My 1985 Monte Carlo SS Barney...

[SSLance]

Reworked and tweaked on the exhaust from the X-Pipe back to the tail pipes last night and I think we've got everything clearanced and more secure now. Had to move the hanger behind the muffler on the driver's side about 3/4s of an inch in, twisted the part of the tailpipe that goes up over the axle to a more upright position, re-aligned the tailpipe hanger and put two 1" long welds on the X-pipe to exhaust pipe in front of the muffler connection (to help keep the tail pipe from coming loose and twisting again). Then my friend John worked his magic with the big hammer to flatten out the one part of the tailpipe that was still just a touch outside of the frame rail on the driver's side.


Passenger side was easier, it had come loose and twisted over again just like last time so we just twisted it back into place and put two 1" welds on the X-Pipe to exhaust pipe connection and snugged all of the hangers back up again.


Hopefully my welds hold and it'll all stay in place from now on.




Still need to move the rear axle back to the driver's side just a touch to center it better and hopefully then I'll only have very little rubbing on each side under extreme tire deflection situations. Next option if that continues to be a problem will be longer wheel studs and a bit larger spacer, but I hope that isn't necessary.

[SSLance]

So with a month off between events, Barney is back under the knife so to speak...






The only piece of stock suspension left on the car is the front lower control arms and front spindles...so I'm mapping out all of the front suspension pivot points and am going to use those measurements to pick the best replacements to get the geometry where I need it.

Tried doing the measurements with the front tires on, but they were just in the way of everything, so we measured the spindle height sitting on the tires in race trim, then put the bottle jacks under the LCAs right next to the ball joints simulating ride height but with the tires out of the way. The 2x6s are just there for safety reasons, not holding up any weight.

The string running down the length of the car is the exact centerline of the chassis, all of the pivot points are measured off of it as well as in front of or behind the centerline of the spindles.

1 BBC fully dressed head is on the floorboard in front of the seat and 2 SBC heads are behind the seat to simulate my 172 pounds of driver weight and the rest of the car is as it is set up on race day as well.

[SSLance]

With the upcoming planned changes being made on the car, a bigger bar is going to be necessary. So today I went ahead and replaced the 1.25" solid (31.75 mm) front sway bar that came on the car with a 36 mm bar from a 3rd gen Camaro a friend found for me this week.

Some sway bar facts snipped from the MCSS board sway bar thread.

The numbers below are lbs/inch at either bar end relative to the midpoint of the center torsional section. Fred Puhn's number as per his formula is end to end considering bar torsion plus arm bending and is therefore doubled in order to simplify direct comparisons. The difference between the Puhn-based number and Bar Torsion + Arm Bending here is in the Young's and shear modulus material properties, which do vary somewhat. The numbers below represent E = 30E6 psi and G = E/2.6.

Considering only the effect of bar torsion results in unrealistically high estimates, and even Fred Puhn's approach considering torsion plus arm bending is a little high (though certainly good enough for practical purposes).

Stock bar stats

1.25" solid
759 Complete Model
803 Bar Torsion + Arm Bending
983 Bar Torsion Only
829 Based on Fred Puhn's formula

New bar

36mm x .22" wall
970 Complete Model
1027 Bar Torsion + Arm Bending
1257 Bar Torsion Only
1060 Based on Fred Puhn's formula

The new bar is about half the weight of the old solid bar and about 20% stiffer. It was a tight fit, had to rearrange the Gran Prix bar and the triangulated F41 bars a bit for everything to fit...and it's still a bit snug. I drove it up to the car wash after the install and it certainty feels different.

The car is now loaded up on the trailer and prepped for an autocross tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it feels on the course.

[silvermonte]

Would you mind taking a picture of those bars up front some time. My olds came with alot of the bars and Im wanting to see what else I have to add.

[SSLance]

The diagonal bars from the frame horns by the bumper mounts to the center of the K member are the F41 bars. The bar going between the frame rails by the bumper mounts is the Gran Prix bar.



This picture shows them a bit better.



These were taken a couple of years ago. Today I had to turn the GP bar around and install washers between the F41 bars and the GP bars to move them out away from the new larger sway bar. I'll take more pics of the new setup next time I'm under the car.

[silvermonte]

Thanks for the pictures. My car came with just the f41 bars, and ive seen pictures of where people had welded some bars to attach the two f41 bars to make a triangle of sorts. Do you think that would work as well as the set that you have with the Grand Prix bar and the f41 bars being seperate?

