Nate's 1987 Monte Carlo SS
Purchased 9-24-2008
Pictures
from the first day home Engine
compartment and overall 1st inspection Pictures
10/14/08
Restoration
Log - Phase 1 Restoration
Log - Phase 2 Fine Tuning - Phase 3
Restoration
Log Phase 1
Here is the running account of work begun 9/27/2008
The carb has Weber stamps on it, just like my old Carter. The number on
it is 1405 1785. I'll probably pick up a kit for it to freshen it up. Ideally, I'll get an intake to get rid of the adaptor, and the leaking.
I'll pick up a power steering bracket, to straighten
out the pump alignment, and get a bracket for the throttle cable too. There
was a cruise control on it. The wiring is still there. of course the vacuum
lines are laying loose, leaking like crazy. I don;t know how this thing ran
at all. The rest of the computer
harness will be going bye bye. It has all been burned up by the exhaust manifolds
at one time or another. Lots of clean up to do yet. Dropped the transmission
pan, and changed the filter. Re-connected the TV cable that had been disconnected,
from having the wrong bracket for the cable up top, after a carb change. Checked the crankshaft
code, and found this: Cleaned off the rear
axle code location and found this: Checked out the casting
code on the engine 10066038: I took off the inner fender,
stripped all the melted tubing off the harness so I could keep the wires
from the Drive's side intact. Then pulled out the harness. This left a pretty
big hole in the firewall. The wire on the left
looks like the old oil pressure switch, but I am not sure. the bundle comes
from the driver's side, but also links in to the climate control bundle
described earlier, via the brown wire. The brown and green wires go to
the climate control bundle. I want get rid of all
this, if it's not needed. Well, an extraction is in order.
The brass threads on this oil pressure sensor broke off in the block.
I hope an extractor will get it out. It will be easier with
the intake off. Stay tuned. It was really oily around this area of the intake. I don't suppose it has
anything to do with a BOLT
MISSING. What do you think. Click on any of these for a larger view. 10/9/08 Thanks to Nate's supervisory
skills, the Monte is very close to firing up. The front of the engine is
repainted black, the hoses are all OK or replaced. Got a battery hold
down, heater control valve, thermostat housing refurbished, gaskets ant new
bolts where needed, etc. This is really the worst
rust on the car, so I decided to attack it first. It's ground to metal
as much as I could without cutting it out, then sprayed with contractor's
rust neutralizer and primer. I let this sit overnight to cure. The rest of the wheel well including inside the opening edge
was coated with roof coating (tar) to keep the elements and mostly salt
around here, from sitting on the metal. The frame was painted black in
this section. Next chance I get, I'll be prepping and coating the other rear wheel well. The Monte is off the
jack stands, and back on the ground. This is the antenna pal Nate bought
when he was back the other day. Can someone shed some light on why the center sections
of these wheels appear painted, and the outer rims chrome? the coating,
whatever it is, is coming off. I am wondering about refinishing the centers
to the charcoal gray color like the 71 Chevelle wheels I had. The throttle/TV bracket
should be in tomorrow, and I'll get to test drive it. 10/14/08 This is the bracket that came with
the car. I repositioned the TV cable hole, by stretching and twisting it
quite a bit. Primed and ready for black engine paint. On the test run, the cable pulled out at the transmission end
again. Before it did, it proved that it was shifting nicely, and working
fine. Also found a pretty bad oil
leak from what looks like the rear main seal. Could be the oil pan gasket,
but I doubt it. Looks like the engine will be coming out to fix it. I took some pictures
while I had the Monte out on the nice fall day. 10/19/08 Came out to the garage and there was
also transmission fluid leaking. Looks like the grommet for the fill
tube is cracked big time. Pulled everything from the top and got ready to
pull the engine. This is the staging area and supervisory chair for Tom. I can't tell you how
great it is to have someone to grab a 9/16" socket from the tool box, when
I am already under the car with all metric tools. Thanks Tom. The company
is welcome. 10/20/08 Well I could only wait one day. I picked up the ram
for the hoist and went to work. I protected the nose with a 2x4 to help
it clear. I was moving the El camino and had this vision. The view with "Cowl Induction"
aiming at the engine. Click the picture for
a larger view. A much larger version is here. 10/24/08 Lots of cleaning today. Tear down to find that the timing chain was really
stretched. This is the old one. My work space, ready to clean and paint parts. Looks like I'll be getting
a timing cover with a little
more room for that chain though. It's wider than the original. It's also 3/32" too
close to the block at the cam side. It needs some sort of shim? Will the
cam walk out that far? The top gear in the picture (crank) is for sure seated
all the way in. 10/27/08 Getting started with clean and paint for the day. This is the only thing
that is flat black. I am testing this for the cowl piece. I
cleaned it, put rust converter on it, then primed it first. This is the transmission
cross member. Here is just one example
of what I have run in to everywhere on this thing. The torque converter
bolts are not the same. Which one is different? I want 3 matching bolts putting the power to the drive train. That will
have to be another day. The cable end looks as
if it has been ground down. My thought, is that if I could find a piece
of tubing, to slip over this end, hook to the trans side, then slide over
the connection, it would stay together better. Notice I put an O Ring
on this fitting. The transmission side bushing is flat and hard, and I
am hoping this will help seal it. 11/7/08 I was brainstorming with
the other jeweler at work the other day, and showed him the pictures.
