seen people do the $50 paint job, http://www.rickwrench.com/index79mas...llarpaint.html , and you would paint your car again would you do it with the rattle can like you did or do the bit of extra work and try this method? As far as im concerned i have more important things to pay for at the moment besides a fancy and pricy paint job.

That way looks nice but man does it take a long time do do!! 8-10 coats with complete sanding in between? Good lord....



I know that my spray paint job isnt the best...but its good enough for me! I would do it again in a heartbeat. I has lasted 6 years so far!

[silvermonte]

That way looks nice but man does it take a long time do do!! 8-10 coats with complete sanding in between? Good lord....

I know that my spray paint job isnt the best...but its good enough for me! I would do it again in a heartbeat. I has lasted 6 years so far!

Thanks for the feedback. I was just trying to figure if all the extra work was worth it, money wise it comes out to about the same give or take a few bucks so it just came down to a time thing, and if you say yours still looks decent after 6 years ill prolly go the route you did except ill try a silver and see how it turns out.

[Norm Peterson]

Rattle cans will likely run you more than $50 not counting the primer you'll want to use so everything comes out the same shade. And there certainly will be some sanding.

But if you're patient you can get race car good or maybe even daily-driver good results.

I know I went through more than 20 cans when I painted all of the Malibu I used to have. Best I can remember, that was in 1999

This picture was taken in early 2005 ↓↓↓




Here it was on the day I sold it ↓↓↓ (right about this time last year), minus most of the powertrain and a few other components




Never garaged, washed only occasionally/sporadically, touched up a couple of times on the trunk lid and lower quarters only.


Years before that, I rattle-canned a 1964 Dodge in a metalflake blue. Don't know if any prints or slides of it have survived this long.


Norm

[frixjm]

hey i was wondering if you know what is the max width wheel and back spacing i can run on my 88 monte carlo without modify the frame i would like to put 17x9.5 on the back .

[Norm Peterson]

IIRC John B over on montecarloss.com had 17x9's with that size, but that's been a while and I don't know what offset he was running or how much room he still had. The wheel well shape appears to be slightly different from the Malibu's.


Norm

[daveybtv]

hey i was wondering if you know what is the max width wheel and back spacing i can run on my 88 monte carlo without modify the frame i would like to put 17x9.5 on the back .

17x9.5 with 4.75 back space should fit just right thats what I have pictured beow

[daveybtv]

Sorry that it took so long to reply to this post!!!!!

The set up I have now is a mix of March and Jones Racing. The alt, water pump and crank are from March and the complete Power Steering set up is from Jones Racing. I called up Chris at Jones Racing and told him what I had, and he got me set up with that really nice P/S set up. I went for that power steering set up b/c I had two stock pumps and two aftermarket pump leak on me. I was fed up and spent the money for the good stuff that I wanted and have no regrets what so ever. Anything from Jones Racing is money well spent. If I was ever going to build a new motor...it would have a complete Jones Racing set up on it.

I was looking to do something simular and I also have March Brackets was wondering how the alignment worked out, any special bracket needed to run the typeII pump?

[SicMonte]

I was looking to do something simular and I also have March Brackets was wondering how the alignment worked out, any special bracket needed to run the typeII pump?

Nope...just ran the Jones Racing set up with their supplied bracket. I did have to experiment with the spacer behind the bracket, and ended up cutting them down on my lathe to make it all fit perfectly.

[frixjm]

17x9.5 with 4.75 back space should fit just right thats what I have pictured beow

that looks great thanks for the info.

[SicMonte]

Well the trans is out and now at the trans shopping....waiting to find out what happened to it. This is a turning point in this car b/c if the diagnosis is minor and the builder will fix it for free then the 200r4 is going back in...but if there is some sort of major issue that isn't covered by the builder then the 200r4 isn't getting fixed and the car will sit until I get a T56. I am just tired of messing around with this car.


Trans lines are down...and draining.

[SicMonte]

The trans in my daily driver HHR on the way to the trans shop...

[SicMonte]

With the trans out and the Monte up on the lift...there will be plenty of down time to finally complete some small projects on this car.

I think the first will be installing these new coilover spring bushings that the awesome crew over at ridetech sent me. I dig the new spanner wrench too!!!!!!!!

BTW...it's company's like ridetech that keep me going. Just the best bunch of people around.

[Number1]

AWESOME MC!!!!! Just wondering if you found a solution to your prop valve leak. Are running the brass one or did u switch to baer's setup.