Nice, you are quite the hands on car owner. It is perfect you are able to dig into, diagnose and remedy the problem. Recently did my girlfriends daughters 02 Cavalier lower intake manifold gasket and that was not so bad, just little room to work. You had to have NO room to work. god, that set up of yours has to be shoe horned into the engine bay

Think it was you who told me about the PCV needing to be plugged for the exact reason that created your engines issues. Very unfortunate those bone heads did not review their check list of required work. So sorry you had to pull apart everything, had to be a royal pain. Least ways you are now implicitly familiar with your new system. and your parts get coated. It is going to be the best for the pipes in the long run, sucks it had to be this that caused them to be removed. I told Matt to plug my PCV and he said there was no need to as the oil catch can line provides enough pressure relief. And he said something to the effect he needed the MAF air sensor or such that was located there. Does that make sense to you? I wish to wholly avoid your engines unfortunate situation.

I read up on the advantages of a "Lock UP" converter. Appears the way to really maximize al available power Are you going to find yourself doing other modifications from using the lock up style. Like a switch or will it be an automatic lock up thing. I read were they are hard on the input shafts and seals, but generate less heat than slippage converters. Your going to be so crazy fast with a lock up and 60hp on top of your 650. Very few other W-bodies will be able to touch you off the line and down the track

My Monte is currently all gutted somewhat like yours was, all the interior out, running a new W/M line, wires, CTS-V pump going in, old engine harness stripped down and ready to get the Holley harness integrated onto it. Probably another month before the car gets done. I will have the 90mm ABACO digital MAF meter available if you would like something like that Will still be sending you the Cooling Mist unit too.

Best of luck on your endeavors John, you are the man. Has to be a pain on one had but exhilarating on the other knowing you are working on a very special Monte Carlo... You are one bad **** bro!

 

The pcv can be blocked and the map above work perfectly fine. The map reads manifold pressure, has nothing to do with the pcv. A good working catch can can help if a pcv fails but it won't prevent failure like I had. Im telling you, plug it now before you have issues.

The triple disc converter will be all computer tuned on when to lock and unlock etc. It's a little harder on the input shaft and chain but I have gmr stuff so im not worried.

Glad to hear yours is coming along as well! I have no need for tjataf as I. Using a ls7 slot style maf in a 4" pipe for mine and I have tons of head room with it.

 

QUOTE=turbo monte;705241]The pcv can be blocked and the map above work perfectly fine. The map reads manifold pressure, has nothing to do with the pcv. A good working catch can can help if a pcv fails but it won't prevent failure like I had. Im telling you, plug it now before you have issues.

So glad I brought this up with you. I will make sure this gets plugged then. Is it something I can do after the dyno tune or something we need to do before the tune. My engine oil pan gasket failed and has been replaced, do you think to much crankcase pressure could have caused this to fail? It was only about 6 years old and perhaps 30,000 miles on it.


The triple disc converter will be all computer tuned on when to lock and unlock etc. It's a little harder on the input shaft and chain but I have gmr stuff so im not worried.

Ah ha, that is a pretty slick way to incorporate the lockout converter lockup time. Fortunately I like you have the GMR parts. We just added ZZP's output shaft this time around too. Is this Precision one hard to find or a special order build type of thing?

Glad to hear yours is coming along as well! I have no need for tjataf as I. Using a ls7 slot style maf in a 4" pipe for mine and I have tons of head room with it.[/QUOTE]


LOL, of course you don't, your present set up is so crazy, to funny, god your car has to scream. You don't mind it if I hate you for a few minutes, you make it hard to compete with you. Guess as the saying goes, If you can't run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch!

Super job bro, ultra super job!! Your getting so close to your being able to say "Mission accomplished". Watching Mecham auto auction on tv. Some cars have so much money into them and they might sell for $15k, ugly, we will never be able to sell our Montes. Would rather blow the thing up racing than letting someone have it for nothing... Least we could say, "Wow, that was some crazy Sh*#, did you see that come apart like that.

 

I must say it again, amazing stuff you 2!

Man, I'm soo kicking myself for not jumping on the GMR stuff when I had the chance, deciding to racing 2 wheels instead...smh. You 2 have me wanting to get back into it now, but it seems I'm way too late to the party... I emailed Quaife UK about their diffs as I heard they were pretty good but was told they could accommodate but would need a min order of 8. ugh. I only know of 1 Aramet GM Racing Input left for sale but no chain, nor diff (EDIT: has been sold).

