On the 'mildly' Cheap SS Monte Carlo chasing a 9.0____(oil pan woes)

64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
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Wheels and tires are here and got them installed.

Converter is installed as well, and it didn't disappoint. It really woke it up to be much more street friendly. Can get up on it in less than 1/2 a second and it's on the boost trail in a blink of an eye after that.

Now, just need to have a track open lol (sort of lol.)
 
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64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
5,708
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Upstate NY
Go into the trunk. There should be a connector on the left hand side. That will have the wiring for the turn signals, running lights, and brake lights in it. It will also have the wire for the sending unit.... You can check from there to see if the wire is good or bad or where the break might be.

Oh and congrats!
.
Determined the gauge is smoked today. I see that Mike's Monte has new ones available, so tomorrow I'll be calling. Also need a set of window sweeps. He sponsors here - might as well support him.


I have been having an issue keeping the charged air pipe on at te TB for more than 2 consecutive hits. So I glued it on with some spray adhesive. I made three hits today that opened the wastegate and the hose is still on. Hopefully this is resolved as it will be a while (or a little bit) before I push this over 21 psi.

Regarding tires, I bought a set of Mickey SS's drag radial slicks. I put on the cheapest wheels I could find lol - Bassett dirt track steel wheels. The tires required 8 oz of weights a piece to get in balance, but they are working pretty well, so far.

Finally, an all day test-n-tune is scheduled for a track within an hour (Cicero, NY) next weekend - hopefully the weather holds out.
 
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64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
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Received a new fuel gauge and the window sweeps. I was able to get the gauge installed and it it works (yay). Somewhat needed in a car that has one filling station inside of a 50 mile radius and gets 10 mpg.

Mike's Monte - ordered Monday, parts here on Wednesday - very decent guy to deal with.
 
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64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
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Made it to the track -it was less than spectacular. 1st run was the fastest and lifted at the 1/8 mark. Smoked the clutches out of the trans. Just took me four more runs to figure it out. Some of my own fault, some not. Could not get it into boost at launch.

Best time - 11.7 lifting at 1/8
Best speed - 12.1 at 127 mph with a 2.4 60 ft and 1st gear gone. Also figured out that stock brakes from 132mph aren't cutting it. Had a 1/2 second of 'oh sh*t - it ain't going to stop' - Island Dragway has no runoff path. For the 1st time in 30 years I was panicked for that 1/2 second. C6 brake conversion on S10 spindles ordered.

Trans pulled and going to be right at the end of the day - enough of the budget guy lol :)
 
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bracketchev1221

Royal Smart Person
Jan 18, 2018
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Well 127 is about 10.50 so it’s got some power. Island was always a track to be prepared and get on the brakes quick and hard. My dad used to run 9.90’s there with 4 wheel manual drums. He said you did not mess around stopping there.
 
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motorheadmike

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lilbowtie

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Jan 7, 2006
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Don't know what was in the pan, but never hurt to have that converter checked so you don't contaminate the next one.
 
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64nailhead

Goat Herder
Dec 1, 2014
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Upstate NY
The pan is black. The fluid on the stick was much darker than at the beginning of day. Maybe some metallic stuff in the pan as well.

The trans was bought used in working condition. I had a guy go through it, and it didn't work right ($650 in the toilet). I had him go back through it because my stupid sign was on crooked (another $300 in the toilet). Until Sunday I was good with the $950 or so, amd it was working great on the dyno and on the street. Now I'm thinking a TH400 looks better in hindsight, but no turning back now. It has an appointment at the transmission doctor - Mr/Dr. Smith. He's almost local and I'll be dropping it off tomorrow - I've had enough of the budget/no worky transmission program. Mr. Smith is not cheap, but not outrageous expensive either - he's the man behind my son's 200-4R that takes way more than I'm making.

Last night after I posted I watched the vids of each of the runs for the 1st time, and it was obvious it was fubar'd after the 1st run. The car stood up on the line lock on the 1st run and it never did that again and the 60 ft's got worse, worse and worse. The last run that went the fastest it flared on the 1st 2nd shift to hit the rev limiter - it was really bad.

Regarding the shift kit, it had none and I'll leave that to Mr. Smith as to whether to put in.


Regarding the short track - thanks for pointing that out. I thought the track looked shorter than most everywhere else I've been, but I figured they have fast cars there so it must be OK. I lifted after the line on the last (fastest mph) run, but nothing more than a 1/2 second and it picked up 5mph to 132 in the datalog (depending on accuracy - it was accurate on the previous runs). If I wouldn't have been such a wimp on the 1st run and ran it out, then I would've seen what was what. But I had a plan before I went to do what I did though. I wanted to make sure it stuck together and felt ok, stopped, no leaks, etc. I was pleased that I didn't oil down the track on my 1st day. And FWIW, I ran a compression check last night and all were 175-185. Oil pressure still at 19-20 at hot idle. I should've taken picture of the rod bearings that I re-used in this motor - I really never figured it would make it off the dyno.

My chinesium intercooler is worth every penny I didn't spend on it LOL. The last run my intake temps climbed 90 degrees to 220 - OUCH - all I can say i thank you E85. I was planning on building this without an intercooler and my friend convinced me to not try it - right now I'm rethinking that as well. I have the timing ultraconservative though, 13 degrees at 22psi at 11.5 AFR. I'm sure there is more in this with more timing, but until I can get the transmission to work and get it to build at least 5lbs on the line, there is really no need to crank up the top end just to scatter the motor IMO.

As far as the shocks/anti-roll bar program. I'm saving my money until I can't keep my foot in it when launching. I need to to save some money for the trans anyway. This is an unexpected expense - but I figured on some, just didn't think the 'indestructible 4L80' would be where I'm dumping money.


Thanks for the comments guys. No matter what I'm having fun!
 
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