Alrightly now that my question about the headers is out of the way, now it's time to talk quick engine upgrades. So here's the plan, there is gonna be an "epic" day going down sometime in late February-early March (pretty much right before car show season) where I'm gonna install new struts, springs, exhaust, roof rails, new tail light, undercoat,install FWI, etc, etc! & one of the things I will be doing is taking apart the supercharger & what not to paint it all, so since the valve covers are gonna be off I was thinking about going ahead & upgrading parts in the heads if I have the funds to get it all in time.

So here is what I need to know or find links to:

-what rockers are considered the best? I keep reading about all sorts of diff rockers & I'm trying to figure out which ones would be the best...

-when I upgrade the rockers, should I upgrade others things like the valve springs or push rods (or lifters, whatever our motors have lol) at the same time

-should I go ahead & upgrade to a 180 or 160 thermostat or just wait until I get my intercooler system & whatnot

-I want to get new spark plug wires that are red, so what type of spark plug wires would be the best

-I was also thinking about upgrading/changing my spark plugs so once again I need to know which ones are considered the best

-&& finally (I think!) in order to do all of this upgrading, will I have to get a tune or can I hold it off until I get a smaller pulley, intercooler & all of those other fun mods

-oh! & one more thing, I know whenever I get a FWI, I won't have anything to hold the computer anymore. Does anyone know if there is a place that sells a lil plate or something that can hold the computer or is there a diff way to go about doing that

Hmmm I think that's it or at least that's all I can think of at the moment. If there's anything y'all think I am forgetting please tell me. So yeah thanks for the help once again guys!

 

Wow! That's a heck of a list. I don't know enough about your engine to be of any help, but I will give you my support. Good luck!

 

I was thinking about the modified 1.9 rockers, but I guess it depends on how far your building.
I can't see any reason not to change the thermostat since this is the easiest and cheapest mod...

 

Yella Terra

Springs and push rods are generally a required upgrade. Lifters are optional.

Yes T-stats are cheap, trying to fix KR is not

Taylor 8 or 9mm

Autolite 104s

Tune isn't necessary but an upgraded PCM would be a good idea.

ZZP https://www.zzperformance.com/grand_...cts1.php?id=91

 

To clear things up for you a little bit, I'd like to explain the valvetrain in our engines real quick. First you have the crankshaft that turns the camshaft via the timing chain. The camshaft has lobes which push up on lifters when the cam is rotating. The lifters push up on the pushrods which then push up on the rockers. Rockers then push down on the valves and whether it is an intake or an exhaust valve, the valves will bring air-fuel mixture into the combustion chamber, hold the air-fuel mixture in order for it to compress and ignite, and then allow the burnt air-fuel to flow out of the combustion chamber and into the exhaust manifolds/headers.

Just remember that if you do go with rockers, then either you will keep the stock cam, or you will eventually get a different cam and go back to stock rockers once you have installed the new cam. The reason is because rockers kind of do the same thing as a cam. However, a new cam will not only change the lift (like new rockers would), but it will also change the lobe seperation angle (LSA) as well as the duration (how long the cam keeps the valves open). The lift on a 3800 cam (whether it's s/c or not) is .258/.258 (intake/exhaust). With the stock 1.6 ratio rockers, that brings the lift at the valve to ~ .413/.413. If you end up going with 1.95 rockers (for ex.) your lift will go to .503/.503. That's a LOT of lift on the valves and is pretty much the max of what you would want to do. Otherwise, the valves could start smacking the pistons which equals bad. But just for kicks, if you had an XP cam (a very popular cam) and also did the 1.95 rockers, that would put your lift at the valve at ~ .634/.653. You would be smacking pistons right away and it would take out your valves if not also your pistons.

Also, I would only upgrade the t-stat when you're ready to either get a canned tune (from ZZP or someone) or a personal tune (like a dyno tune).

Hope that helps!

 

Depends on what setup you're going with. The 1.9 modded stock rockers are great if you want to swap out just the rockers and call it a day. There are a few varieties of roller rockers available, but they are all pretty pricey (2-3x what the modded stock ones are just for the rockers). T&D or Yella Terra make some of the best for our cars, but you may need stuff like stiffer springs, different pushrods, and a taller valve cover to run them.

