1985 Monte Carlo
 

Lance,
Good to see it is going together
Yes you do get good at pulling and
reinstalling engines if you run them hard
and have had the same vehicle for a while

My Firebird has eaten 8 engines and the current
one has been in and out 3 times now
Pantera has only been 3 times

Practice makes perfect

Hope it runs great

Bob

Headers and transmission in place...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._131139-XL.jpg

Good thing I don't do this for a living, I'd go broke.

Only small parts left on the table now, hopefully the rest goes pretty quick and pain free.

What headers are you running? They kind-of look like the 3/4 length variety in that image.

I guess you would call them a "mid'length". Longer than a shorty but much shorter than a long tube.

https://images.holley.com/2466-1hkr_02.jpg

https://www.holley.com/products/exha...arts/2466-1HKR

For my application they are probably as good as it would get. A couple spark plugs are a bear to get in and the rear passenger side bolt can only be accessed from under the car. A skinny 5/16s box end can tighten the rest of the bolts down okay.

Ok.... About the same thing I've used on the G-bodies I've done. I call them 3/4 length as most refer the street-rod style that dump like RamHorns as 'shorties'.

Had to make another run to Speedway this afternoon to get another fitting to finish the fuel line up, then it freaking leaked a little bit anyway. I strategically placed a few fire extinguishers around and fired it off anyway...and it hit and fired off on the first hit of the key. Took a quick look around and topped off the coolant, then shut it down to wait for my neighbor Mark to get there. Then we fired it back off and he held it up around 2,000 RPM for 20 minutes or so while I watched for leaks runs, drips or errors and fire...



It sounds awesome and seems to be super smooth. I marked the intake and distributor before taking it apart and basically just put the distributor right back on the marks and it seems pretty dang close. No hint of smoke out the exhaust, cooling system works perfectly, hot idle oil pressure is almost double what it was before...and no strange noises...so far I'm very happy.

Now I get to re-do the fuel line, then put the shifter in and make sure the clutch is all good...then put a timing light on it and dial that in...then it's time to hit the streets!!!

While re-doing a motor hurts the wallet, its a good excuse to upgrade some items, and the sound of the first exhaust note of a fresh motor has to rank right up there with any automotive pleasures.

Break it in and let er rip Lance.

Congrats, Lance! Glad you got it all back together. Have fun breaking it in.

First drive in the books! All good...

Man does is accelerate smoother now. I've had people tell me before it vibrated under acceleration but I've always just thought that's how it is. Now I know what they were talking about. It is SO much smoother than before.

Power is good, I didn't beat on it too hard but enough to realize it's spiking lean on hard tip in and waits until fuel catches up before it takes off like a banshee. I've already sent the logs and file to the tuner and we'll get that cleaned up right quick. It's making a bit less vacuum at idle, so pulling fuel out there and adding a TON of fuel at WOT middle RPM range. We had the comp % limited to 15% since the last tune was so dialed in, he adjusted that out also to help dial it in.

Email just came in with new tune. Time to upload it and go drive again!!

Is there anything specific you attribute to the vibration reduction beside just a pro/machine-shop balancing vs. OE crate short block assembly?