Finally starting to get nice out again as summer winds down. So I've been starting to work again on the monte.

Progress isn't real huge- got the new single radiator upper mounts made up for the thicker radiator, that's all final installed.

Stripped and repainted the trans cooler hard lines, and am in process of running lines for the trans cooler (which will be positioned in the drivers side bumper vent airflow).

Welded up the mount for the IC HE, looks like it's going to be a nice fit- shouldn't need to trim the bumper at all (metal bumper or body kit bumper)- and it is perfectly centered in the opening height wise (the top and bottom 1" is all that gets covered by the bumper). I've got it attached to the metal bumper supports, and twice to the center hood latch support. Strong enough for me to stand on, so it should be plenty for the HE.

Cut out / removed all the stock plastic airflow management pieces. Made cardboard templates for the two side pieces to force air through the main radiator (extended to make sure it doesn't go around the radiator now that the AC rad is gone)- and a new lower piece to keep the exit air from the IC HE from going under the car (the factory plastic was splitting air coming out almost in two).

Here's a pic of the IC HE all mounted- still needs some finish welding and paint. Next step is to weld up the mounts for the trans cooler. It's just ghetto rigged into place for now so I can verify proper alignment with the body kit air duct.

 

this is awesome!!!

 

So when you get done, would you like to trade cars? lol

 

That is all!

 

You always have had one of the most impressive builds here on the forum. Nice to see the weather is making things more comfortable for you to be out and turning wrenches on your Monte. Nice clean work your doing, I don't even want to know how much hp your engine will be , I just know it's going to be insane over the top.

 

that is a thing of beauty.

 

Thanks for the compliments, Zippy!

I've got a huge window AC unit in my garage to keep it cool, even in the middle of summer. The story behind the weather is that I was really pushing to get this car done by spring (before it got real hot out). I ran into a few snags that took way longer than expected (mainly the gas tank which still isn't done)- and it started rolling into June and heating up. Since I took all the AC components out of the Monte, that kinda killed my drive to keep crunching through the summer since I had no plans to drive it when it was crazy hot out anyways.

Buying the C6 vette in mid May didn't help either as I was getting more instant gratification out of the mods to that (axle back exhaust, HUD, catch can, tint, etc)- it kinda made me lose focus on working on the monte. I've finally been able to slow down a bit on the vette to go back to the monte again (although I still keep my eyes out on the vette forums for a good deal on headers or a cam). The occasional breaks in the weather have helped that motivation too now that it is getting nice enough to drive again (especially in the evenings!).

Made a little more progress this weekend- I mounted up the IC fans. Ran them for a bit with the HE back on- and noticed they weren't doing a great job pulling air through the HE- rather a lot of air was getting sucked in through the gaps in the sides.

So I ended up making some ABS fan shrouds to force the fans to pull air through the IC (modeled somewhat after the 03/04 cobra aftermarket IC fan setups). Seems to make a huge difference. I tried to keep the shrouds as minimal as possible to minimize restriction to normal airflow.

I also removed the factory plastic air splitter since it was hitting right in the middle of the IC (blocking part of it, and directing the bottom half of the IC outlet air to the bottom of the car). I'm in the process of building a new one now out of ABS. I ran out of stainless sheet metal screws/bolts- so I've just got it clipped into place with vice grips for now, but it should give you a good idea of where I'm going with it.

Still needs a little more bending with the heat gun to get it perfect, but I figured I'd wait until I had the screws to get it finished up. This (combined with the revised side airflow management pieces that I haven't cut yet) will force all of the exit air from the IC into the main radiator.




I'm hoping that between the thicker radiator, removed AC rad, revised airflow management plastic pieces, upgrade to the HD Meziere water pump, and adjusted coolant/water mix ratio that I won't have to worry about cooling under WOT if I do decide to drive it in the heat.

Didn't get the trans cooler final mounted yet. I've got all the steel cut up and ready to weld on- but the fan install took much longer than anticipated. Also ran into trouble finding trans cooler rated rubber line locally. The cooler came with some line, but not enough to make it the whole way back. O'Reilys gave me PCV/emissions hose (yuck)- but luckily AZ had trans fluid spec'd stuff (and fuel injection hose clamps to boot).

 

Always love to see the updates on this car. Glad to see you getting back into this. I was afraid you were stopping

Any updates on the RWD conversion idea? This all looks to be working for your transverse mounting.

 

Who made the adaptor for the whipple to the I/C

Looks like a nice piece of billet

Or is it a one-off kinda thing

 

Nice stuff going on there