Well Im a 34 yr old USMC vet and own my second 2001 limited edition SS, first was the Earnhardt, now i have the Tony Stewart one. Love the car, its comfortable and fits my big *** in it and is easy to work with plus cheap as hell to fix. Ive browsed this forum quite abit over the last 10 years to troubleshoot every issue possible since I dont have the patience for youtube. Gave my first 01 ss to a friend before i moved away from florida to pay him back for helping me and his car died. Got a second one last summer when the VA sent me a big chunk of money and i wanted a reliable vehicle. Originally was gonna pay 2k for it until the former owner realized it wasnt 79k miles but 179, then he dropped it to 1500, then on my way out his landlady accidentally cracked the windshield with her mower and threw me 500 dollars. Pretty damn good deal right? Ive replaced just about everything in it besides the engine, transmission, and the windshield. No junkyard parts besides the windshield that im not putting on until after I run some drills with my wife on shooting through it. Its an odd vehicle that says powered by superchips on it but superchips doesnt know anything about it, figure the engine may need to be replaced eventually and stuck between throwing in the supercharged 3800 or throwing a V8 into it of some kind and possibly even a manual tranny. Id love some insight and suggestions for what i should do. Recently bought my wife an 01 firebird that had been sitting for 7 years and spent the last few weeks learning how to get it running again, now im kinda addicted to turning wrenches, havent touched a videogame in weeks and now i stay up all night looking for things to fix on my cars, friends, cars, families cars, etc.

 

Welcome to the MCForum. Thank you for your service. I was in the US Army back in the day.
Great find on the Monte Carlo's when you can share some photo's
The limited Editions for the Nascar drivers Began in
2002 with the Dale Earnhardt Intimidator,
in 2003 the Jeff Gordon edition,
In 2004 the Second Intimidator and the Dale Jr edition,
and in 2005 the Tony Stewart Edition.
Then the Pace car editions were a different group too. However if you have the Tony Stewart on it is most likely a 2005.

 

thats one thing that confuses me, title says its a 2001, which just like you said I cant find anything about a tony stewart one for that year. Do you think its possible that its a mistake? My first one said it was a 2001 also. Know if theres any way to check?

 

You have a 2001 Silver Monte Carlo SS. Tony Stewart Monte Carlo's were Black.
the one you have was probably owned by a Tony Stewart Fan, he found a decal that was what he liked and stuck it on there.
The TS car had the #20 on it for when he drove for Gibbs Racing.


The Tony Stewart Monte Carlo

 

Well that could make sense. Either way I still wanna try to make it abit more powerful. Ive replaced almost everything in it with new parts so buying a newer one will not be worth it. Should I find an L67 and supercharger, get the zzperformance L67 upgrade kit, or go the route of a bigger engine? Im aware of the costs for each and it really doesnt bother me. Also kinda curious since ive seen how some people converted it to rear wheel drive but wonder what about making it all wheel drive to distribute power better for more control? Been up all night tinkering with my wifes firebird and getting odd ideas. But about the color I believe ive seen another silver limited edition of a later year that was said to be a tony stewart one with the same markings and stuff. If youre right about it not being anything of collector value thats actually a big relief to me. Id feel terrible destroying some oddball racefans wet dream and replacing everything on it.

 

Can't help you on your modifications, but I know what you mean about attached to the monte! I've had a T-bird, a Taurus, a Buick Century (that was a sweet car), and then I got the '04 MOC SS (Victory Red) and somehow nothing else I've driven or looked at has seemed quite right since. So I went back in time and my "new" car is a 2001 MOC SS (black).
My car paint/body guy is working on it right now. He says he can clear up the headlights by lightly sanding and using clearcoat. They are just starting to get hazed on the black car. I'll let you know how it works. (If all goes well, he'll patch up my red car for winter use and fix those headlights too.)

 

Oddly im about to sand my headlights and give one last attempt before shelling out the money for new ones. Been doing some digging and turns out my neighbor is a good mechanic and was bored and lonely or something. Dont know if its stock or replaced, but turns out i have the hd transmission and it its ratio is identical to some ls4 engines which this news means it will almost be cheaper to find one of those. So does anyone know of a good home made car lift idea to avoid shelling thousands out?

 

I just found some ideas for you.


You got a fork lift?

this one looks good

this looks good if you are a builder

this looks good if you are a builder

I have seen these on the Car TV shows

I have seen these on the Car TV shows

I wouldn't trust this

 

I wouldnt get too worried about the ratio honestly, especially since the overall spread of commonly available ratios is fairly low. IMO there are only 2 times its really important:
-Putting a 2.93 HD ratio behind a stock NA 3800, especially if you use the HD converter. Makes a fairly mediocre setup even slower.
-Hardcore drag racing builds where you're trying to match rpm / gear changes to crossing the beams.

IMO, just like jacks and jack stands, a lift isn't something you want to go cheap on as you're risking your life for it. Not worth getting killed or maimed to save a few bucks.

If you only need a small lift like driver3 posted in most of those examples, a quickjack would probably be your best bet for an entry level lift with limited height amount.

 

That last one is either just for balance or its russian..