My 1985 Monte Carlo SS Barney...

[rchaskin]

Is the clutch disk a sprung hub, or solid?

[SSLance]

It is sprung... Feels very good so far, it only just slightly chattered on me once during both of my test drives.

[SSLance]

Not too exciting...but at least its proof it runs...

[rchaskin]

Nice apron and gloves,you look like a mad scientist....lol.

Sounds good!

[SSLance]

I knew someone would bring that up! lol... Apron keeps the belt buckle off the paint and the gloves keep the anti-seize and grime off the paws...

Thanks, pretty stoked to try again today on the headers. Going to be 71 degrees here again and I have a pretty light afternoon scheduled.

[SSLance]

Little bit better day today... Reinstalled the headers today and installed the wideband. Started the car up and it was pretty quiet...maybe just the slightest ticking, almost like a lifter tick but I know it's not. I let it warm up real good, then shut it off and retorqued the header bolts.

So I took off on a test drive with a vacuum gauge and Air Fuel meter running inside the car. Car sounded great, ran great and I really enjoyed my short drive. I drove up to the engine builders shop just to see if he was there, as I pull up...I hear the leak coming back. Sure enough, it has started puffing out a header flange somewhere again. It's not as bad and at least I know what it is now. When I got back home I torqued the bolts one more time with it really hot and a few of them were a bit loose...hopefully this will stop it. Either way, I'm not going to worry about it right now. I know what it is, I know why it's doing it and I may have a plan on how to attack it once I'm good and ready. For now though, it's off to tuning and breaking the new clutch in.

I did open the secondaries up this round...you know, just to make sure they still work. :D It's quite a bit different than before.

[SSLance]

I've been driving Barney around quite a bit last few days, even drove it 40 minutes across KC to the SCCA meeting last night. I'm having a blast driving it, it's much the same...but oh so different at the same time. It looks the same, it sounds the same, and it drives the same, until you press on the loud pedal. Before it pulled real hard out of the hole, then kind of slacked off the rest of the way up the RPMs. Now it pulls hard out of the hole...and keeps on pulling just as hard all the way up.

I'm really happy with the new Mcleod Street Extreme clutch. It is smooth as silk upon engagement, no chatter whatsoever. I'm still taking it easy on it breaking it in right, but so far I like it.

I've been working on the AFRs, tune a bit, drive a bit, tune a bit, drive a bit and I've discovered that as it heat soaks, the vacuum gets erratic and the AFRs lean out...signs of a vacuum leak. I reused the old carb to manifold insulator so I have a new one on the way, hopefully that is it. If not I have a few other things to check. Once that is ironed out I'll nail down the carb tuning.

It is already much better than I had it last year after the carb swap. While at cruise, it used to stumble or shudder just a bit as it got fat if throttle was applied below 1800 RPM. I drove it home last night in 6th gear mostly around 1500-1600 RPM and it stayed around 15:1 AFR and smooth. Off idle is good as well. It is pretty hard for me to watch AFRs while on WOT for now, need a passenger to do this safely, but I know it feels pretty good with the butt dyno.

A header is leaking again, it gets worse as it gets hotter and is almost quiet on cold start up. I'm not worried about that now. I'm formulating a plan to fix it right but for now I'm working on everything else.

[Streetbu]

Just remember, an exhaust leak in front of your wideband can cause erratic readings as it sucks clean air into the exhaust...

[SSLance]

Yep... Have considered that as well. Thanks...

[SSLance]

Well, it's not hot rodding if you don't have to love on some things...right?

Seems my continuing battle for space on this car while trying to cram 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag continues.

I pulled the headers off yet again yesterday to investigate for a possible gasket fix and found no sign of a leak whatsoever...they were sealed up tight. After some reassembly, some discussions with the engine builder, and more investigation...I discovered I could feel a rod cap contacting the windage tray inside the new Canton oil pan once the oil pan started to take heat.

It clears and is quiet when started cold, but the more heat the pan takes, the worse the feel and the noise gets. This was not present during the dyno runs, our thoughts are the pan shifted sideways just a touch when the engine was sat on it for the ride home. We knew it was close and we thought this might be a possibility when we first discussed the noise, but the header leak seemed more likely so I spent a week chasing that angle. Had I just put my fingers on the pan instead of everything else under there beside the pan, I could have saved myself a lot of time and anguish.

