Hey there, long time lurker, first time poster. I've had an 04 Monte (SS Supercharged, Dale Jr edition; completely stock other than an Ipod interface) for a little over a year now and have been both saving and researching. I've got a fairly decent chunk of change set aside now, but my question is: where to begin? I must confess that I know next to nothing about cars other than what I could find on this site and via Google. I'm basically looking for a some more power and a deeper growl. I'm not really worried about voiding the warranty. I've read a lot on this forum about CAIs, ubend and resonator deletion, and things of that nature, but I really don't know where to begin. Some of the more esoteric stuff like the different pulley systems and PCMs and pipe diameters completely lose me. I'm a computer guy, not a car guy . I've seen some interesting things on http://3800performance.com, especially some of their 'performance' packages (very appealing to me since most things would be included; also, they list a turbocharger for supercharged 3800s but I always thought a supercharger and turbocharger were, at the least redundant, if not mutually exclusive- or am I just an ignorant noob? ), but I don't know whether they are worth it.

So where would you begin? I figure I've got about $1000 to spend but I can probably go up to around two to three times that if I really want to, but I really don't want to break the bank. I also want to make sure that I don't do anything that would preclude further improvements or make their cost prohibitive. Keep in mind that the only work I've ever done on a car was replacing the rotors and calipers on a 84 Lincoln Town Car so I probably won't be able to install the stuff myself and will have to pay through the nose for labor. While we're on that subject, anyone have any experience with places in the Chicago area that would do this sort of work?

BTW, love the site. I'll have pics up soon.

 

hey tony, welcome to the site ...post up some pics of your dale jr edition monte

most bang for the buck go with :

[ol][*]high flow cat[*]u-bend delete[*]get rid of resonator (exhaust shop can do all these really easily)[*]if you want sound check out some magnaflow mufflers...they sound pretty good on our cars.[*]there's lots of cold air intakes out there...including making your own....i have the k&n cold air intake and it works awesome![*]3.4" supercharger pulley[*]colder plugs NGK #3962[*]180 degree stat[*]and you can even get into the plug and play computers...[/ol]
now all this stuff here should be done with under 1000 bucks and will give you a great boost in power...i have about 75% of that list done...i have the pulley, and plugs ready to go ...just gotta install the plugs and get the pulley put on...

 

Where in Chicago are you? Northside? Southside? I know of a really good place on the southside. They guy has a funnycar that he races and works on. I have gone there for years to get my car worked on and he is pretty cheap.

 

Welcome to MCF Tony!! Pretty much like Wiz said. Removing the resonator will increase noise in the cabin, just FYI.

Your first mod should be a scanner of some sort just to make sure you don't have any problems that currently exist. I've talked with a few people that have bad knock problems right from the factory and that suprised me. So first thing is to scan to find out if you have a good platform and build from there.

Note - I was just at Sears today and they sell a scanner now the checks for KR for about 80 bucks and scans for a bunch of other usefull items.

Also I'll be selling my RandomTech downpipe from 3800performance pretty soon. I should be getting my SLP header package later this week which will contain a new pipe and cat.

I'll post a common upgrade chart in a second for you. The key is to SCAN to make sure you don't have problems.

 

I sent Zoomer at ZZPerformance an email back on March 26, 2006 asking him his idea of how to upgrade a Monte. I just recently found it again and wanted to post this to help newbies out. His email will be supplied in full, albeit broken up to supply my thoughts, and italicized to preserve his quotes and this should supply you with the best and safest method of upgrading. Also to save money on buying stuff you don't need, once you read this list, make a plan of where you want to go with your car. Once you have the plan, reread this list, think about it again and proceed from there.

*********GET A SCAN TOOL OR FIND SOMEONE WHO HAS ONE!!!!! *********It doesn't matter which one, but this can't be stressed enough but before you do anything, get a scanner. Any pulley swapping you do can cause Knock Retard (KRor just knock) and you can damage your engine. Try to target 0 knock and you don't have to worry. You don't need to go gung-ho and get a DHP $400 scanner, a simple Palm LS1M for $150 or similar is fine. Making sure you don't blow up your engine is the name of the game here. Some people will say you can skip the scanner for now, but remember some cars are assembled at Friday around 5 PM while others are on Wednesday around 2. Since you don't know, play it safe and Be Prepared. Also always run 93+ octane gas.