[SSLance]

As noted in my "need a little bit of help" thread here, Ron Sutton has suggested that I increase the rear spring rate on the car. Here is what he came up with for a solution. It is a 11x5.5 225# Hypercoil spring with a 2.5" pigtail on one end to fit the stock spud. Ron also prescribed a Afco spring height adjuster to let us fine tune the ride height once all of the other changes to the car have been made.

Here are some pictures of the new rear springs and spring height adjusters. The springs have a 2.5" pigtail on one end and a 4.375" ID on the other. The adjuster flange has a 3.5" OD the spring sets on. My friend John turned a set of spacers for me to make sure the big end of the spring stays centered on the adjuster.





Here is a picture of one of the adjusters set over the spud on the chassis the top of the rear spring rides on.





The DSE front springs that I am going to reuse have a 4.063" ID so John also made me a pair of spacers for the front adjusters.



The adjusters offer 2" of range, from a 1/2" to 2 1/2"





What gets me is these adjusters and springs cost about half as much as any off the shelf drop springs sold for these cars. Just think of how many of these cars have had springs changed out over and over again trying to get the spring rate and ride height where the owner wanted it... Doesn't this make a WHOLE lot more sense?

Once I test fit everything, I'll decide if the adjuster will go on top of the spring or on the bottom, whichever it fits better on and gives the easiest access to is what I'll use. I think I'm going to drill a couple of holes in the adjuster flange and rosette weld the spacers to the flange to make sure they stay in place. On the big one for the rears, I can probably drill and tap it to run a screw into place but the small one for the fronts there probably isn't enough meat there for that. Heck, the spacers might not even be needed for the fronts, but they are there just in case.

[Ron Sutton]

Going this route provides ...

A. Overall Ride height adjustability
B. Individual corner height adjustability
C. Individual corner weight load adjustment ... to better balance the car on scales.



.

[Mizzouri]

Looking forward to the 11th to see how this all pans out for you Lance.

[Samckitt]

I like the interior, are those recovered GTO seats?

[SSLance]

Yes indeed they are... Love the seat upgrade.

[Samckitt]

Yes indeed they are... Love the seat upgrade.

I have some too, havent had them recovered though.

[BanditDave]

I so want to do the GTO seat upgrade in my Cutlass. What did in all entail to get them installed?

Dave

[SSLance]

As far as I know, mine were the first to go into a G-body, several have followed on the Monte board though...many of them have posted their mounting brackets in my original thread as well.

http://www.montecarloss.com/communit...438#Post687438

They are a tight fit for sure, and the floor brace on the passenger side is the biggest hurdle. But well worth the effort...

[67CamNKC]

Very cool car. It's also great to know there's more people on here from the KC area. I know Mizzouri and Rhino are from around here as well. I'm on the KS side, near Johnson DR and K7 in Shawnee. My car won't be road worthy until next summer at the soonest. I'm out of town this coming weekend in TX racing (boats), but I really want to get out and watch (or if they allow rides) an SCCA event.

[Wraith]

I am surprised more people haven't used dirt track parts, I used some of those weight jacks on my 80' in the rear a few years back. Love the build, keep it moving so I have a blueprint to go by.

[SSLance]

Very cool car. It's also great to know there's more people on here from the KC area. I know Mizzouri and Rhino are from around here as well. I'm on the KS side, near Johnson DR and K7 in Shawnee. My car won't be road worthy until next summer at the soonest. I'm out of town this coming weekend in TX racing (boats), but I really want to get out and watch (or if they allow rides) an SCCA event.

Thanks, What kind of boat racing? You can grab a ride a long at one of our SCCA events for sure, come on out to the one in Sept.

[SSLance]

I am surprised more people haven't used dirt track parts, I used some of those weight jacks on my 80' in the rear a few years back. Love the build, keep it moving so I have a blueprint to go by.

Thanks... Shoot as fast as you are going, you might be done before me!!

[67CamNKC]

When is the event in Sept? Last time I went for a ride was at the GG autoX a couple years ago and it was a blast! We (my family and I) run a pro-mod drag boat (1/4 mile). It's been a hobby 20+ years. Our FB page is www.bealmotorsports.com We run at the Wheatland Missouri track on Labor Day weekend.

[Mizzouri]

Test & Tune - April 6
Event #1 - April 7
Rookie School - April 13
Event #2 - April 14
Street Survival - May 11
Event #3 - May 19
Event #4 - June 1 (HPT - Topeka)
Event #5 - June 2 (HPT - Topeka)
Solo School - June 8
Event #6 - June 9
Event #7 - June 30
Event #8 - July 28
Event #9 - August 11
Event #10 - September 15
Event #11 - September 29
Event #12 - October 27