Greetings all! I just became the proud owner of a 1974 Monte Carlo Landau. Looking forward to interacting and tapping in to y'alls technical knowledge.

 

from a fellow 1974 Landau owner of 40-years; still my daily driver.

Can you post photos?

 

Nice to meet you! Here's one I took yesterday, What sort of mods have you done to yours? I'm contemplating going to R-134 and an HEI distributor.

 

As you may know, the Monte Carlo was hailed as a "muscle car wrapped in a velvet glove", Chevrolet's first "exclusive" PLC – Personal Luxury Car or Performance Luxury Coupe. The mods/upgrades I've done are based on my needs; powerful primary daily driver with creature conforts that's reliable and easy to maintain. My goal was (and still is) what I envision the 1974 Monte Carlo should have been if Federal regulations hadn't choked the power from the engines of these muscle cars.
My car was manufactured late in the model year (Aug. 1974) and thus came from the factory with HEI. My AC still uses R-12; it's more efficient in my application. My car came generously optioned: AC, power locks, windows and seat, tilt wheel, courtesy lights under the dash, in the trunk and the engine, map light, cruise control, AM/FM 8-track, Rallye sport mirrors and Rallye rims.

The Here's a list of bullet points of what I've done:

• Retrofitted factory gauge cluster (amps, temp & tach) in place of factory idiot light instrument cluster.
• Added oil pressure gauge (retained oil light) and volt gauge onto A-pillar.
• Retrofitted factory rear window defogger – creature confort.
• Retrofitted factory electric trunk opener – creature confort.
• Upgraded windshield washer pump to an electric motor style pump – less prone to failure.
• Original tires are GR70-15. Closest equivalent is 225/70R15. I run 255/60R15 – better handling.
• Upgraded factory 2-row radiator to 4-row radiator – better cooling.
• Added transmission cooler – better cooling.
• Upgraded the A/C V.I.R. (valves in receiver) to a CCOT (cycling clutch orifice tube) system – more reliable.
• Repurposed idle stop solenoid to function as AC idle compensation solenoid – better drivability.
• Upgraded the 10-SI alternator to a 12-SI and upgraded the charging wire from 10-ga to 8-ga – better electrical system performance.
• Upgraded headlights from incandescent sealed beam to H4 LED – better illumination.
• Added fog & driving lights with power relays and fuse protected circuits.
• Added dashcam.
• Upgraded horn from single tone to 5-tone – louder.
• Installed electric vacuum pump and vacuum storage canister to operate car accessories (e.g. cruise control, power brake booster, HVAC).
• Upgraded factory standard differential to positraction – better performance.
• Upgraded to Belltech Street Performance Shocks – better handling.
• Upgraded factory single exhaust to dual exhaust – better engine performance.
• Replaced iron exhaust manifolds with Headman headers – better engine performance.
• Used Nord-lock wedge lock washers on header and collector bolts – less maintenance.
• Deleted emissions fuel vapor carbon canister, E.G.R. & A.I.R. – better performance and less maintenance.
• Upgraded from 150-hp “turbo-fire” 2-bbl 400ci SBC engine to ~400-hp blueprinted balanced 350ci SBC engine.

 

Wow! That's an impressive list! Did you do write ups for any of these mods?

 

I have a YouTube channel which is linked in my signature as Drive My Car Forever.
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I just checked this thread on my phone and couldn't see my signature, so, here's a link to my channel: https://youtube.com/@drivingmyoldcar...WHGuR_nFYPJU2L

 

Awesome! I just subscribed.