On the 'mildly' Cheap SS Monte Carlo chasing a 9.0___

[81cutlass]

Good find on the intake gasket, always nice to find the cause of an issue.


And I know you have enough to do, but before you do DW I would stick an elbow on that downpipe and dump it out the side of the car. It's going to ricochet off the bottom of the car on those long drives and drive you crazy.

But maybe I am just soft 🙂

 

[GroceryGetter83]

Maybe dumping all that heat from the exhaust right next to the trans isn't helping the temperature?

 

[64nailhead]

Good find on the intake gasket, always nice to find the cause of an issue.


And I know you have enough to do, but before you do DW I would stick an elbow on that downpipe and dump it out the side of the car. It's going to ricochet off the bottom of the car on those long drives and drive you crazy.

But maybe I am just soft 🙂

I plan to put exhaust out from under the car in a make shift manner so that I can easily take it off and put it on with a single 'jacking up' just for Drag Week. It's definitely too loud presently to live in much beyond an hour with ear plugs in,

Maybe dumping all that heat from the exhaust right next to the trans isn't helping the temperature?

I know it looks like that, but FWIW it stays below 185 for normal driving with the fan on all the time. But at the track it has made 45 degrees during a run, hence my reason for wanting to be 150 or lower when I hit the burnout box. I don't think the exhaust heat is making it to the trans once I get above 80mph or so. But it's getting a minor revamp anyway.


I made a list last night of things to get done before DW - oof - I'll be busy I'm sure.

 

[motorheadmike]

I made a list last night of things to get done before DW - oof - I'll be busy I'm sure.

I remember my thrash. It wasn't fun. Especially building the trailer out.

You just need a loud valve or cutout off the bottom of that pipe and a 3" single out the back. Easy peasy.

 

[64nailhead]

Couldn't et a video f a good run. This was the slowest I ran for the day - 1.7 60' and lifted twice before the 330'.


The next run was the best 1/8 and 60' that I've had - 6.4 to the 1/8 and 1.504 60'. But something was correct/right. I was running 1/8's only because the tech remembered me from the week before 10.006 in a 10 second legal car so he gave me the 'talking to' which was very decent of him. He could have busted me for sub 6.6 1/8ths as well, but didn't. I was very appreciative.

Last week on the last pass I leaned on it hard (more timing and more boost) to try to get through the stripe faster and something felt like I hit a rev limiter, boost cut or something? I never figured out what that was until yesterday. On the 3rd pass (best pass) I pushed about a 1/2 gallon of coolant. It was one of those things that makes me go 'hmmm'. It took longer than usual to get it cooled down between runs, I topped off the radiator and let it rip for a 4th hot. That led to OUCH. It pushed out about 1-2 gallons and looked like it blew it up, but I didn't. It made a strange noise that resulted in me lifting asap. On the run down road back to the pits it crept to 240 and the trans over 205, so I new it got hot. The hood and windshield were covered in coolant that were pushed out of the radiator cap. I believe the noise was coolant shooting onto the heater delete panel that I made out of an ultra flimsy piece of old Monte Carlo roof. It was hitting on all 8 cylinders and sounded normal. There was not any coolant in the oil or under the valve cover. I guess, I must have lifted a head and probably started the head gasket damage the weak before when I added 5 degrees of timing at 21 psi to try to make more speed.


I drove it on the trailer and off the trailer once I got it home - sounds great. I ran a compression test and all cylinders are 175-185. I have the heads off and they look fine, but I can see where the head gasket began leaking on the driver side. I still have to measure piston heights (looking for bent rods), but I expect none since the compression was so close from cylinder to cylinder. I am running ARP head bolts on this (Bruce gave me crap assuming I was running re-used stock TTY head bolts lol.) I splurged on this for the ARP bolts, like $110 IIRC. And dang, were they tight - verified when I was removing them. The heads are going to the machine shop to be verified for flatness tomorrow. I'm using the cheapest possible head gaskets available as well - the BTR 4.8/5.3 units.

My intake temps were better, but still a runaway train. While contemplating the day's activities today I looked at the MC and it dawned on me that the radiator and intercooler are more than 3 times the size of the hole in the enduro bumper.