The first and cheapest upgrade is the 3.5" pulley from ZZP, SLP, or a host of others. It costs between $50-$75 depending on quality, etc and will give your car about 20 HP increase. Bang for Buck this is the best upgrade to start with. If you don't have the scanner, go back and get that first then get this pulley, though only a small portion of people have had problems with their engines (like 2%) you don't want to be in this percentage and have a blown engine. If you plan to really mod your car, jump up and get a Modular Pulley System (MPS) to save tons of money and time as you do pulley upgrades and swaps in the future.

UPDATE! Bumpin96monte has informed me of cars with the stock 3.8" pulley reporting KR. Looking back I rememer reading this somewhere as well. Going to a 3.5" will only amplify the problem so this reinforces the necessity for the Scan Tool. I would recommend getting a Cold Air Intake or Fender Well Intake and doing the U-Bend delete prior to doing the pulley drop. You can read more about that below.

Level 1 performance stuff is a 3.4" pulley with smaller belt, colder plugs, colder Tstat, Wizair box, PCM and Ubend delete in the exhaust. This will drop you to about 14.0 in the 1/4 depending on traction (13.8-14.3). It will bring you from 240HP to ~285HP and make a large seat of the pants difference. No transmission upgrades are needed, reliability and gas mileage are not affected. To maximize the level 1 stuff, you can add a stage 1 throttle body, water pump underdrive pulley, and throttle body spacer. This would add another 10HP or so and give more consistent performance. The stage 1 throttle body improves throttle response so the 'feel' of the car is changed. If you get all the small stuff above you can run a 3.3" pulley with an aftermarket downpipe (the most cost effective way of doing this).

I think most people will agree with the above. I personally don't have a ton of cash on hand at any given time so I order pieces separately and upgrade slowly. For noticeable and safe changes, I recommend the following order:

Stage 1

Cold Air Intake (CAI) or Fender Well Intake (FWI) - actually the 2000+ Monte's have good airboxes and you could just use a K&N drop in filter, but I figure just get it out of the way. I like my Wizaired CAI from ZZP, but there are a bunch of other CAI's to consider from: SLP, K&N Air Charger, Thrasher, Motorsports Performance, etc; FWI includ

 

Ohh I forgot the turbo/supercharger. The turbo is the way to go if you are going to go all out. Turbos simply are better than superchargers in speed, but the M90 superchargers we have are pretty much bullet proof and that's why GM chose them over turbo setups... turbos are a bit less reliable on a production scale when you consider costs. It's just too bad GM didn't use the M112.

Back on the ranch, I seriously recommend deciding what your upgrade goals are. If you want to hit low 13's plan on spending close to 2500 - 3500 on equipmentand maybe more for labor. If you can't do the work yourself you can look at $5000 or so. I personally like the 3800performance.com Stage 5 for 2 grand as you don't have to dig "deep" into the engine.

If you are looking faster, I would look at a custom turbo package from ZZPerformance but you can look at closing in on 5 grand or more on a mid 12 second or better car.

 

Just ran across a friends new cardomin page and gave some history on mods. He has an 04 Intimidator like mine but it is the same package as yours.

WizAired Cold Air Intake (7/2/2004)
Hypertech 180* Thermostat (8/3/2004)
Intense Modular Pulley System - 3.4" SC Pulley (8/20/2004)
Autolite 104 Spark Plugs (8/20/2004)
ZZP Red Poly Motor Mounts (8/27/2004)
DHP v1.0 PCM (8/27/2004)
3"DP, High-Flow Cat, U-Bend and Resonator removal (10/13/2004)
ZZP WP UD Pulley (10/29/2004)

These modifications noticeably livened the performance of the car. The one that gave the most feel at the seat of the pants was the pulley swap to the 3.4". The boost jumped from 6-7psi to about 9psi on the stock gauge that reads up to 10psi.
On the last racing day of the season, I took the Monte to the track, and made sure I prepped the car well by removing the spare tire and jack from the trunk, and pumping up the rear tire pressure to 44psi. On the stock tires, I was able to launch pretty well off the line, and managed 13.836@101.01mph.
A few days later, I went to the same dyno shop for consistency's sake, and managed a 234whp/257wtq pull. That's a 40whp gain over stock for the mods listed above!

 

Wow, that is a ton of good info. I'm printing this thread out and carrying it around. Weather just got better here so I'll be taking some pics pretty soon to post.

@enigmatic23 I'm on the NW side, near Skokie & Niles but I get around. There's a place in Schaumburg I think called LS1Speed that mainly does Camaros and the like but my buddy just got his Camaro done there and says they could do a Monte Carlo. Do you know the name of the place you were talking about?

 

I cant remember the name but I know it's on 97th and Vincennes. They do great work

 

If I was to buy a scanner & scan my car (all stock except for a CAI) & it shows xx* of kr how would I fix it ?