1973 Holden Monaro GTS

Made the decision to burn E85 this year. 85% distilled Midwest corn ethyl alcohol mixed with 15% gasoline. I bought a 1050 CFM Holley Dominator HP from Rob Mix of www.e85carbs.com, who also recommended the Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump. I'm going high tech and found a used Accel DFI dual channel wideband O2 datalogger and air/fuel ratio gauge that should take the guess work out of tuning. Also purchased an MSD 7AL-3 ignition which has 3 rev limiters, start retard, and RPM switch all built into one box, instead of the usual 4.

Been doing a lot of reading at http://www.e85performance.net in the forums. Lots of good information in there. I'm going to start the tune with 1 range colder spark plugs and 38 to 40 degrees of timing. One guy was running as much as 46 degrees of advance! E85 burns slower than gas and likes a lot of timing, same as methanol. It also runs cooler and costs about 1 third that of race gas, and I can buy it from the local gas station. 105 octane from the pump.

Some pics of the Monaro out in the Michigan winter sunshine! Mean stance. Enjoy!

The rollcage is just about done. It will be a "12 point" cage, meaning it attaches to the chassis at 12 points. With the A pillar bars and halo tacked to the main hoop, I broke the tacks holding the whole thing to the chassis and moved it back and down inside the car. The reason for doing this is to make it easier to weld the top joints which are impossible to get at with the cage in place. here is a pic of the cage in a position where I can weld it. You can also see the cross bar which the harness will bolt to.

After looking at lots of rollcage designs I decided to use a rear horizontal hoop to attach the main hoop supports to. These pics show the hoop and supports, as well as some gussets I installed to give that "pro-stock" look and extra strength.

The horizontal hoop attaches to the frame with a couple of short vertical pieces, and two bars run back and turn down to attach to the very rear of the frame rails. A cross bar welds to the top of the rear shock mounts and transfers all the stresses into the main hoop. Very satisfying to see it all come together. Here are some pics of the finished rear section.

My folks sent me an Australian collector car classifieds magazine for Christmas. The value of pre 1978 Holdens has gone through the roof. A 1971-74 Monaro GTS Coupe is valued from $16,000 to $62,000. LX Torana Hatchbacks run upwards of $50,000. So what am I doing cutting up an original HQ GTS coupe? From the time that I brought the Monaro home from St Louis, a couple of weeks after buying the Torana, it was always my intention to turn it into a dedicated drag car. It had the local 308ci V8 and 4 speed with a straight rust free body. I paid $US 7500 for the Monaro and $US 10,500 for the Torana in 2002. The Torana appears to have been a pretty wise investment. The Monaro however had been converted to left-hand drive, I have no idea why. They did a nice job on the conversion which cost $4500 but essentially they destroyed its value in Australia while really adding no value to it in the US where right hand drive vehicles are perfectly legal on the street.

So knowing this I have no regrets about the project and continued to cut. I had left the inner wheel wells and much of the internal bracing in but its clear it has to go to fit the tires and wheel tubs. Using a combination of cutting wheels, sawzall and body saw I trimmed a little at a time to reveal the inner quarter panel and inner bracing. Holdens are built tough for Australian conditions where they have to contend with miles of corrigated dirt roads not generally found in Europe or Nth America. So working slowly and being VERY careful not to cut into the back of the quarter panel, I cut away the inner wheel well and supporting structure. I left approx 1" of the inner wheel well where it attaches to the wheel opening lip for a little rigidity but mainly because its spot welded together and I didn't want to screw up the painted lip. Picture on the right is the untouched right side to contrast the left side which I have finished cutting. The right side should go a lot faster now that I know whats behind it.

ANOTHER fantastic December day allowing me to work with the garage door open. The natural light makes a big difference when you're working inside a dark car. Job of the day - "A" pillar bars, a job I've been dreading for a couple of reasons. First is the psycological barrier to cutting more holes in the floors to allow the bars to be welded directly to the frame, and secondly I've been frustrated before with getting the angles and "coping" or fish mouthing the tubing ends for the best fit possible. Bill always says we're building race cars, not kitchen cabinets, which I assume means don't get too hung up on getting everything perfect, just get it done. Professional race car builders may disagree but I don't think an eighth of an inch difference here or there is going to change how it handles. At the end of the day however I think I got them pretty symetrical and tight fitting, and no more than 1/8" out of square.

You may recall from an earlier post I had cleaned up the floor plates where the previous cage attached, which turned out to be a waste of time due to the requirement to attach the A pillar bars directly to the frame. I cut out a 6" square portion of the floor on each side to gain clearance to the factory subframe. To give myself plenty of flat surface to affix the bottom of the bar to I fabbed a couple of brackets and tacked them to the frame. Trust me working with a level base is a whole lot easier than trying to calculate what angle cut the bar while maintaining the correct length. So starting with the level surface I messed around with my angle finder, string and plumb bob and arrived at a bend angle of 50 degrees. Always leave yourself a couple of inches on either end for trimming to fit. Bars are tacked in place and that job thankfully is behind me. The rest of the cage should be gravy.

What fantastic weather we're having. No snow and temps in the high 30's, low 40's. People where I originate from would find those temperatures mind-numbingly cold but for me it's make hay while the sun shines! I had vacation days to spare so I've been off work since the 19th and don't go back until the new year. First job was to drop the 454 back into the motorhome with the rebuilt TH400, new Holley 600, headers with copper gaskets and stage 8 locking fastners. Some re-wiring was definately required. After setting the initial timing, it fired right up and ran great! I still have some work to do but the Monaro was calling so I backed it down the driveway and parked it next to the trailer. I'll finish it in the spring, but here are a couple of pics as it stands now.

