1985 Monte Carlo SS known as Barney

[WSSix]

nice work, Lance. Glad to know you're getting close to having the car back on the road.

What flywheel and clutch combo did you go with? I see that's a McLeod clutch. Is it their street twin? I'm finally working on getting my 383 built and am looking into clutches. I currently run a Fidanza aluminum flywheel and Luk replacement clutch and pp. I'd like to upgrade at least the clutch and pp. Not sure what to do about the flywheel. The aluminum has been fine and got even better once I installed 3.90s out back, no more difficult starts from stop. I'm just not sure if I should stay with it.

Thanks

[SSLance]

Thanks... I went with the Mcleod Street Extreme kit

http://www.mcleodracing.com/index.ph...lutch-kit.html

It is supposed to be good for up to 700 ft lbs. The RST twin was considered but with the new required flywheel it was going to be almost twice the money this setup cost.

I'm just hoping this is halfway street compliant...not like an on off switch. Also hoping it lasts longer than a year. I did find it interesting that the pressure plate that came with this kit has the exact same part number as the pressure plate that came with the RAM kit that I put in last year. The way I understand it, there is only one company that makes replacement PPs for the LT1 style clutch kits and everyone that sells an LT1 clutch kit uses them.

[WSSix]

Thanks Lance. Yeah, the street twin clutch has always been expensive and heavy. It was the best at holding the power back in the day though.

Luk is the company that produces the pp. You might be able to find a stamping on the pp from Luk. Factory replacement units are also supposedly LT4 equivalent designs. Let me know how it drives once you get it on the road.

[Centerforce]

Making good progress! Sorry to hear the bread didnt work out for you

[SSLance]

Well, Barney moved under it's own power yesterday...twice actually... I made two ten mile easy drives just to shake it down and all systems are go, except for a somewhat nasty header leak that made it sound like a connecting rod was trying to fight it's way out of the engine.

Naturally this ruined the mood for me and I went dark for most of the weekend while I chased the problem...which I found today. Because I am running smallish oval port headers on raised D-port exhaust port heads, apparently there is very little margin for error in gasket placement. The gasket has about a 1/4" of wiggle room on the bolts where it moves around and if it is at any extreme edge of that movement, there is very little gasket material coverage of the flange. Here you can see where the gasket was stuck to the header flange and near the top you can where it blew thru as the heads heated up.



This was the other header where you can tell that the gasket was centered and there was no leaks on this side.



Once I had the new gaskets in hand, I discovered that the very same thing could happen to it if I didn't get the gasket set perfectly in place. I was standing there scratching my head, making marks on the gasket trying to figure out how I was going to line it up perfectly once the header was on the head...and Terri walked up and said, "why don't you just glue the gasket to the header?" So I did just that.



I'm letting the RTV set up now and next time I have a couple of free hours, I'll get the headers back on the car and continue on with a start up and tuning of the new mill. The new clutch feels great, no fluid leaks so far, no strange vibrations or running issues, everything else seems pretty good. Just need to do some tuning on it once I can hear if there is any detonation, which was impossible before over the header leak.

[Vegas69]

I wouldn't glue them around the ports. I know they make a high temp rtv, is that what you used?

[SSLance]

I didn't have the High temp RTV on hand so I just used a few dabs of grey RTV on the parts between the ports. I did not put any too close to any of the ports.

I just need it to hold the gasket in place until the bolts are snugged up. I'm sure the RTV will cook out after a few heat cycles but at this point if that is the worst of the evils I'm dealing with, I'm okay with it.