At what point did you all start breaking transmission parts? shaft, diffs or chains? Or did you (John and Greg) do the transmissions all at the same time? I'm wanting to finally add a little extra power to the Monte but scared I'd keep breaking transmissions. I'm looking in the 300-350whp range max, certainly nothing like you 2 are running but a little something. Calling my 2 wheel carrier over in a about a year or 2 but still need a fix and I still LOVE my Monte.

Just thought I'd pick your brains.

Johnny O.

 

Would be sweet to see you back in the running...

 

Thanks for the reply Greg and kind words. I've always admired your car, for sure, especially that you took the time to get setup with BMR, I can't speak highly enough about their setup. I absolutely love 2 wheel riding but cars have always been my first love and passion. I'm getting ready to have my first child so me thinks it's time to call it on 2 wheels, at least that's what everyone keep telling me to do. We shall see. Yes, I'd never let my Monte go - never! I'm getting set to redo the Wilwood brake package next week on the 16th and want to work on the power plant after that. Debating on selling both my bikes and just putting that back into the Monte.

It def is sad that I see fewer and fewer W-body owners these days, which makes me want to keep the Monte as healthy as I can. Only thing ever lacking in this car is real power. That's why I wanted to pick your brain along with John's.

That's my initial plan, to get a stage 2 or 3 TEP build and go from there. Just wondering if I should just do it all at once or try and see how long I can make this stock rebuild last. Still on the fence if I want to Turbo or SC. From all the research I've done, turbo does present more challenges than SC. I understand power is easier to come by but with turbo but losing my SLP headers would suck, also having to work on getting the rear bank out is going to be tight.

I'm in Cali still, I call Vegas my second home but typically rent or fly when I head up there. When she's back to 100% I may take her up there for a trip. You in Utah? I was up in Park City this past March, nice area. We also have a place in Brian Head I can visit.

 

Hey man, thanks for the kind words. There is a complete gmr trans for sale but it's alot of coin. There was also a gmr aermet and gmr 3.69 chain set just posted for sale today on the fb groups for $3,000 so the parts come from time to time if you got the coin and are patient.

300-350whp tep should be able to build you a trans without gmr stuff to hold up decent. If the car isn't a daily I would run the trans you got until you cook it then have tep do his magic. If it's a daily then I suggest doing it first because I guarantee you will cook a stock trans at that power level.

You can make 300-400whp with a m90 but it's alot more work in the long run with water to air intercooling, cam, heads, etc. Instead you could do a nice z7, stattama, Cartuning kit used, and be near 300whp just with a turbo alone and no engine work. Then sell the slp headers to recoup some money back lol. Keep us posted on what you do!

 

No problem at all, I've been stuck on your Youtube videos for sometime now, it's just insane. Your V is also a damn fine car as well. How much we talking for the GMR trans? I've heard 10k+ being thrown around? Just curious what I'm looking at if I went that route. Was that 3k with no diff? Just input shaft and chain? At 400HP I understand the chain to be the weak point...?

I think that's the smart play, have Tep, setup a nice one for me and take it from there. I wish I would have gone with him in the first place as I paid just about 2k for a local rebuild from someone I know but it's essentially just a stock rebuild. 1k more and I could have had a banging trans already. smh At the time I was mostly worried about having something go wrong, have to strip it out and reship and reinstall, but I'm over that now.

The Cartuning kit seems very appealing to with mostly due to their intercooling option and correct me if I'm wrong but mounts up cleaner than ZZP's? If I went turbo, I for damn sure going to want some intercooling. The Stattama kit is next in line after the Cartuning kit but still doing my research to be honest. I had my mind set on M90 or GenV setup mostly because I love the whine but I know it would be harder to reach my goal.

I'll keep you all posted for sure.

Johnny

 

Im glad you like the videos, the cts-v is pretty nasty also lol. Thanks for the compliments

Not sure on price of whole gmr trans. The $3000 was just for chain and input shaft, no diff included. Tep can set you up with a reliable trans for around 400whp without gmr stuff, if you want over 400whp he can do it but you need to suly him with gmr parts.

The Cartuning kit is very nice but is a smaller turbo and smaller downpipe etc that the stattama or z7 kit. However if you tell Cartuning you can't a 3"dp with big turbo, etc he can do that for ya.

 

Is TEP the place that sells a built trans and you send back your old one?
I remember a thread on here about that and after reading some of the comments here I may need to adjust my plans and get the trans from them, then add the HP locally