BUILD THREAD Poor Man's Monte Carlo

[Opie Knievel]

Typical Car Guy video. Spends 59 seconds showing the garage, car and, oh yah, here's a quick glimpse of the house for 1 second.
j/k - good luck with your new place.

Well yeah. Lol. The garage is gonna be where I spend a lot of my time and I kinda wanted to show it off. A 3 car garage was hard to find, the house isn't anything that special. Just your ordinary house.

Thanks for checking out the video.

 

[HAFROD]

Congrats Opie. I love the 3 car garage. I really enjoyed the ride around the countyside with you.

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Good to hear the Monte is back on the road! Congrats on the trans rebuild...looks like it works great. Big congrats on getting a place...and a 3 car garage to boot! Nice...Happy Easter Opie!!

 

[Opie Knievel]

Congrats Opie. I love the 3 car garage. I really enjoyed the ride around the countyside with you.

Thanks. I was hoping the rebuild would turn out good and I was really happy that it did. Glad you enjoyed the ride. I think I went too fast and scared some of these guys! Lol I love living on these country back roads. I'm not cut out for city living. I need space to be comfortable. The only thing I'm not gonna like is mowing that huge back yard. Lol. We're looking for a good mower to buy right now. Plus with all this space I've got room to park a few extra cars. My fiance said she didn't care.

 

[Opie Knievel]

Good to hear the Monte is back on the road! Congrats on the trans rebuild...looks like it works great. Big congrats on getting a place...and a 3 car garage to boot! Nice...Happy Easter Opie!!

Thanks. I've been jonesing to drive it again for a while now. I can't wait to get the place cleaned up and moved into it. It was a very Happy Easter indeed.

 

[Turbo Zach]

Congratulations on a job well done! Pretty country out there. Looks like you might have some trouble with water in garage. Wish I had concrete in my shed at home.

 

[Turbo Zach]

I think you are going to have way too much fun when you put the new engine in. By the way your 4.3 would probably eat my turbo 3.8.

 

[Opie Knievel]

Congratulations on a job well done! Pretty country out there. Looks like you might have some trouble with water in garage. Wish I had concrete in my shed at home.

Thanks man. I'm so used to living out here that sometimes I forget how lucky I am. A lot of people don't get to see the trees and grass all the time. Some people are stuck looking at concrete and asphalt. As far as water in the garage, I did notice a little bit getting into the left bay when we went to look at the place. I'm pretty sure I can do a little work on the driveway and fix that problem. The driveway needs work anyways. The gravels are loose and deep and it's so easy to spin trying to pull up out of there. I'll probably get some dense grade from the local quarry. It has a lot of small gravel and rock dust that packs down really well. When you get it wet and pack it down tight, it's almost as good as concrete but a whole lot cheaper. It's actually what they use for a base to pour concrete or lay asphalt on. I'm really happy about the concrete floor in the garage but it does have some cracks. I guess I'll have to work on that too.

I think you are going to have way too much fun when you put the new engine in. By the way your 4.3 would probably eat my turbo 3.8.

Lol. I miss having a stout V8 G Body so bad!!! It's been years since I had the '83 in my avatar. I know I'll have a blast with enough power to spin the tires and the ability to pass at will.

You really think the 4.3 would take the 3.8 turbo? I've always thought the 4.3 did pretty good for what it is. It's not fast but it's definitely quicker than the Geo!

 

[MrSony]

I got a surprise yesterday. I wasn't expecting the rest of my parts to get here until Monday but when I came home from work I found 2 boxes waiting for me.

The new crossmember bushings/isolators.


View attachment 63912


And the most complete rebuild kit I could find.

View attachment 63913

The kit comes with new bushings, thrust washers and Torrington bearings. A lot of kits don't come with these extras.

The only thing I don't have because I forgot to order it is assembly lube. I'm on my way to O'Reilly right now to buy some. I'm gonna try to get the transmission rebuilt today.

Where'd the kit from?

 

[MrSony]

Could I talk you into a step by step on the rebuild? I have only rebuilt one transmission, 2004R out of my 87 GN. After my build it had a 2-3 flair that I could not figure out. Took it to a trans shop and he said he did not see anything wrong when he tore it apart. Funny that it worked great after that. I've got an old 350 turbo here that I'd like to build. I guess I'm gun shy after my incident.

This is an old episode of Muscle Car that used to air on Spike TV on the weekends. It covers all the basics, and after watching it autos don't seem so daunting anymore. https://www.powernationtv.com/episode/MC2007-19/automatic-transmission-rebuilding
The ATSG manual and the Ron Sessions TH350 book are good to have as well, also a junk transmission to work on so you're not dicking up something good.