Hey hi, Sam's tranny is very specially modified. Special alloy high strength steels were acquired and billeted for the critical internals. The tranny has had one failure on the dyno and that was the torque converter that failed. It to is now a fully billeted torque converter, so no more failures there. The engine is capable of over 1100 whp, yet was destroked to where it is putting out about 960 whp, as the tranny as built as it is, still has it's limits. I agree this car will be a sight to see when it makes it's debut. Matt is trying very hard to have this Monte back to Detroit by July.
The engine has LS9 heads on it too. The new Comp Turbo 8488 replaced the GTX45 (Which is huge itself) as it proved to be to small and fell flat at about 4,000 rpm if I remember correctly.
Sam's Monte is not a beast, it's a beast slayer!!!

 

lol of course he did, stock trans would probably last 50 miles on that power

Thanks a lot for posting! I don't hear from Sam as much as I like to anymore but he's probably busy!

The cars are looking phenomenal!

 

i am just a fan of whom tunes there car and a fan who does it well to enjoy it. i was asking because i would like the feed back on how it runs on the road just driving. also doing car gatherings as well. we all know when we do a engine right some times we forget some thing just glad to hear every thing was done done right.

 

Wow congrat man awsome setup !!!!

 

I look forward to seeing some dyno and 1/4 mile results and meeting up with Sam at Milan Dragway this summer or fall.

Concerning this car on the dyno, are they locking up the converter in 3rd gear during the pull? More info on the converter being used would be appreciated. Precision Industries is the only billet converter I've seen/have, but it is still non-locking. Not being able to lock up the converter on the dyno with these cars results in hitting a wall around 5000 rpms on the dyno rollers. You won't feel it on the street or at the track, but can't lay down a good number on the dyno.

 

I have been keeping in touch with Sam and I wanted to share this update:

Well the turbo works great now. As you know we went from a 78mm to an 88mm and it does not spool up as fast and operates within its RPM range that it should. We did not change the downpipe, I still am using a 3-1/2 instead of the recommended 4". Using a 4" would entail moving the master brake booster and resouvoir and maybe even moving the firewall inward a bit - just isn't worth it. In an ideal situtation downpipe back pressure should be 2-1/2 to 3#, mine was about 4-1/2 to 5# before with the 78 mm turbo but I was spinning that thing way passed the limit of safety (140,000 RPM's with a recommended max limit of 110,00 RPM - not good) range and now I am almost @ 8# of back pressure with a turbo in range (spinning now at 105,000 RPM). I can live with that. The horsepower gain with the correct pipe maybe 10/12. I could not justify the cost. So be it, I have 4" inlets and outlets on the turbo with very short reducers to 3-1/2" that is okay.

The alternator I guess works fine, I got a Mechman 150/170 but because of the location of our alternators it is running real hot about 300 deg. F. Way to hot, that's only at idle because the fan on the alternator just is not drawing in much cool air if any at all. We are putting a duct right there at the strut tower directing air from the outside fender well with a small fan that will run either all the time or just at idle (not sure what my tech decided to do) to keep it cool, from what I understand that is exactly what Mechman recommends. The heat issue is only at idle below 900 RPM's at higher RPM's it's fine because the fan draws enough air. Where that alternator is located is really problematic for cooling just can't draw cool air from no where - so in goes the cooling duct. We installed an airplane fuel pump from Waldon and it works fine but another issue arose - again too much heat being returned to the tank. We're taking the regulator and fuel filter out of the engine compartment and relocating them to the rear of the car. That will take just enough heat out of the fuel system to solve that problem. The return fuel from what I understand was running about 10 - 15 deg F over the operating temperature recommended by Waldon for the pump I have - so we knock out a few degrees and we will be all set there.
We had to take the firewall side header and reconfigure 2 of the tubes. I was melting two spark plug wires constantly and we just could not have that. That fabrication actually had a measurable amount of horsepower reduction of about 16 HP.

Have great news, we did our final dyno runs with the new turbo and re-routed header and 20 lbs of boost (24# is my max but my max HP was reached with 20# so no need to push it with 24# if there is no gain)and we came up with 814.8 HP on the ground. Still reached my goal of 800+ with the HP reductions.
My control arms have to be replaced, 800+ HP was too much for the stock units. The joints at the cradle were crushed. My tires actually moved foward over an inch at full throttle. My tech is making me new ones using Jony Joints at the cradle and 4340 tubing and gussets, Moog ball joints and Poly bushings. These will hold up real well under the power I am generating.

