1983 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS "Project Fox Model" (P.F.M.)

[TheRestoGuy]

Hello all - I'm TheRestoGuy, formerly known as "Jin" (dumb name, wanted a new one)



Here is my new to me 1983 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS. This was my dads car, but due to life events he decided it was time to pass it on to me. This was the first car I turned wrenches on and learned how to do more than just general maintenance. I caught my Hot Rod bug here, working on this car with my Dad. My Dad was an Engineer at an aircraft company when he was working on this car. He worked a lot of hours and didn't really have time to turn his own wrenches to build this car, but still wanted a street machine. Because of this, he decided to employ some "hot rod shops". I want to say 3 shops worked on it other than him and I turning wrenches on it in the garage. Because of this, I've named this "Project Fox Model", or just 'Fox Model" ; but P.F.M. ..... that works out pretty good and is quite funny if you understand what I'm saying here. ;) .

The Alpha model was from GM, Bravo model was when my Dad worked on it for the first few years of owning it. Charlie, Delta models where 2 other shops that worked on it. The Echo model (not used in production aviation aircraft due to it being associated with experimental use aircraft only)..... the last guy to work on it, rightfully so, earns the "Echo model" designation. Some of the quality of work that I've seen that is associated with this guy... well lets just say he took this nice car and made it into a total death trap. This guy is also suppose to have an aviation A&P license. Now I have the car, which will be the 6th person working on it and their vision of how the car is suppose to be, so it's now the "Fox Model". So I guess a 1983 Chevrolet Monte Carlo LS F ?

I've built a 1964 C10 which is more of a Hot Rod, a 1987 Rx7 TII with an LS1,T56, Ford 8.8 swap that looked factory, still working on a 1957 Cadillac Coupe de Ville that I've turned into a mostly forged motor that I plan on making single or twin turbo with a 4L80e in it, and now I'm working this thing. I'm a little burnt out. But I hope to make this car into a nice driver that takes turns better than it did before it met me. I also want to make it dead reliable.

P.F.M.'s specs (to the best of my knowledge 9 Jan 2016)

400 SB Chevy
custom roller flat tappet cam ground for nitrous (ground early 2000's?) machinist lost cam card
Brodix heads (number = unknown as of now)
Studded heads (maybe mains too)
Forged rotating assembly
4bbl Holley 750cfm electronic choke (Holley 4779-9)
Hamburger oil pan

Richmond 6-speed transmission
McLeod Clutch and pressure plate
Hydraulic Throw out bearing

12 bolt rear differential (passenger car version)
Auburn Limited Slip Carrier 3.73 gears
Axle splines (?)
Uses truck 12 bolt internals / bearings or something like this.. all I know is it has less than an hour of road time on it and it leaks ... which pis*es me off considering it's "new".
Rear disk brake conversion, might need a proportioning valve update, not sure right now

P.F.M. needs..

Its' wiring checked out / extraneous wires deleted , correct circuits created
starter alignment dialed in
Fuel tank dropped and flushed, verify fuel line routing
Brake lines verified, system flushed, pads and rotors checked
Carburetor jetted / air-bleeds corrected (I'm thinking the carb is more than likely too small )
I'm deleting the Nitrous system until the car is sorted, then I'll reevaluate it. (The install was cr*p)
Suspension / shocks (maybe coil-overs?)

That's the beginning of the list. There is more, a lot more that this thing needs. The above is what is needed before I decided to take it around the block.

I hope you guys like following this, hopefully it's entertaining at least. There aren't many LS Monte Carlos that I've seen online so hopefully I do well. I'm always interested in feedback from other or ideas. Thanks for the look!

[TheRestoGuy]

Well I got the car in the garage.. I washed it yesterday before it decided to become totally freezing out. Today it was 22 degrees outside. Inside the garage it may have been 35 degrees. Needless to say I was in thermals, a coat, beanie, and thick mechanix gloves... honestly I should have layered my socks too as my feet were the coldest thing while working.

I decided to get started thinning out the wiring mess today. Here are the before pics of the car before I started working on it. It's kinda clean as you see it. Well it's the cleanest it's been in 3 years more than likely. This is also the first time it's seen the inside of a garage in about 5 years. More pics to follow tomorrow. See ya!






The bottom of both doors look like this. This is the worst part of the body that I've found as of now. Hopefully I can fix it without having to weld, but it looks as if some places may require that to make it right.


Does anyone know what type / who made this spoiler?



This is part of the amazing wiring I'm getting started on correcting. One of my favorite finds is a single wire that changes color 4 times along it's path.. that someone connects with crimp connectors.


Here is what not to do with fuel line.. this line isn't isolated at all.. it would have vibrated against the frame unless I found it and corrected it. I'll be fixing this soon.


By the end of the night I had removed all of the wire you see here from the car. By far the worst part was removing the late 90's security system; it actually was the most soundly installed aftermarket part installed on the car. If the wiring didn't make sense, was old and I'm changing it to more modern stuff, rusted nitrous parts with miles of the same colored wire used in multiple spots, or poorly installed, I traced the wire back, tagged it, then cut out the bad stuff and threw it in the pile.. this is said pile.



More to follow tomorrow.

[SSLance]

I love the look of the old square nose LS Montes, thanks for saving it. Sounds like the car has a little bit of sentimental value to you as well. Good luck on the upgrades and kudos to you to be working on it out in the cold.

