Whenever someone says Chevrolet and NASCAR
in the same sentence, there is only one thing which can possibly come to mind. The Monte
Carlo. Famed as the winningest car in NASCAR history, the Monte Carlo has become somewhat
of a collectors Item. Claiming any where from $5,000 to $25,000 for a Primo Speciman. The
Men and Women who own these cars take so much pride in them. It is incredible.
My Monte Carlo story begins in March of 1995, when my Fiance bought me
a beat up, dented, rotted 1985 Monte Carlo SS. She paid $1,300 for it.
The MC was not in very good shape, and was very neglected. Bad Valve
seals caused it to smoke like a Mack truck. The drivers side rear & front quarters
were smashed in. I decided that the first order of business was to get it into the body
shop... and thats where it sat... for six months. It's a real pissa when someone is gonna
do you a favor... He's doing you a favor, so you cant rush him. Well, I finally gave up
hope, and pulled it out of the shop, and moved it to our Race Car garage. Now I was stuck
in a situation where I needed the car to be road worthy soon, because my other car was
dying. Whats a guy to do?? YUP, pulled out the old air powered WIZ tool and cut the
drivers side rear quarter off. In it's place went an original GM NOS quarter panel. I
should also note that I never before had done, nor seen done, any body work. Believe it or
not, it came out pretty good. Finally a Body man friend of mine said he would do all the
rest of the body work and painting for only the cost of paint and materials. Well worth
the $300.00!
Next, I finally mounted the American Racing rims, and BF Goodrich Comp
TA 215/65s on the car (They had been sitting in my Garage for 6 months since the purchase
of the car). The Dynomax Cat Back went on without a hitch (Hollowed the Cat while during
the new exhaust install)
Next came the Engine. The stock 305 was beat to say the least. I was
given an L69 out of a Iroc Z. This motor had the roller cam, one piece rear mains, and was
in pretty good condition. The block went to Richard's auto parts in Lowell Mass, where it
was tanked, and power honed, New cam bearings, freeze plugs, and Galley plugs were put in.
When I got the block back, it looked new!
I had purchased a Crane, Non Roller Compu Cam 2030 6 months earlier, so
I deleted the roller cam and Lifters, replacing the with the Conventional Cam and Hydrolic
Lifters. A 10/10 Crank was layed in the bottom end, and then connected with a set of
Refurbished GM "X" rods to a set Keith Black KB143(Flat top/hyperutectic/2 Valve
Reliefs) Pistons. All bearings in the Engine were replaced with Clevite 77 Bearings. The
Stock L69 heads were used. These heads were pocket ported, 3 angle Valve job with stock
1.85/1.5 valves. Harmonics were put to rest using a Fluiddamper balancer (Left over from
our race car)
The engine breaths through an Edelbrock TES. (Had to put a Summit Cat
back on due to a pending move to Ohio, where the Smog police are out in force). Fuel is
delivered through an edelbrock Performer EGR intake, and Holley (Reman) Stock Quadrajet.
Dale
Earnhardt's #3 MC