Dave came up with what I think is a pretty good idea. I cut a couple
notches in the cable end (see close up). I was off todday and
dedicated the day to the Monte Carlo. This is the trim from below the windshield
that was all rusty. I had to take this off to get the heater core out
so I decided to sand it down and put some rust converter on it. I should
be able to get a finish on it in the next few days. I put the engine and transmission together, Put the exhaust manifolds on,
put the new studs on the manifolds. It's ready to drop in now. Tom took a look at
the pipes on the heater core last week, and suggested that I replace it.
The more I looked, the more I agreed it would be a good idea. Now that
it's out, it is pretty obvious that this was the right thing to do. I'll
be cleaning up a lot of silicone sealer from a real messy job from someone
else befiore me. Tom might be over after
work on Wednesday to help get the motor in the car.
I have never seen these kind of vacuum
lines before. It would be nice if they fit tight to the brake booster,
but there was a lot of air leaking past these. The back of the carb where
it was connected was sliding in and out of the carb too. No seal at all.
I took off the carb to take a look at where the leak may be. It was mostly
underneath the square bore
to spread bore adaptor.
9/29/08
Worked on the Monte for
a while today. Started at the junk yard, till it started pouring rain. Got
a Power steering bracket I hope will help with the alignment of the pump
pulley.
I ordered a cable bracket made by TCI, to keep it from pulling
out again. there is some serious mismatch of length at this time.
Here is the info:
Pass,Camaro,Chevelle Corvette,Nova Cast Iron,Large Journal
3932442 350 69-85 Truck Cast Iron,Large Journal
3932442 305 76-85 Truck Cast Iron,Large Journal
3932442 305 76-85 Cast Iron,Large Journal
3932442 267 79-82 Cast Iron,Large Journal
2T F C310 1
"2TF" indicates a non-limited slip 3.73 differential.
350.....1992....4 bolt Mains
Goodwrench crate motor, 2-piece rear main seal, "Hecho
en Mexico"
Brother Jim will be sending me the Weiand Stealth Intake for square
bore carb's that used to be on the El Camino.
That should fix the leaking problems on both the intake and the carb to intake
area.
This shows the A/C wires, coming from the harness just above
the computer from the firewall. The heater control bundle.
Here we go. The rat's nest on the ground.
If it ever goes back to electronic, it would have to be new anyway. This
harness was fried on the exhaust for lack of care and brains by the previous
owner, when changing to non-computer control.
Here is the aluminum patch I filled the hole
with. I used the screws and holes from the bracket that held the original
grommet in place. A bead of black RTV sealed it up nicely.
Here is another shot of the
same connector in the picture above.
Here is another
shot of the same connector
in the picture above.
*nib came out with a
screw extractor, aided by prayer.
Ya think there could have been a leak here?
The new pump is all ready
to put on, except that the previous owner only had 3 of the 4 studs holding
the fan on. Have to get another one.
This is the end of the day on Sunday. I scraped
a little on the gaskets, but I am waiting for the intake to get here Monday,
and I'll start getting it back together.
Closer look at the repainted
front. This really helped cosmetically. No more orange anywhere. Better
look at the brace fabricated for the back of the power steering, and the
spacer is a large nut, that is shorter than what it arrived here with.
Alignment is much better,
and it's solid for now, till the El Camino pump and compressor setup goes
on here, after a serpentine swap there.
These 15" American Racing
wheels arrived with Nate from a guy on the way up from Champaign through
Craig's List for $140 for the set. The center sections are bubbling on
the paint, but they are better than what was on there. For Winter wheels,
we'll take them.
If you look close enough at the blow up of this, you can see the marker
where the aluminum patch is going to be pop riveted on there.
Here is a better view of the inside of the wheel wells. I scuffed them
up to get the flaking paint off,
then primed them before getting to work on the goopy stuff.
This is the patch in place. Plastic roofing filler was but between the
patch and the body, then riveted
in. Then I went over the seams and patch with the filler.
I worked on the right rear wheel well tonight. After hammering on the surface
rust, I came up with a smaller hole than the other side, but I still patched
it with some aluminum and rivets, similar to the other side. After undercoating
it, it came off the stands.
