Sleeper is correct on this. Unless you know people and good shops who know about the engine its pretty hard to do anything that makes the car go faster without major engine work.

Put some nice rims and tires on the monte and maybe the the bottom skirt painted to match the rest of the car. I hated that black ring around it.

 

Hey Sleeper, lemme know what your engine guy says. I want to make sure I was not misinformed and the information I presented about the piston heads is correct..

 

Will do... my 'engine guy' is a dude I met at a local collision shop open house a few weeks ago. He was driving a beautiful '72 Monte with a 454 in it...just sick and twisted power. Anyway - it turns out this dude is a GM engine tech who specializes in 3-4s and 3-8s...he pointed me to some interesting stuff that I didn't know was available. Between what I saw under his hood and what other car owners were telling me about his skills, I'm pretty sure I can trust this guy.

I'm learning that for 3-4s and 3-8s, a new PCM isn't worth the money...but he said I should look at an "O2 gate" (whatever the hell that is). Apparently it fits inline and tricks the MAF into thinking it's getting the proper amounts of air and fuel...I dunno. I came from the era of Holley double-pumpers and big blocks. I got ticked off when they started running wires and electronics to damn near every component under the hood.

In my world - there should only be wires running from the battery to the starter, the alternator to the battery, coil to the distributor, the distributor to the plugs, and that's about it!!! Life was simpler then, course, gas was $.45 a gallon too.

Jeff

 

sounds like a deal. lemme know what your guy says

as far as PCM's are concerned, there are alot of variables that will help improve your engine's performance. Shift points, fuel ratios, WOT and rev limitings can all be reprogrammed. So in short, PCM's do help.

 

hey look, don't worry too much about making that car faster. here's the thing:there will ALWAYS be somebody faster. So what if you can't whoop a Mazda? if you get faster than him, there will be the mustang GT's and z28's... then other people with modded cars... before you know it you got all this money twisted up in something that isconsiderably faster (maybe a second faster on 0-60, but its still not as fast as some other performance cars), but its still not fast enough. juts keep the car looking beautiful, maybe a few things to help performacne a little and soem gas mielage maybe, but thats it. if you want a race car, go trade that thing for a Z28 and start working. a Monte Carlo isn't much of a race car. it can hold its own against quite a bit of stuff, but if you want to race and really be something, a V6 FWD isn't the way to go.

 

Cowboy, I think you are a little negative in your performance ideas. Todd Allen runs an 11.94 bonneville (3.8 SC)that he drives everyday. It sounds great, looks awesome, and gives all of the performance you need to smoke alot of v8's out there. Yes, on occasion, you will run into a Z28 that can run pretty good. But honestly, with a little time, money and effort, a V6 can most DEFINITELY outperform ALOT of V8's out there. and as far as a gt is concerned, that is childs play. the biggest threat is the SVT.

-Keegan