Here's the car as it came
off the dealer's showroom floor on April 1st. Nice
lines, but just a tad bit plain?
The Razzi Ground Effects are
exactly what the Monte Carlo needed! They look so
good and integrate with the existing body lines so well
they should have been standard equipment!
John Streza of Streza Autobody
is test fitting the side skirts - the ground effects come
unpainted and are custom fit to the car. He's also
laid the blue striping tape to mark the silver and red paint
lines that will go on later.
These are photos of
the stock flat wing removed (to be replaced by a
Razzi NASCAR/Pacecar style one). Unfortunately,
removing the stock wing leaves holes to be filled
and paint rubbed to the primer, so the deck lid
must be repainted.
The Paint &
Graphics:
Streza
Autobody handled the paint & ground effects
installation, and the guys at Freelance Lettering
are caught in the act of applying the graphics.
Here's Hector removing the factory Monte Carlo
SS badges. (We know you SS owners are cringing
at seeing this.)
John
Cline and Kelly Hawkins expertly apply vinyl.
The
Engine/Transmission transplant: Supercharging
the normally aspirated L36 3800 is not as simple
as bolting a supercharger on the factory engine. For complete details on why you cannot do this,
see question #3 of our FAQ. Click
here to check out the FAQ. Fuel injectors,
fuel rails, pistons, rods, heads, intake manifold,
throttle body - there are enough changes where
it is more feasible to replace the entire L36
normally aspirated engine with a complete L67
supercharged one rather than trying to update
one.
Drop rear cradle
for access to fuel lines
First of all, the
L36 normally aspirated 3800's fuel pump does not
have sufficient flow capacity to support the fuel
delivery needs of the supercharged L67 engine, so
an upgrade is necessary. The fuel tank on the Monte
Carlo must be dropped and the factory pump replaced
with a higher flow unit.
Removing
the tank
The entire engine/transmission
cradle is dropped out of the car and replaced.
The light duty 4T65E can either be replaced or updated
to 4T65E HD (that's heavy duty) specs. In
our case, we went a step further and built this
one with a 3.69:1 final drive ratio, increased clutch
capacity, firmed up the shifts, and installed a
high-stall converter. Here's the factory L36
normally aspirated 3800 and 4T65e transmission on
the ground.
Check this
out! An aluminum front cradle.
We'll have to see if this fits the Pontiac
Grand Prix GTP and Buick Regal GS, but initial
inspections indicate that it won't without
modification.
Here's the
view of the engine compartment without the
powertrain, with just the struts and rotor
assembly hanging. At this point, fuel
lines are also replaced (they differ between
the L36 and L67) and the CV joints / half-shafts
(the L67 require heavier duty ones.
Various brackets and assemblies to fit the
supercharged engine in a W body are added,
the wiring harness modified, and the radiator
is replaced with a larger capacity unit
as well.
The
2001 Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour
We
picked up our 2001 Monte Carlo SS from the dealer
showroom on April with the intent to have Intimidator-3
ready for the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour starting
in Pontiac, MI on May 3 - a really aggressive
schedule to say the least!
Well, we almost
made it, but not quite! We thought we'd
anticipated everything, but as always, there's
some things that slip through.
Swapping that L36
for the L67 was a bit more time-consuming than
we'd scheduled, and an intermittent EMI noise
coupled onto our TOS (transmission output sensor)
line gave us fits for two days until we saw the
noise on our oscilloscope and knew what we were
fighting, then it was easy!
We did finally manage
to catch up with the Power Tour in New Mexico.
The car ran perfectly without a hitch with excellent
streetability like it was fresh off the showroom
floor and averaged 24 MPG despite, the 3:69 gears
and uh, ahem, some not-so-average speeds.
Special
thanks to the following folks for their work and support!
John
Streza of Streza Autobody
Freelance Lettering
Park Ave Autocare
Twins Custom Concepts
