454Monte.com

It’s been almost a month since I posted. Wow, where does time go?

Like I mentioned below this post I’ve done some blog maintence, I’ve stripped some features out such as the Snap previews and other applications that were slowing the page loads. While it might not be an issue for someone on a DSL / Cable broadband connection in the US, the blog pages take for ever to load over here, I’m lucky if I pull 40k a second. It got annoying so I pulled back some of the apps.

Additionally, personal / Work issues have kept me away from the 454monte blog recently, so I apologize to my half dozen or so supporters out there that visit me on a regular basis.

I’m also spending a fair amount of time writing in my political blog over at TNMiliant.com, it’s hard not to given the fact our current crop of governmental morons seem to be so adept at providing endless fodder for ridicule. Of course there is also Facebook, which in a fit of insainity I signed up for, and god is that a time sucker.

Okay, About the Monte, the car is currently still in the shop. There have been a lot of issues trying to muddle through this phase of the project.

As I mentioned previously, there were some hang ups with the engine work I wanted done, so that’s been put on hold for the time being. I might assemble the heads, and install them, the 870 CFM carb and New Weiand manifold when I make the trek home.

I’ve long suspected that I made a mistake with the BG Demon carb, not in the carb itself, it’s a great Carb easy to tune,  and runs well almost right out of the box, but the car lost power after I switched out. I think that simply put the 750 is too small for this engine. The OEM Quardajet was rated at 850 CFM, and I think I’m robbing the engine of needed fuel.

What eles is delaying it’s return to the road?

My MSD Digital 6 igntion box fried, so that had to be re-ordered, and replaced.How this happened I have no idea, it worked fine when I left lo almost 8 months ago. I’ve since replaced it with a MSD 6AL-2.

The Unisteer Rack and Pinion Unit was in, they started the car and the seals on the rack blew out. Not a great start for this particular phase to be blunt. I’m ticked that Uni-steer has marketed something, then in what looks like a poor QA phase, sold it to consumers without making sure the individual units are up to snuff. The entire unit has to come back out of the car, and then be shipped to Ohio to be repaired / replaced depending on what cause the faulty seals.

To be fair, another Monte nut put his in, in his garage, and it’s been flawless, he reports no problems with leaks or seals blowing out, so maybe I just got a bad unit. Who Knows?

So it’s been a little bit of a headache recently to say the least. But I’ll keep on pressing forward, and hopefully in the next coming weks some updated pics, and progress reports will come out.

Once the car comes out, I am going to focus some more on the rest of the suspension, I want to convert to a 4 wheel disc brake set up, and that’s not cheap. In addition to the cost of the brakes and hardware, there is going to be a wheel and tire upgrade, which is required by the new braking system I have chosen, so there will with any luck be some appearance changes to the Monte here in the coming months.

Anyhow, again, sorry for the lack of posting, the car’s still my pride and joy despite the ongoing issues I keep encountering, it is just part of these types of projects, I’ll try to post more ideas soon, I’m really starting to lean into some modernization upgrades, and the ideas are coming fast and furious, even if the money isn’t…LOL