Small update since March. I have continued to enjoy the car (new AC helps that out a ton). After having the parts sit for two months I finally installed my new AC a couple weekends ago. I got the new compressor, evaporator and accumulator on Saturday in about 3 hours and then took it to be charged up on Sunday to Firestone. All in, it was about 450 bucks and works great. This really brought my desire to drive the car every day back to life. I also got a set of new used upper rear arms from Shawn (Street Bu) to install. I am very pleased with the progress and look forward to driving the car some more. I took it upon myself to install discs in the rear to match my upgrade done to the front.
I picked this gem up this morning from my chassis shop. he had a late 90's model 4 door Blazer he was deconstructing. I paid 125 for it and dint have to do a thing other then load it in my pick up truck.
Also, StreetBu from
maliburacing.com sent me a set of upper rear arms with poly bushings in them that will be installed when I do the disc brake conversion.
I was off for four days this part weekend and spent it almost entirely on cars and with my boys. Between naps, cooking and entertaining I managed to get my disc brakes on the rear along with the replacement upper arms. My observations are as follows. The pedal is much more linear and constant. The rears will no longer lock up under hard braking and the front dives less. The car now has front and rear brakes from roughly a model year 2000 Blazer and they work great with the factory master cylinder and proportioning valve. One loss with in my book does not matter is the parking brake cable ends are different from the drum rear to the disc. I have both sets of parking brake cables and will see if I can make them work one day.
The time for the V8 comes closer day by day.
I bought a parts car last weekend and swapped the wiper motors but this has not solved my wiper issues so this remains a issue. I have it down to wiring or another bad motor. From the parts car I grabbed the tach filter, nicer corner lights, a nice grille, the wiper motor and the 3 piece air box from the grille to the radiator/ core support.
In keeping with my aged and patina look, I just bolted it in as everything had a nice even appearance to it. I also picked up a set of new front speakers which i will install soon. In my parts car purchase, I also got a set of headers, 2 HEI distributors one a used accel unit and the other a new chinese unit and a complete 350 motor which will go into my car this winter. In all a good past week for my monte.
On top of this, I continue to drive it almost daily and have yet to climb in and feel bored!
Slight delay but progress none the less to report. My machinist ended up with Kidney Stones the day I was supposed to meet him to drop off the motor. He still wanted to meet me but I told him no and to take time with his kids to recover during Thanks giving. In the meanwhile, I took a 750 mile road trip with my family for the holiday so everyone was having some fun. We finally made some time last night and hashed a plan.
He looked over the motor and to start told me he uses the same foundation for his circle track deals and they are more then reliable for that so mild street duty with my expectations should be no issue at all. Turns out my 880 block is also highly desirable. It has the powdered fracture cap rods and nodular crank with 4 bolt mains. He will clean the block, install new freeze plugs and cam bearings. We will also re-ring with moly rings and put a new set of bearings in it after the crank is polished. He will surface both the heads and the block deck to square everything up. On the heads, were doing a simple valve job and making sure everything checks out. I have a brand new drop in HEI to keep ignition to a minimum one wire hassle.
The general plan here is to keep it simple and reliable. The motor will have compression low so it burns 87 octane. Were talking 9.0 or so to one. I am going with a GM LT1 Hot cam, 525 lift and 218 duration. This will give me smooth operation and good vacuum for brakes and ac. The heads are AFR 190 cc that I bought new back in college and have served me well over the years. For induction I have three choices for intake and three choices for carbs. I have a Performer, Performer RPM airgap or a Victor Jr. For carbs I have a 1406 edelbrock, a q jet or a pro systems Holley 750 HP.
My dilemma is I am favoring driveability and economy over horsepower and performance here. I also want to keep the stock hood. I am leaning heavily towards the performer with q jet to achieve this. I have not had a q jet on a car in over a decade and am looking forward to its simplicity. If it does not cut it, I have other options HAHA. During this process, I will buy a torque converter and have my 200 4r gone through and beefed up as needed for the new motor. The machine shop will disassemble and mic my parts on Saturday and start ordering replacements on Monday. With the minimum need of machine work it should go decently at the machine shop and the bill should not kill me during the holiday cash bleed.
Details to come as work continues.