So I'm looking for some vents that are license plate size to put in the bumper on each side of the license plate. And I'm expecting to pull the black piece off from the bottom of the bumper and I'm going to fab a chin spoiler to install under the radiator much the way most of the other G-bodies are.

I should mention that in the video I have the right side shock set to 12 of 18 to keep it from compressing. It felt faster with it set looser, but time will tell. I have to hit the junkyard to get a sway bar installed to act like an antiroll.

Lastly, I'm going to try to do what wingnutz did to 'tie down' the front end via installing stops in the upper control arms - that looked very ingenuitive.

 

[Supercharged111]

Is there a way to add a bottom feeding capacity to it?

 

[motorheadmike]

Don't cut holes in the bumper cover! Duct the air like the factory did. If the factory ducting is still in place you definitely need to create a low pressure area behind the radiator. The overheating is likely a series of factors. How did you bleed the system, LS engines ? How efficient and effective are the fans and radiator? Is everything sealed up air tight around the radiator and fan shroud?

I am just bleating out common things here, but you should take a systematic approach to researching the root cause of your problem(s).

 

[64nailhead]

Is there a way to add a bottom feeding capacity to it?

Look at post #6

Don't cut holes in the bumper cover! Duct the air like the factory did. If the factory ducting is still in place you definitely need to create a low pressure area behind the radiator. The overheating is likely a series of factors. How did you bleed the system, LS engines ? How efficient and effective are the fans and radiator? Is everything sealed up air tight around the radiator and fan shroud?

I am just bleating out common things here, but you should take a systematic approach to researching the root cause of your problem(s).

I don't have a coolant overtemperature issue, only an IAT issue. Without meth it will see 230 degrees. With meth 190. Yes, my shroud is tight and the radiator works. The issue is the lack of low pressure under the rad as you described. I'm guessing here, but the stock rad worked fine with the high HP 305 lol(180 hp). It's designed to create a low pressure behind the radiator, but my issue is I have the cac very close to the factory air 'dam' or whatever it's called and it's impeding air flow through that contraption that GM thought was a good idea - resulting in a 24" x 8" air opening for the radiator..

I plan to cut out more of the factory steel piece and then put a chin spoiler below the radiator. I am going to pull the the black lower piece off from the enduro bumper. I believe you are spot on with your description - I have have no low pressure area behind the radiator and cac. Also, keep in mind that I don't overheat this thing with a single row factory radiator (until I lifted the head) making 800 or so HP at speed. On the street it works fabulously - below 210 all the time unless I get into hill climbing at 30-40mph. City driving, highway driving it never sees 205.

Regarding bleeding the air out of an LS - yes it's a chore UNTIL you drill 2 or 3 1/8" holes in the t-stat. Before I drilled the holes it would take 5-7 heat cycles to get full of coolant. It probably will be a problem if I drive it in weather below 30 degrees, but I don't think drag radials and snow work well together so I'll leave it home when it's like that out 😉.

I am going to do your oil pump mod while the radiator is out because it's pretty easy presently to get the balancer and front cover off. How much oil pressure does it yield? I really don't wan tot empty the oil pan in the name of an extra 10psi of pressure.

 

[Supercharged111]

I see the holes in the core support or whatever that is. You'll have to forgive my G body ignorance, my 83 doesn't have that and it's the only G I've ever put hands on. What feeds it? It looks to me like the front grill is it. Did these cars ever use a lower air dam to direct air though the radiator?

 

[64nailhead]

I see the holes in the core support or whatever that is. You'll have to forgive my G body ignorance, my 83 doesn't have that and it's the only G I've ever put hands on. What feeds it? It looks to me like the front grill is it. Did these cars ever use a lower air dam to direct air though the radiator?

No. The low pressure was created right where I have my intercooler. I believe it's some of the reason I'm having issues.

My past experience with my son's 80 Cutlass was it had all kinds of overheating issues until we reinstalled the factory chin spoiler/damn (wrong term I'm sure) under the radiator. Once we installed that it never had an overheating issue again at highway speeds or under heavy load. And that motor made alot of heat in a hurry without any issues for the cooling system.