The builder wants me to bring the car to him because he says he has a trick way of moving the pan over a touch and cinching it back down. Sure hope it works as option #2 is lifting the engine to remove the pan and modify it or use a thicker pan gasket.

I'm frustrated yet happy at the same time that the issue is now properly diagnosed and we can continue on with a proper fix.

I've got about 200 miles on it now and I must say it is a radically different feel that what I had under there before. It looks sounds and feels almost the same until you open the secondaries up, then things change in a big way. Still getting used to it and still haven't really got on it hard as I'm trying to break the new clutch in the right way. Can't wait until I can finish the fine tuning on a quiet engine and turn the wick up to really see what she has now.

[Streetbu]

How frustrating! Two steps forward and one step back. I hate when that happens but you have the drive to see this thru and it sounds like it will be a blast with your new found power

[SSLance]

Barney is back home safe and sound, tucked away in the house garage and ready to be driven...

The shop raised the engine a bit and dropped down the pan. They snapped these two pictures with their Snap On scope Camera (I took pictures of their screen, sorry for the quality).





What you see there is a piece of metal that holds the scraper. On that metal you can see where a rod nut was just touching it enough to knock the plating off in one spot.

Here is a picture that shows the scraper better



They then pushed down on the metal just a bit there where it was hitting and reinstalled the pan being sure to push it as far to the passenger side as possible before cinching it down.

The rods cleared when turning the engine by hand so they buttoned it up, put new oil and filter on it and test drove it to put some heat in it and it stayed quiet. I'm calling it fixed.

I didn't like any part of this, but they assured me that it is not all that uncommon and not that big of a deal, but also realized the noise was unsettling. I'm just glad it's fixed so I can go on with the rest of my off season projects... I sure appreciate Yancy taking care of this for me, this was much easier than pulling the engine again to pull the pan which would have been my remedy.

[kevs79]

Glad they got it figured out and fixed...hopefully!

[SicMonte]

wow....crazy stuff about the oil pan. I do not have that issue with mine...thank God!!

Love the shop too!!!

[Streetbu]

Good news!

[SSLance]

wow....crazy stuff about the oil pan. I do not have that issue with mine...thank God!!

Love the shop too!!!

Remember, I'm running a crank with a 3.8" stroke. We knew it was close, just got a little bit closer than we planned. All good now.

Check out my current shop project...



Not sure how i ever got along without a lift. :D

[SSLance]

I think I might just leave well enough alone... :D

I have about 500 miles on the new mill now, it is running fantastic and exceeding all expectations. Now that the clutch is broke in I can really start hammering on it, might even make a video or two...

What I have been working on lately is programming the MSD box to get the timing as efficient as I can get it as well as working on the cooling system to keep the temps in a more comfortable range.

The timing escapades can be followed here if interested http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=48612 I am going to stop right where I'm at instead of advancing the distributor to 45* locked in as I'm a bit concerned about rotor phasing and cross firing with it that far advanced. I really don't see that the added gain by the additional steps will affect the way I drive the car that much, not enough to take the chance of adding additional troubles.

The cooling system is getting better, I might have it where I need it now and if not, I have one more trick up my sleeve. The car doesn't overheat, but the way it was configured...the electric fans wouldn't kick on low speed until the dash gauge went past 220*, then shut back off at around 212*. At idle, any temp over 210* or so caused a bit of an erractic idle, caused the idle to raise from 850 to 950 RPM and the AFRs got a bit wacky as well. As long as it was idling under 200*, everything just worked smoother. This is most likely carb related and I've resigned myself that I just won't get this setup to run as smooth as a EFI inducted setup. It's pretty good like it is though so I just worked on getting the idle temps down. For reference, at cruise on the highway...it stays steady at 180* without the fans running, due to the 180* thermostat.

I had my two fan switches both in the thermostat housing and had the gauge sensor in the driver side head. I moved the low speed fan switch to the passenger side head and that made the fans kick on low speed just before the gauge gets to 220* and it kicks back off between 200-210*, at idle in the garage the fans only run for a minute or so.

