1973 Holden Monaro GTS

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.

In my opinion by far the best tow vehicle to go to the track in is a motorhome. They are built on truck chassis, come with big block engines and can be bought dirt cheap. The best ones have a built in generator and roof A/C. Our 1984 Midas is a 24 foot class A sitting on a Chevrolet "P" chassis and has a 454 big block, Turbo 475 transmission, twin cylinder generator and roof air. It even has a toilet and a shower and a double bed. We picked it up this year for $2500 and were impressed by its clean interior and brand new tires ($1200 worth!). I was less impressed with the mechanicals but it made it the 20 miles from PawPaw to home, but as you'll see later it's amazing it did.

It was obvious from the start that the exhaust was leaking badly, a common problem due to the heat generated "under floor". I did some research and found that these models use cast iron manifolds with air injection. An engine driven air pump injects air into the exhaust ports to reduce emissions. It also overheats and cracks the manifolds, not to mention causing a huge restriction in exhaust breathing. You can see in the pictures below the huge crack in the manifold. Also shown are 3 of the spark plug boots that were melted beyond recognition. It's amazing this motor ran at all.

As Michigan is a no-inspection state, that system is coming off and is being replaced with headers, a 2.5" dual system with crossover and some Flowmasters that I kept from the RX7. Not only will it flow and scavange better, it will run cooler and sound better too.  Also coming off is the non-functioning engine driven A/C compressor, condenser and evaporator. They don't work so why have them cluttering up the engine, it's hard enough to work on without all that extra crap. This is where I'm at today, everything thats coming off is off and it's time to start putting it back together again.

The top end is getting an Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake, Edelbrock 750 cfm carb and MSD HEI distributor.  All fluids are getting replaced, anti-freeze, oil and trans fluid, possibly rear end oil too. I'm going to engineer some kind of cold air induction system for a little extra power for the 131 D Avenue hill. It doesn't look like much of a hill when you're in a car but our old motorhome (basically the same as the new one, just a little older and 3 ft longer) pulling the open trailer couldn't get up it any faster than 45 mph. This time we'll be pulling a 26 ft enclosed.

I will also replace the radiator, waterpump, starter all belts and hoses. It no fun being miles from home and having a waterpump fail. It may seem like overkill but these vehicles are often neglected and trusting 27 year old components or the questionable maintenance of some previous owner is not an option for me. More pictures as the work progresses.

I decided to kick start the Monaro project by building the motor. Nothing like hearing the motor running to get you excited about hitting the track. Several years ago I bought an alcohol injected big block from a mate and I ran it in the Monaro for a while, best time 10.31 skating all the way. Its been in pieces for a while and it was time to put it back together. The block is a special "bowtie" casting that has 4 bolt main and can be bored to 4.6". It is currently at 4.375" which combined with a 3.76" stroke crank makes 452 cubes. Not a big motor but a high winding one. Unfortunately the bowtie block has badly scored lifter and piston bores and I'm on a budget so boring, sleeving, new rotating assembly etc is out of the question at this time. That block will make a nice 540 in the future. As it happens I bought a two bolt block some time ago with the same bore. I cleaned up the block, honed the bores and assembled the bottom end with a 427 steel crank 10/10, I beam rods and domed forged pistons with gapless rings.

Previously I've paid to have the heads set up but this time I invested in the tools to do it myself. The heads are a 1971 026 casting, rectangular ports, ported by a local guy called Dave Crane. Valves are 2.30 intake, 1.88 exhaust. I bought the matching spring set (springs, locks and retainers) and roller lifters for the Lunati roller cam I had, which was a 1.55" diameter, requiring the spring pockets to be opened up. CompCams sells a tool that machines both the inside and outside spring pocket, which registers on the valve guide and makes the job easy. Using a valve spring mic I set up all the valves at the specified 1.95" install height with CompCams spring shims. Valve seals are Viton. I did have a machine shop surface the heads and cut the valve seats as they had been sitting for a while and had some pitting. CompCams guides, HiTech 3/8" pusrods, ARP rocker studs, Crane steel roller rockers and stud girdle top off the top end.

Other odds and ends required to complete the motor:

• Cloyes Hex-a-just double row roller timing chain
• Cloyes aluminum timing cover with cam button
• ARP head bolts
• ARP main studs
• Gaskets
• Federal Mogul main and rod bearings
• Moroso high volume/standard pressure oil pump
• Moroso 7 quart oil pan and pickup
• ARP oil pump drive and oil pump stud
• Fluidamper harmonic balancer
• ARP balancer bolt
• Victor Jr Intake
• 1050 Dominator carb (Pictures show an injected setup on the intake at the moment)

After 2 weeks of advertising on Craigslist and Ebay with no results, I put the Mazda out on Portage Rd with a for sale sign on it and sold it the very next day. As a fool and his money is soon parted, I found an enclosed 26ft race trailer on craigslist that I decided to make an offer on. A couple of months ago I had a local landscaper clear some trees and install what I call my landing strip to give me more legal parking on my land. The City of Portage requires that any vehicle or trailer has to be parked on an "improved surface", meaning concrete, asphalt or driveway stone. As the first two options are exorbinantly expensive, I had them make a 70 by 26 foot area with driveway stone. Even so, the whole thing cost $4200. But now I have enough parking for several cars and trailers.

So anyway, now I have the space for a trailer, and some cash, so time to go find one. An ad on Craigslist leads me to a guy who used to run a concession business and he hauled it all over with a ex-penske moving van rental and a 2001 Haulmark 26' enclosed trailer. He's asking $1800 for the van and $4000 for the trailer. The trailer is still full of all his business equipment, deep fryers, fridges, shelving etc. I didn't really want the van but if I can get it all cheap enough I can sell the van and get some money back so I offer him $4500 for it all. He's gotta talk to the wife and comes back with $4600 and we have a deal. After he unloaded his stuff I brought the whole rig home. As I pulled up in front of my house, a moving van pulled up. Turns out the guy had seen me driving home (with all the for sale signs still on the van) and as it happens he is in the market for a moving van so he can go into business for himself so he followed me back. He has a 1997 extended cab Chevy 2WD pickup and wants to trade straight up. We will be exchanging vehicles later today.