I contacted BHJ Products in California through a Mechanical Engineer I know and they agreed to make a new Damper for me that is tuned to my engine harmonics. I have some real life experience breaking the nose of a crank off using the wrong damper and there is no aftermarket performance dampers made for our cars so I decided to research it out and have it custom made. In fact I just paid for it on Friday and it should be on the way to Utah now as I write this. The only issue I had with BHJ is they would not make one, their minimum order was 2, so now I have an extra high priced door stop. Maybe I can sell it - it is the only high performance damper in existence for the external LS4 configuration.

Now here is some more good news - my car has now had about 18 pulls on the dyno so my tech decided to take my tranny apart and inspect it. Well it held up, no problems except one. All the discs were good. No nothing coming apart - all held together - great news. The only issue was the Sun gear thrust washers got deformed. That is an easy fix, I am having some 9310 aircraft quality steel used to make new thrust washers and unless Godzilla gets in that trans these new washers will not deform. There are two located on the Sun Gear - I will make 3 and machine out the Sun gear a few thousands and increase my spinning surface area as extra insurance against future wear or deformation.

How's that sound a 4T65E holding up to 800+ HP. That is terrific.
We sent the convertor out to add 3 more attachment points - had 3 which is good for about 1000 SAE HP and that is about where I am at, so now we will have 6 and now I won't have to worry about any stress between the billet flex plate and the convertor and it not being able to handle it. 6 and 8/9 points of attachments are used on 2000+ HP dragsters.
And while Hughes transmission is at it they are raising my stall about 300 RPM something my tech felt I should have been at to begin with but did not want to push it not knowing how the tranny would hold up, now with the results as positive as they are, up goes the stall. Hughes will also freshen up the internals on the converter and address any issues that may have cropped up due to the stress of 800 HP.

Greg, I still have a slight problem with engine compartment heat - I guess we are going to take out the weather strip on the hood at the back to let out more heat and I finally found some hood vents for the 96-98 w-body Grand Prix new in box that I bought should be here tomorrow. I am going to have them color matched to my car and just lie them on the hood to see if they look okay. Removing that last weather seal maybe be just enough to lower my engine compartment temperature where I won't need the vents but if I do and they look ok I will put them on. The only problem is that they will be functional and will let water in. Have to get some kind of magnetic cover to put underneath if I am caught in the rain, not likely 'cause this is only going to be a sunshine car. If you get a chance look up the Grand Prix on the internet and tell me what you think. They are not too big but their location on the hood in the center toward the side might not look too bad.

When I bought my block from Mike at Dart I promised him a ride when I get it back - I think he still wants that ride. It should be home soon. I got to meet the owners of Martin Motorsports here locally - big time into race car manufacturing. Harold Martin wants to unveil my car at the Woodward Dream cruise this August and introduce it to some of the industry media - I am hoping to make that, I think that would be a real feather in my cap and a great acknowledgement to those who really helped me make this project come to fruition. Something else for you to look up - Martin Motorsports.

Almost forgot - we moved my trailing arms in the back in a bit more, I widened another set of stock rims 1" and I can fit P275/45R x 18's in the wells using 3/4" fitted billet adaptors with ARP studs. I will put P255/45R x 18 on stock rims in the front and for those who aren't sure, my car may even look like it may be a rear wheel drive car with the larger rear tires, I thought a rear wheel stance would likely confuse some people and for people who don't know that our cars are FWD they won't know the difference.

I got Sam's permission before printing this...

 

BlownLS4: Greg has to be my biggest fan - he has taken so many pictures I can't thank him enough. Anyway, my Converter was made by Hughes out of Phoenix. I know for a fact it does lock up. And my numbers 814.8 FWHP were reached with 20# of boost at 5800 RPM.. Then it flat lined if I am not mistaken until about 6600 RPM and then came the reductions in HP. Not sure of my torque specs, I kinda got lost in the conversation on all the technical stuff when my tech called. It is not an all billet housing only one side, the other side does not need to be billet in construction. It has a stall I think around 2800 and as far as it's internals I can not give you any information because I just don't know myself - I left that call to my tech and his discussion with Hughes to determine what was needed based on the potential torque, rpm's and HP the motor was putting out. It retains it's stock diameter but that is about it. If you need to know something specific let me know and I can ask for you.

 

so have you take it out to the track yet? with 800 + hp im guessing you be in the 9's.

 

Wow !!!

 

Haven't been to the track yet - car is not quiet done yet. And as far as my ET's will be - your guess is as good as mine. .