1975 Monte Carlo
The Bartmobile
I pulled this car out of a wrecking yard back in 1994 and have been
working on it ever since.
I took good parts from my first car which was rusted out real bad under
the vinyl top and had some
finder dammage and some parts from a few other cars to make one good
car. This car had a straight
body but no engine or transmission. I took the engine, transmission,
doors, trunk lid, bumpers, and
all of the interior of my first car and put it in this one. Then
I got a transmission crossmember from a
1973 Monte Carlo because it has the double humps to allow for dual
exhaust,
and the rear axle came from a 1974 Pontiac.
But, before putting it all together, I got it all sanded down, fixed
a few little dings from shopping carts
and hail dammage, then primered and then painted "dark cherry" inside
and out so everything
looks right - door jams, under trunk lid, etc. are all matching color
with the outside.
383 Stroker engine
430 H.P. 450 lb.ft. Torque
I originally had a 350 2-bolt main that I drove until it was burning
nearly as much oil as gas then
had it overhauled at a cheap machine shop (which I'll never ever make
that mistake again). Well,
when that engine threw a pushrod due to the machine shop having installed
the wrong valve springs.
I was already way past the 1-year warranty period, so I didn't bother
complaining, but anyway,
I decided to do a real good job on fixing it up this time (this was
in December of 2002).
One of the heads had a crack, so I decided to get new heads.
Might as well get somethig good
since I have to replace them anyway, so I got Pro heads with 2.02"
intake valves and angle plugs.
I also decided to stroke it to a 383 and put on an air-gap intake manifold
and use roller rockers
plus several other little goodies inside. However, when we first
cranked it up, it had a knocking sound,
and after a complete teardown, we find out one lifter bore is out of
tollerance. Rather than fix the block,
the performance machine shop I used this time was kind enough to supply
me with a seasoned virgin
4-bolt main block at their cost. So, we bored it out .030" over
and cut it for the 400 crank clearance, did
full blueprint internal balancing on it, and got it all assembled back
together and it ran great,
including having a "healthy lope" due to the performance cam.
The only thing I ended up using from the first engine was the distributor,
carburetor, and valve covers, but
even then, only the distributor was original (except for the aftermarket
ignition module and high voltage coil).
But now, even the distributor has been upgraded (complete HEI style
MSD distributor), and as you can see below,
the carburetor has been upgraded since the 600 CFM Edelbrock was better
suited for the 350.
Meanwhile, my transmission was still mostly stock with only a mild
shift kit installed. It broke after about
a year after putting in the new engine, so I did some research and
found out that a lot can be done
to transmissions to make them stronger. So, in spring of 2004,
I had the transmission fully rebuilt with
lots of goodies including Kevlar friction plates, Koleen steels, hardened
sprag, and a good shift kit. I also
installed a towing-rated 1,500 RPM stall torque converter, external
oil cooler, and extra capacity oil pan.