Looks much better with 15" instead of 20". I am thinking
it should be lower though. After I roll it out, and back in again, it might
be a bit. I am used to ground effects and lower air dam on the Elky. The
hood is lower on this, sitting next to it.
This is the painted bracket, along with the fabricated throttle
cable L bracket. I bolted this to the stock Cruise bracket from a yard
in a time long ago and far away (I got 2 of these for the El Camino in
one trip. This was stash)
This is the bracket with cables in place. Still need
a different post on the carb for the cruise to work.
See the pictures here.
Tom and I went to 2 junk yards
on Friday 10/17. This is what I got. A new housing that isn't cracked where
the headlight switch attaches, a right hand hood spring in good shape,
the vacuum ball for the A/C and heater door controls, and a spacer to use
the old Moroso chrome air cleaner from the Elky. The spare speedometer
for the Elky was a bonus.
Here are the old El Camino Exhaust manifolds. Much cleaner than the ones
on the car, and the holes have proper plugs instead of crimped tubes. I have
the down pipes, and I hope they just bolt on. The challenge will be, to get
someone to connect the back half to these. If I had a Y pipe, I could just
put a cherry bomb on there for the time being.
Here is the top side, ready to pull the engine. I hope to get to it in
the next couple days.
It's out!
This is the last view of the very tired exhaust.
The Y goes in to the Cat, then to a 3+" single tube, then another Y to
the dual exhaust.
Then engine on the floor.
This is the torn grommet on the trans fill tube. It leaks profusely.
This is the new one.
A couple views of the work space here.
Getting ready to clean and paint these things.
The non-blue balancer
Timing chain in position
for 2 degrees advanced.
This is a picture of the 4 bolt
main caps if you have never seen them.
The timing chain is aligned now, because
I drove the crank gear on all the way ... like it was supposed to be.
POR-15 manifold paint. Thanks to Tom for his
left overs.
Believe it or not, these are after a
lot of cleaning. I scraped and sprayed and sanded a lot after this. I primed
everything, then sprayed them.
Here are the results, and
the new seal in the timing gear cover.
You can see the grommet
sitting there for another day, when I change all the seals in the transmission.
This is the engine upright, with it's new paint. I just have to install
the rear seal, and start assembly.
11/4/08 Started off in the garage about 6:30
AM organizing.
Voted right at 7 AM. Then went on some parts runs.
I decided that it would be pretty dumb not to replace the oil pump at this
point. So here is the new one. (USA vs. Mexico on the casting)
This will need some attention.
The connection between the TV cable and the throttle valve hook keeps coming
off. The wire is just a simple 90 degree bend.
Then I wrapped some
copper binding wire around the linkage. You will see that the wire is twisted
around the TV lever so it can't go anywhere even if it broke. The notches
should keep it from sliding around.
This is the way I left
the setup. I want to get some new bell housing bolts, and some new exhaust
manifold bolts. I will try to get ones that actually tighten down the
assemblies, rather than all the mis-matched bolts that had washers jingling
loose because the bolts were too long.
The other side. Just
look at those nice clean manifolds! The whole thing is clean compared to
the way we got it.
If you look at the inner wheel well, you will
see that it's much cleaner than they were. How manyconfigurations do you
think that frame is set up for judging from all those holes for motor mounts?
This is actua;;y before the above picture. Before I started scraping
all the crud off, and before taking the Saw's All to the bolts on the exhaust.
The piece on the left is for warm up, but it was locked up solid. The one
on the right was modified for the El Camino to get a bit more flow. That's
what is going on the Monte.
The other inner well all cleaned up.
This radiator support
was a mess. It was really nasty to look at, rust, several coast of paint
in random areas. I just had to sand it down.
This is the finished
work. Better than the finish on the outside of the car!
11/15/08
Tom came over the night
before last and helped get the motor in the car. I
finished getting things
put back together last night. When I tried to start it, I realized that I
must have stabbed the distributor in wrong. I am at the stage that I am looking
to get it going. Almost need a helper for that. I think I have the distributor
in right now, but I have yet to get it to stay running. Flooding, or the
damn manual choke and only 2 hands is mostly the problem.
Here are some pictures of how
it sits.
This is the heater box now. I want to get some rope caulk. There is a big
mess of silicone sealant
to clean off there.
Wider shot of the heater/AC area.
Wider angle general photo
Look at that nice one piece oil
pan seal (blue)
Things are much sharper
now.
This is the old steering shaft.
This is the cleaned up junkyard version. MUCH nicer for $20
Pictures
from the first day home Engine
compartment and overall 1st inspection Pictures
10/14/08
Restoration
Log - Phase 1 Restoration
Log - Phase 2 Fine Tuning - Phase 3
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