[TheRestoGuy]

Thanks for the reply Lance.

Well I decided to do a little more work on P.F.M. today. I've already cleaned the engine bay once on Friday, but I missed a lot as I was trying to be really quick. I had places to be that night for work. So I decided to clean it again today.. cause that's smart.. it's 16 degrees and sunny right now. I de greased the motor again and made sure to slightly agitate the dirt and oxidation with an old microfiber towel I have for undercarriage cleaning... I really need to get a stiff brush for this stuff. Anyway. Then I hooked everything up, rolled it outside, sprayed it down and made instant ice. Like in the 5-10 minutes I was out there, this was formed.



And some pics of the ice that then formed on the motor.





But the motor doesn't have dirt near the valve covers, valley, or distributor anymore so I'll feel a bit safer when I start taking things off to find part numbers.



After that I decided to call it for today. I'm now going to try and find some seats I like for the car that don't need to be recovered. Are there any you guys recommend? I'm 6'2" about 200 lbs . Maybe some Recaro's if I can get a deal on new / used ones?

Also, do you guys know if the cruise control will work with a bigger cam? The system worked before the motor swap and all that, and I have a vacuum pump I could use. I am also thinking of looking into a dry sump system.. I know it's pricey, but maybe I can find quality used parts. It is a SBC not a Big Block like in my truck.. forget getting cheap parts for that.

[SSLance]

There is a thread on the MCSS board about getting the cruise to work without the CCC system.

http://www.montecarloss.com/communit...=189353&page=1

I haven't done it as i took my cruise off 8 years ago and never reinstalled it.

Cold today huh? I haven't left the house!!

[TheRestoGuy]

Thanks for the info Lance! When you took off the cruise, did you need a new speedometer cable? It looks like it goes through the cruise control to the transmission via two speedometer cables.

There is a thread on the MCSS board about getting the cruise to work without the CCC system.

http://www.montecarloss.com/communit...=189353&page=1

I haven't done it as i took my cruise off 8 years ago and never reinstalled it.

Cold today huh? I haven't left the house!!

[TheRestoGuy]

Ok, this weekend I didn't do much (12 degrees outside). But I did drop the fuel tank and take off the differential cover to verify that it has been rebuilt... which it has. (yay). The differential is just super greasy, and I think the vent is partially broken.

I found some info on new fuel pumps. The car came with a "Holley Blue" fuel pump which I've read hasn't had the best record. I was looking into an Aeromotive in tank fuel pump retrofit, until I found a similar system made by "Tanks Inc."

http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/pa...prod/prd84.htm

I'm also thinking about fuel injecting the car with this system by Fi Tech. Has anyone used "Fi Tech" yet? The carburetor was suppose to be an 850 cfm carburetor but is a 750, which is too small. For about the price of a new Holley 950 with adjustable air bleeds in the body, I could get the Fi Tech throttle body. It self learns like F.A.S.T. stuff but has a lot of other nice features on it as well.

http://fitechefi.com/default.asp.pg-...m4-InjectorKit

The rear control arms look kind of welded together with some bad welds, I'll get a picture up later. So I'm looking into some new ones from UMI. Has anyone used the bars with spherical rod ends on the street; do they give a very harsh ride? I did a 4 link with spherical rod ends on my swapped Rx7 when I put a Ford 8.8 in the car.. the ride was more race car than street car friendly. I'm hoping to have a nice enough ride that I want to drive it everyday and not get beat up by the car. I'm also looking into the UMI brackets for C5/C6 brakes to the stock spindles.

Time to do more research, and view more build threads for ideas from you guys.

[SSLance]

Thanks for the info Lance! When you took off the cruise, did you need a new speedometer cable? It looks like it goes through the cruise control to the transmission via two speedometer cables.

Hmmm.... My speedometer cable went straight from the trans to the back of speedometer. I know the VSS (vehicle speed sensor that sends speed signal to the ECM) came in a couple of different varieties over the years of these cars, your setup must be different than mine.

[TheRestoGuy]

Well I haven't done much to the car these past few months except verify things. I tore the rear end out to clean it up and verify gear ratios. I ordered a fuel injection fuel tank for a Grand national and got a fuel pump to fit from Racetronix. It incorporated the sending unit and 340lph fuel pump.

I finally got the starter shimmed correctly.

I'm looking at purchasing the fitech multi port fuel injection they have coming out.

I'm looking at springs and shocks for this car. I know it's not super cool to have old school shocks and coil springs but I don't see myself autox'ing this car that much right now. I just want it to be a solid performer, not a track car. I think I can get there on shocks and springs. I have been reading SSLance's thread on his setup and have been trying to see if I can use the same / similar set up on my car to get it to turn decently for not a lot of cash. I just don't see the point of coil-overs at this time unless I have roughly $2500.00 to blow on a coilover set up. This will be daily driven and maybe off to an event once or twice a year.

I've been reading that a 550# spring should be used in the front and a 200# spring should be used in the back. I've been told I have Hotchkis springs in the back that lower just a little. I still have to find a spring rate for those. What shocks do people recommend for a firm, responsive ride? I'm also looking at a 3rd Gen F-body front sway bar and possibly upper control arms for now.

So what do you guys think? I kinda need some direction with this suspension set up to not waste time and funds.

Alex