Well, it was one weekend late, but I did manage to fire her up Sunday night.

She isn't drivable yet (mainly because I don't have exhaust or a throttle cable bracket), but I wanted to make sure it started and ran before I dug into more projects to get her back on the road.

I was amazed how fast she started up the first time- started up almost like I just drove her yesterday even though she's been sitting for a couple years. Granted I had primed the fuel system a few times to make sure I fixed all the leaks first.

Unfortunately, there is a small issue to troubleshoot. Even though she started up right away, she died a few seconds later. Something is wacky with the MAF. I unplugged that and it runs fine on SD. So either I calculated the MAF table wrong (I couldn't find a table for a 4" maf) or the sensor has an issue.

The downside is it is crazy loud. For now, it is dumping right below the firewall, so I only let it idle and lightly rev for a few minutes. Started her up about 3 times total. So up next is to fab a throttle bracket so I can actually drive it and to weld the exhaust back on so I don't make the neighbors too mad with starting and driving it. It's still plenty loud with the exhaust on, I just know I'd be asking for trouble to drive it anywhere how it is now.

I did record some vids with the go pro and my phone, so maybe I'll edit them down and upload them when I get some free time. The videos aren't particularly special, idle is about 1200-1000, so you don't really get much cam lope, but it's still neat to see everything working again.

 

Great to hear about the progress,i bet your ready to get in and haul a$$,seeing this inspires me more and more to get my project done,i hope everything goes right and you have no more issues to track down..keep up the good work Man

 

Wonderful to see your Monte being re-assembled. Bet it was a big relief when it did start right up for you. Your making great progress with your build, like a man possessed...

 

So awesome to hear that it has finally fired up!

Can't wait until you button the rest up and get that sucker on the road

 

Haven't had time to edit down the go pro video, so I figured I'd post up a quick shot from my phone.

Idle was set a little high, about 1100-1200 across the board, so it never settled into a heavy lope. I didn't want to have to worry about keeping the car alive, I wanted to focus more on checking for leaks and such.

A couple things you'll probably notice - the headers are smoking up by the flanges. The headers had ceramic coating on them, but it wasn't in the best shape. So I scuffed them up lightly and sprayed them with ceramic header paint to help freshen them up a bit. The paint was just smoking as it cured, especially up by the flanges.

Second thing is the ultra long pcv hoses. I haven't fabbed a mount for the catch cans yet, and didn't have a vacuum cap for the after throttle body port, so I went ahead and hooked the hoses up to the right ports just so it would function. I just didn't want to cut up the hoses to fit nicely when this is just a very temporary setup until I get the cans mounted.


Today is exhaust day. Going to be building an exhaust to hopefully quiet it down. I plan to mostly use the old exhaust, just with a few new components added.

 

that sounds awesome man...so no leaks or anything? wouldn't want anything to slow you down...I was looking at cams the other day on intense racing and I watched a vid. on a GTP with a stage 4 cam and it sounded pretty badass...I cant wait to get me a good engine so I can start modding...goodluck on getting that exhaust up I know your ready to take it to the track lol

 

Had a couple fuel leaks, luckily they were both in an easily accessible spot. They were those brass fittings, so I was afraid to really wrench on them too hard at first. I figured if I had a few minor leaks, I could always tighten them more just like I did.

Exhaust has been rough today. The previous downpipe was a real mess, they had chopped off some of the existing cat pipe with it and the welds were very thick and blobby. Looks like my best hope is to get the middle section done today, then worry about the back half some other time. The hardest part is the cutout. I'm having it dump right at the base where the tubing makes the turn. Should be great for flow, but it has been miserable to fabricate.

I do like the is4 cam too. I was debating between that and the IS3 when I did my swap, but everyone said how rough the is4 was and how you just couldn't drive it on the street, lol. Now that I've got more into ls stuff, it's funny how much larger the cams are that people drive on the street.

Really, I wish I had the foresight to think of doing the whipple. I would've much rather got a custom cam. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

 

Have you been working on this project by yourself? seems like a pretty big job for one guy,but with time and patience anything is possible.

and for the cam you have now I seen the recommendations on intense racing,do you really need all those things to run a big cam like that? im thinking that's going to be my best route as far as power,and it just sounds killer on your car

 

Yes, I pride myself on trying to do as much as I can myself. The two notable exceptions were the bottom end engine machine shop work, and the machining for my throttle body adapter (although I did at least engineer that myself).

That's why I get frustrated when friends give me a hard time for the car being down so long. There are a lot of one off parts that need to be engineered one by one. GM had teams of engineers that spent tons of hours designing the parts and numerous suppliers who built the parts. Doing it all yourself can be a huge undertaking once you start getting into custom stuff.

In the end, it is a lot more rewarding though. I've got a bolt on c6 vette, and that car gets tons of attention, but it isn't as satisfying because I've only got about 50 hours into customizing it - mostly with bolt on parts. Sure the car is quick, but I only contributed to a couple percent of that, gm did the rest. At least with the monte, Im the one who got it where it is today.



As for a big cam, I don't know what intense reccomends, but I'd say there are 3 things at a bare minimum:
-High pressure springs (130-150)
-Double roller timing chain (required because of the above)
-Ported heads (the heads and cam need to work together as a package)

There are certainly other small items, but those are the key parts.

 

First, that sounds like a wicked and healthy build now that you can start it!!! Long time coming, but I'm sure you felt GOOOOOOD when it all started!!

I agree with you on all of that. I do almost all my own wrench work (very few exceptions). I pride myself in that. Most of my Monte performance mods were off the shelf purchases. But others, I did myself, like porting the l26 UIM, solving the PCV issues with the L26 UIM on an l36 in a way I never saw/heard of, port matching my LIM, porting and half shafting the l67 Throttle Body for use on my Monte. It's satisfying to have some items bolted to the car that you actually did some custom work too.

Knowing that, I can imagine the pride you have in your Monte. The friends that give you crap, they don't and never will understand. But we do

Congrats on hitting a milestone!!