This is much better and the idle stays pretty stable in the garage. I don't think I ever hear the fans kick on high speed, really don't think the engine ever gets hot enough for high speed to be necessary. Now I can override the temp switches with my 3 position switch on the dash for the fans, what I will probably do during race days is use the dash switch to put the fans on high right before and right after runs to help keep the temps at bay when not at highway speeds.

If I decide it's necessary, I'll pick up a lower temp switch (like on at 195-off at 185) and put it in the t-stat housing to make the fans come on even sooner. This is a pretty easy fix and won't require draining the water again or moving any wires.

One thing I can not figure out though, and I'm sure it is carb related is the idle speed after driving the car. No matter how hard or easy I drive the car, once out on the road, any time I come to a stop light, the idle stays between 950-1000 RPM. I can not figure out what is different, or what is happening after the car is driven but it must be either extra fuel in the idle circuits or maybe extra air getting into the carb somehow, but it is constant and has been like this for a while. About the only thing I have not tried to correct this is swapping out the PCV valve. Not sure if that would affect this but I've pretty much resigned myself to live with this as well.

Like I said, most people driving this car would never notice any of this, all they would notice is this car runs VERY close to as if it actually had fuel injection. Starts are seamless, even hot starts, it can be driven right away after start up with no hiccups, it never has even the slightest of hesitations once on road...if you ask for it, it is there every time... Overall it is SWEET to drive. Can't wait to get it out on the track. My first event is an autocross test n tune April 9th.

[Nicks67GTO]

I had the exact same issue with my Qjet. It ran flawlessly in day to day scenarios but coming to a stop light it would idle high for a minute then very slowly come down but never to where it would if it was idling in the garage. That is unless i quick reved it and then it would sit right down. I never did get it figured out though. Other than that little quirk it ran great on the street. Ill be curious to see if you get it tuned out.

[SSLance]

We think we know what is going on with the carb now, just not ready to make the changes necessary to fix it.



If you look closely you'll see some nozzle drip on the passenger side primary...we think the 31 year old fuel pump has hardened diaphragms and is putting too much pressure on the needle, filling the bowl up too far. The fix will involve a new fuel pump, new line to carb, pressure regulator, and a return line. I'll start gathering parts but in the mean time it runs pretty dang good and is track ready as far as that goes.

- - - Updated - - -

I decided that since my engine upgrade is basically finished and I had a bit of time and money left over...that I'd tackle some left over suspension projects.

My first chore was to corner weigh and balance the car again. I have not done this since before all of the interior changes last year and the aluminum heads this year. First step was to disconnect the sway bars front and rear. After that set tire pressures to race trim, remove spare tire and it was ready to weigh...fuel tank was completely full. Basically the car shed about 80 pounds with the changes above, but the corner balance\cross weights stayed in the range they needed so I didn't need to make any adjustments to the springs.

Here is the car in race trim, no driver.



With driver


and cross...



Car still has 57% on the front just a little bit less than before is all. Cross is within a half a point of the total right weight which is where Ron likes to see the cross on a left heavy car like mine. Right front could use 10 more pounds or so but that isn't enough to mess with making changes in our eyes. Overall I'm happy with it, really good to see it under 3500#s now.

So while it was on the level blocks, I decided to recheck the alignment.



Apparently my mechanic forgot to set the toe last year after making some rear ride height and caster changes...so I raced all year last year with a 1/4" toe in. Good news is, with alignment set at 1/8" out...now my steering wheel is straight again.

Then I removed the F41 Jounce bars and Gran Prix bars along with the already removed rear sway bar...in preparation for some new parts on their way from UMI.

The Jounce and Gran prix bars plus hardware weighed in at 6.76#, Ramey says UMI's new front brace weighs 9#s. I'm thinking the extra 3 pounds will be worth it.



I'll weigh the new rear sway bar against the old once it gets here and share as well.

That's it for this weekend...unless I get froggy and decide to clean the wheels up, they kinda need it.

[Streetbu]

Wow, looks good. It always surprises me how much more later model G bodies weigh. My '78 is 3510 with me in it and a half tank of gas.. Only thing I've done to drop weight is an aluminum intake and get rid of the a/c.