Any of the vendor intercoolers are completely independent of the stock cooling system, so I'm not sure why you'd wait to get an intercooler to change the thermostat.
Just be sure to have your fan turn on points changed to the thermostat temp for it to be most effective in stop and go driving.

There's a brace right under the stock air box, it's pretty wide. A small bungee cord or two and your pcm will be secure. Otherwise the vendors sell a little metal plate that you can clip the pcm into that straps to that brace.
As already mentioned, autolite 104 (the standard copper plugs) are generally best since these cars are boosted and the copper plug helps dissipate heat better than the stock platinum ones do.
They are way cheap, but they don't last that long either (about 10k miles give or take, depending on how well you're tuned). NGK's are supposed to last a bit longer, but since the AL104's are just over a buck a piece and I like to pull the spark plugs for some odd reason, they work out just fine.

Also, I would hold off on getting a tune or vendor pcm until you start dropping pulley sizes. You'll definitely want to get a tune then, but just for a fwi and rockers I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you can find someone local and reputable to do a street tune for cheap, then go for it though. It's generally worth it on these cars, even if you're not heavily modded.

Do you already have any exhaust mods done since you're considering changing the rockers?

 

Straight forward & simple, I like it! That last link didn't work though =(

Well I plan on getting a new cam eventually but I was gonna hold it off until I do more of the “extreme” mods. So are you saying that I shouldn’t do the rockers or what? I’m a lil confused on what you think I should do lol


Okay I have heard of those 1.9 modded stock rockers but idk where to get them. I don’t know to be honest, I honestly haven’t researched a ton into performance lately since I’ve been focusing on the exterior so I guess for some odd reason it would make more sense to wait until I get the IC to get the cooler thermostat…but I think things differently then most. Oh already but I just wanna make sure it looks as good as possible since I show the car. Hmm okay so if I go with those copper plugs I’ll have to remember to change them once a year. Alright, I didn’t think I’d have to get a tune just for this stuff but I wasn’t sure

 

It's a good idea to do some research before modding your car. Look into some of the forums that are a bit more L67 specific. The L67 only came on the Monte for 2 years, so there aren't that many s/c Montes around. They came on the Grand Prix and Regal for 10 years or so, so there are tons of those around and the GP and regal forums tend to have way more performance oriented info (just gotta sort through the bs to get the good info).
The sticky on modding these cars that bumpin wrote is pretty damn good too. Some of the info is a little dated, but he knows what he's talking about so if you need a reference point to sort through the bs on various forums, take a look there.

As far as where to buy parts...there is tons of stuff in the ClubGP classified section, as it's a busy site and you can find some good deals there (bought almost all of my mods through there lol). ZZPerformance.com and Wbodystore.com are both good too if you prefer to buy stuff new. Some people might mention Intense racing or 3800 performance, but both of those vendors are pretty inactive (the 3800 scene isn't exactly thriving considering the age of the cars...and the owners now that the cars are old). ZZP and WBS are still pretty active and releasing new products (albeitly more and more slowly recently), and tend to do a decent amount of R&D for being pretty small operations.

 

If I were you, I would weigh my options. What are your goals for the car and do you want to wait to see results? If you can wait, the skip the rockers and go with a cam. If you want low 12's or faster then go with the cam too because it takes a lot of work to get a rocker setup that fast (although not impossible).

The good news is that no matter what you do it will work out. Let's say you find a set of used rockers from an online forum and then a year or two later you buy a cam. You could probably turn around and sell the rockers for close to what you payed for them. Just make sure that you hold onto your stock rockers in that situation.

EDIT: You will always get more power with a cam them headers. Forgot to mention that.

The choice is yours. Do you want a bit more power now, or do you want a LOT more power later on?

 

Okay I'm just gonna copy & paste what I put on my other thread to help clear up what I want out of the monte right now

Hmm okay well I'll kinda quickly explain what I want (as of right now) for the monte. It's kinda changed since the last time I explained. What I'm looking for more then anything right now is show car quality, I need my monte to be as amazing as possible for car shows since car shows are such a huge part of my life at the moment (it's what makes me happy). Do I still want performance? Hell yes I do, but my next monte is gonna be more of a track car then this one. I'm looking for 300-400 horsepower for this one eventually, but I've been focusing on the outside lately bcuz of the car show stuff. My exterior is almost done & I'm still trying to make the final decision on the interior mods so I'm starting to research more into performance then what I have in the past. Hopefully that answers everyone's questions about what I want for her