One bad thing about journalling the Monaro build is seeing the passage of time between progress. It seems that 20 months have passed since I've done any chassis work on the Monaro. Sure I built the motor, changed a clutch on a Ford Contour, built and installed a new engine in an RX7, built and installed a new engine in the motorhome, but really, 20 months? I hope to go racing big time this year so the Monaro needs to get done. I've been procrastinating on the A-pillar bars cause getting them right is a bitch, so I thought I'd start on something easier by boxing the factory front sub-frame and tying it to the rear sub-frame. I bought a "drop" from Alro Steel for $7 which was pretty much the right width that I required, and after some trimming welded it in place. I capped the back and using some 1 5/8 inch tubing connected it to the rear main crossmember.

Still plugging away on the motorhomes 454. I assembled the heads by lubing the valve stems and installing with the original springs, retainers and keepers, but with new umbrella seals. I invested in a good valve spring compressor which saves a lot of time and frustration. Heads are bolted on with new Allstar head bolts and Felpro gaskets to a torque of 80lb/ft in three increments using the sequence in the manual. New bolts were only $30 and come with thread sealer already applied. On went the oil pump, new timing chain set, timing cover, oil pan with new Felpro gasket and a filter. Freeze plugs are new brass items, balancer was pressed back on and top dead center verified on the timing pointer using a piston stop.

I couldn't resist mocking up the motor with the rest of the parts before calling it a night. Headman headers for a P30 chassis, Edelbrock dual plane intake, a used 600 cfm Edelbrock carb and chrome air cleaner. Everything has been washed or bead blasted then painted. Looks too good to go back into the motorhome but at least it will be clean to work on!

While you have the head off and apart, might as well lap the valves before reassembling them. A suction cup on a stick, some valve grinding compound, and liberal elbow grease does the job. There are bunches of youtube videos that show you how to do this. I used some Dyechem to stain the seats blue so you can see how good the valve is sealing.

Here is a before and after showing the nice clean circle the valve makes when it's contacting the entire seat. I got lucky and all seats are in good shape and should seal well. If you have nicks or high and low spots you will need to have a machine shop cut new seats and angles on the valves. I had this done to a previous set and with surface milling, was out the door for $240.

After lapping on the left, see the nice shiny ring around the seat? I had also bead blasted the heads, and the best way to clean up after blasting is to pressure wash or put the parts in the dishwasher! Just don't try baking your powdercoating in the kitchen oven, everything you cook will taste like paint.

A fresh coat of paint and we're ready for reassembly!

Sometimes my parts find their way into the dishwasher. A whole set of valves and a pair of big block heads can fit if you remove the top tray! It does an awesome job of degreasing, just remember to pull them out as soon as its finished and coat with WD40 or they will rust in no time.

Once again I've been sidetracked by another project. In the course of servicing our "new" motorhome I dropped the pan on the transmission to change the fluid and found chunks of the aluminum case floating around. Seems the intermediate clutch retaining ring tabs were breaking off and it was only a matter of time before they failed altogether. This is a not uncommon issue with the Turbo 400 but is usually only found in high rpm applications. So the decision was made to yank both engine and trans together out the front, a job that took a whole day due to the limited access and lack of reach of my engine hoist.

Although I have rebuilt Turbo 400's before and they are not difficult, I was able to buy a newly rebult one for $325, which is less than it would have cost me to find a new case, buy a rebuild kit to do it myself. Plus the guy who built it incorporated some enhancements to help it survive in the motorhome while towing a trailer.

Since the 454 was out I thought it would be a good idea to tear it down and see what condition it was in. First surprise was finding out it was already rebuilt once with 30 over pistons and a 10/10 crank. Second surprise was finding the left head was cracked, right between the two valves in #7. Last time I started it I noticed white smoke from the left bank which I now know was caused by coolant leaking into the cylinder. In an amazing coincidence a pair of heads with the same casting number popped up on Craigslist the same day and I drove to Indiana to pick them up for $80. Being small valve, small port heads they are not very popular and I was able to buy them cheap. One of them was missing a valve and had a broken valve guide but I only needed one anyway.

Reassembling the short block

The bores were in pretty good shape with minimal wear with the exception of #7 which was pitted a little from the coolant leak. Crank was also good except for some wear on the thrust journal where a small piece of bearing got wedged. As I'm doing this on the cheap (the motorhome will see less than 500 miles a year probably), I am just re-ringing and replacing bearings. I have what I call a "dingle berry" hone, otherwise know as a ball hone, to clean up the bores a little and put some cross hatching on the walls to help the new rings seal.

The cam bearings looked pretty bad so for $16 I bought new bearings and thought I'd install them myself, how hard could it be? And with the right tool, its a piece of cake. I bought a installer/remover from Ebay for $75 plus shipping. Take your time, be sure to line up the oil holes and its just a matter of a little hammer action. Torque down the main caps before installation. Freeze plugs also get replaced with brass ones, using some Napa gasket shellac to seal. Block has been degreased, pressure washed and painted black.

Install new crank bearings using a good assembly lube drop the crank in. I'm not going to mic or plastigauge the clearances as I'm replacing with the same 010/010 bearings. Oil pressure before tear down was acceptable so nothing should change. In a perfect world I'd have the crank turned and bore it to 040, but we're on a budget. Give the crank a firm tap on the snout to align the thrust bearing and torque main caps to 110 lb/ft using engine oil to lube the threads.

Check crankshaft endplay with a dial indicator on a magnetic stand. I have .008" play which is a little loose, it should be between 5 and 7 thou but there's nothing you can do about it except replace the crank so 8 thou it remains.

Install the new rings on the pistons following the instructions in the box. Oil the bores and the piston rings, lube the big end bearing with assembly lube, use a ring compressor to drive the piston home in the bore. Install the big end rod cap and torque to 50 lb/ft. And there you have it, the bottom end is together.