Not a lot of people have the guts or inspiration to do it on their own,but the ones who do it take much more pride..thats what im keeping this old 3.4 for..so I can learn a little more by tearing it down and learning how things go together

Great build man..keep up the good work..it will pay off in the end

 

That thing sounds good I love reading about your 5th gen Bumpin'. How long do you think it'll be before you put the Monte back on the road?

 

It shouldn't be more than a couple weeks until I take her out. At a bare minimum, it needs exhaust and a tb cable bracket to make it drive. Obviously there are other things that need to be done before I drive it a lot, but those are the two key pieces. I just recently got it plated and insured, so we're close for sure, it's just a matter of finding time to finish the last couple projects.

On a side note, I took a couple of neat pics in he dark with my new underhood accent lighting. Thought it came out kinda cool. Doesn't look as cool as when the engine bay was more empty, but not much you can really do.

 

You have been holding pretty tight to your schedule in buttoning up your Monte and getting it back on the road. The obstacles you have overcome on your own are moments to be proud of, wish I knew a 10th of what you do about cars.

The engine bay lighting is nice, like the crisp effect of your white light choice, really makes your black and chrome quite dazzling in appearance. Think the underhood lighting mod is something I want to do now. A few members have done this and it is really a nice touch. Good job!!

 

Sounds and looks awesome bro

 

More work done, but it appears summer has already taken hold. We're now regularly in the 100s, so that pretty much kills any chance of doing more extensive driving until it cools off a bit.

I've made some headway on a few of the big remaining projects:

-Interior wiring is done. I ended up putting the switches for everything where the radio used to be (before it got stolen years ago...). I just made it out of simple abs plastic, but it'll be fine for now. Clean and simple.

-Exhaust is closer to done. I just finished the 'downpipe' tonight. This ended up being a lot bigger project than I expected, mostly because the rear header flange is offset quite a bit to one side of the tunnel, so I had to cut some pipe at an angle on the ends and do a butt joint weld to get the exhaust centered.

For this part, I've got the higher quality (smooth ID) flex pipe, an o2 bung for my wide band right below that, electric cutout at the bottom of the firewall (straight shot looking up into the downpipe with it open), then a fake cat, a fake rear o2 sensor (real bung and sensor, but isnt drilled into the pipe- I cut the sensor head off), then a 16" resonator and ending with a thick 3 bolt flange just before the gas tank. Since I already had 3" exhaust on the car previously, I should just have to cut the old exhaust to length, and weld on a matching 3 bolt flange.

-Throttle cable is the last big project before I take it around the block. I built one out of construction paper to get the size, shape, and bends dialed in. I'm in the process now of transferring the construction paper template to the sheet metal (.100"). I've got a few cuts done, but I've got this project on the back burner until I finish the exhaust.


Next up beyond that will be mounting my catch cans to clean up the pcv hoses, then everything else is mostly just maintenance items.

I did figure out the issue with the MAF last time I started it. I miscalculated the table by quite a bit. I was trying to extrapolate the new table using the stock MAF table and the common 85mm MAF table and apparently I mistyped something as I ended up with values so far beyond the 85mm table that it killed it instantly with fuel. Oh well, I've got that fixed now and it runs much better. I'll just have to dial it in closer when I get her on the road.

 

Just finished the exhaust up. Had to fab a new fuel line heat shield from sheet aluminum since the stock one wouldn't fit with the new lines. Had some leftover aluminum so I also made a small shield for the ic water pump since it sits right next to the muffler.

Unfortunately, it's almost 1030, so I couldn't fire it up to see how it sounds. I'll try and get a video of it tomorrow.

 

Sweet. One step closer... And you could've fired it up with a full exhaust, would've only taken a minute and noise ordinances are usually around 11 PM on the weekend. Alas, some neighbors are bitches.

 

I know no one could've done anything about it, but I would feel bad. The neighbors directly across the street have pretty young kids that would definitely be in bed by then. Also, I've had a couple of early mornings going to work lately, so I'm sure everyone is thrilled to hear the Vette fire up cold at 345 am with long tubes, cat less xpipe, and corse extreme exhaust

 

Got a little more done today, rerouted the wide band o2 wiring so it is hooked up again. Also ran the cutout wiring. Small steps, but both necessary.

Got a couple quickie videos: