Project SicMonte

[SRD art]

Very Cool! Glad you got the distributor woes worked out. Sweet vid!

[SicMonte]

Well...took the monte to a private track day yesterday. First pass down the 1/4 mile and as soon as it shifted into fourth....boom!!!! Trans blew up. I have no gears what so ever...and I have no idea why.

I have a spare trans that is goin in today.

[Tony_SS]

That sucks Doug... what trans was it?

[Protour_Pinto]

Pet peve of mine has always been crossing the yellow lines. If he wanted a straight road he should have stuck to the hiway.

Car is only as strong as its weakest link, While the trans is out you should build a stronger driveshaft/ujoints too, That will be next.

[SRD art]

Dang! Sorry to hear that.

I was in my Nova a few years back when the drive shaft came apart at about 105 mph near the end of the 1/4. Even with a safety loop it destroyed the TH350 tranny scattering it all over the road and scared the living daylights outta me. I ended up leaving it in the garage for about a year before I was ready to try again, but I did eventually get it all back together and running again.

I guess the moral of sharing the story is junk happens and you're probably frustrated and bummed out a bit but at least you're ok, and the car will be back up a running again soon. Don't let this slow you down, you're making great progress lately.

A couple photos of my carnage- The second is of parts I picked up off the road.

[GNon18s]

I shattered an input shaft in my 2004R a few years ago and it let go @3/4 track and had no gears (obviously). I was leaving pretty hard on slicks at the time.

[SicMonte]

This is the car last night...on the tow truck after the trans took a crap at the dragstrip.




Old trans pulled out today!!

[SicMonte]

New trans I had as a spare! Mild performance build up.



Fittings for my trans cooler.



Shaved off the ears on both side to make installing so much easier!!!



All done!!



Filling it up with Dex III.




Car runs great and the new trans shifts so much better than my old one!! I had no idea how bad my old trans was getting!! Not bad for 6 hours of work!

[carguykeith]

Nice work! Man I need a lift in my shop bad, that would have taken me a weekend of cussing and throwing stuff minimum...

[pmgm]

Man your car is sick.... Saw the vid and it really corners well.. Please keep the pics coming...

[SicMonte]

Im hoping that most of you on here saw what happened last weekend at RTTS. If not go here to see...

https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...TTS-Experiance




Just wanted to let you know that Kim's car is getting repaired now at GForce Design Concepts...and I am currentlly researching a T56 swap.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Unbelievable. If you are going with a new T56, PM me, I can probably save you a little $.

[Vicinity]

You're probably looking at the exact T56 (I think it was an LT1) for sale on Craigs I am. They're rarely if ever sold used around this area..

[SicMonte]

Update:

the LT1 T56 I was looking at on craigslist turned out to be a real project trans. I had a local T56 guru (rkt56.com) come out with me to inspect the trans. It was a decent unit but needed 3 gears and a bunch of synchro's so it wasn't worth the money to build it up correctlly. It would have been about $2200 to get it correct and for that much I might as well and save some more and buy the T56 Magnum.

Soooo...in the mean time, while I am saving up for the Magnum, I decided to have my two busted 200r4's dissected and built into one super trans. I want my car back on the road for this season so I can race it!!!

Both 200r4's will be taken apart and inspected to see what in the H E L L happend to them. The guy will then see if anything is salvagable (billet servo hopefuly!!) and will make one good trans out of the two cores. I will be getting a billet drum along with hardend input/output shafts...some type of "new" blue bands (they are supposed to be the latest and greatest thing!)...a bitchin shift kit...and I will use Tom Farrington's cool trans pan to top it off. I also got a hugexhuge trans cooler with a fan so this baby will not overheat!!! I had the trans pan drilled and tapped for a trans temp guage.

Pics to follow.

I plan to have this done soon so I can participate in the June 2 event of the National Street Tire Challenge.

[Yelcamino]

Good luck Doug! I hope you can get the Monte back on the road soon so you can have some fun this summer (with no worries)!

How are things coming along on Kim's car?

[SRD art]

Sounds like a great plan to get up and running again.

[xxxturbo6]

Doug,

I have not had a single problem out of my 2004r yet after 4 yrs of it being rebuilt and I will be willing to bet after the 2004r build your talking about you will be in the same boat so hold off on the t56 build until the new 2004r breaks.... I bet it will be awhile!

Give me a call sometime bud!

SW.

[SicMonte]

so....now im trying to decide on wether or not to get a manual valve body or keep it automatic.......

[craigs73]

hey doug not to be nosey but.....what is the 200r4 tranny gonna cost.....cause id really like to have one after i get mine back on road

[SSninja]

so....now im trying to decide on wether or not to get a manual valve body or keep it automatic.......

I've got a friend with a manual valve body in his car and he loves it. Doesn't seem to be too much of a hassle for him, and it'd be nice to be able to hold the car in a particular gear.

That said, cost not being an issue, I'd still go with a T56.