mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

[marco_1978_spyder]

If...

If my car keeps running like it is.....

Then I'm done tuning!!! The last 2 days I've arrived at a most excellent running state.

In a nutshell; I have a nearly stock original 1978 Monza Spyder with 81k miles.

The original engine has been reworked to double the amount of original horsepower.

While retaining the cars original road manners.

With the exception of a slightly deeper rumble to the exhaust tone, the car runs quiet and SMOOTH. Very smooth.

You can launch the car very easily from absolute idle with an easy foot on the clutch and gas. Tip in easy for a smooth, "next to a cop car" take off...

Or give the throttle a squeeze... and it responds with a healthy dose of seat of the pants feel.

Nice and very predictable, no noticeable stumble or lag. My timing is at 12* initial and 34* total in around 2500 rpm. No Nocking. Even when running around 205 degree's. Starts fine. Ported Vac, used for best engine feel...but Manifold vac being reconsidered for it's idle cooling.
The curve is set using a 375 stamped GM center plate, and the stock 106 stamped weights. Springs are the heavy ones from a Mr. Gasket curve kit.

Carb...

[marco_1978_spyder]

Carb is an Edelbrock 1406.

I've adjusted the floats. Hooked up and set the electric choke.

Stock rod's and jet's. It has a set of Silver springs in it...It came with yellow springs (4"Hg for enrichment) meaning the fuel for the secondaries wasn't supplied so fast, leaning the secondaries out a bit from the Silver ones (7"Hg) in there now.

It may try the Yellow ones for giggles, but it runs superb now with the silver ones in there.

It sits on an edelbrock 2101 manifold. And Edelbrock 420/442 cam sits in the block turned by a Cloyes double roller chain.

The exhaust is nearly stock..missing the 'center clog' and the muffler is a dual outlet like the stock spyder unit.

I'm thinking some sandersons and true duals with an H pipe would really make this combo come alive.

The block is the original ground .030 and fitted with flat top pistons 9.5:1 comp.

1.84 intake heads from an '84ish 305 HO motor.

Custom snorkel intake (from '81, hot air, carb'd, turbo regal ) with K/N cone filter.

Stock drivetrain. 3 row radiator...(see next post)

[marco_1978_spyder]

Once the car really started to run well... I'd guess it was now making some decent power.... you guessed it, it started to run a little hotter.. I don't believe this is due to a lean condition, due to the normal tan reading of the plugs.

The car seemed to stabilize at 210.

I popped the thermostat housing off, and found a robert shaw 160 in there. I replaced it with a regular style 160 with 2 holes drilled into it. It now seemed to run at 212.
No hot start problems, and the car ran very strong at this temp...but its just too close to overheating for my taste, and can bring on starter heat soaking on really hot days.

So I tried a crazy expiriment and put a 195 thermostat I had laying around in there and the car overheated like crazy.. So the very latest thing I've done is take that thermostat and snip the guts out of it.

It was cooler out on the day I tested it, but it seems that steady stat operating temps are down 10 degree's to a more normal 195 degree's. When I'd let the heat build up to 210 after idling for 4/5 minutes...
It seemed to run stronger on the top end. And eventually the motor would cool back to 195 after some driving.

No starter heat soak issues either.

So I'm keeping the system as is for now, although I have an aluminum fixed blade / 6 blade fan with a spacer I want to try. Maybe next year, I can also upgrade to an aluminum water pump. And even better, an aluminum radiator, but thats way out of my buget right now.

[marco_1978_spyder]

And lastly for todays installment..

It appears that after all this refinement to the way my car runs.. the initial problem that got me here....is still there!!!

Only it's tamed to be harly noiceable. I can still get the car to buck and kick at idle IF I really try to let it roll on its own at 650 rpm. Make that 800 rpm, and it turns into only a slight stumble.

At 650rpm.(the stock idle rpm) the bucking, if induced, also becomes a slight flat spot off idle.

I figure the stock setting should be thrown out the window, since every thing else has been changed. I like the slowest idle possible, but 750/ 800 isn't all that bad..

Time to consider some new heads along with a better valve train.

So overall..I don't have the 13 seconds street sleeper / Porsche eater, I often dream about...
But I have created a spyder they way a spyder should have run compared to a regular v8 2+2.

Next on deck for mod's.... The suspension:
Back to the 1" lowering springs and thick aftermarket swaybars..

[marco_1978_spyder]

Sorry, once again no pictures to document the fun,

I had an awesome day at my storage area today...

A beautiful warm yet breezy afternoon.

Started with a pleasant ride in the Red spyder to the quick mart for some drinks. The car ran just a tad too warm for my taste, but not overheating and running smooth and very responsive, so all was great there.

Then I decided to dive into a project I'd been thinking about, but kept putting off..

Re organizing my storage by removing a mountain of totes and boxes, and things taking up major floorspace...

I had 5 metal shelves in various sizes from garage sales to make use of.

Make good use of them I did...

I was able to utilize an old countertop and some old 2 by tens to make a place to park transmissions and engine blocks and utilize space straight up above there. I gained major floor space.

I took me over 8 hours, and it was hot as heck in there. But it was so worth it. Now over 95% of everything I have has a home on shelf. Or is in a numbered tote which has a place on the shelf that is more accessable than before.

I can access my sunbird much easier now, and dont have to move anything out of the way to back it out of its space, and nothing is being stored on top of it. I havent had it this organized ever.

With me being content with how the monza is running, I can now focus on whats needed to get the Formula sunny, back on the road easily, and without tripping over everything.

When that cars ready, maybe by next year, the aveo will be paid off - (that car has almost as many miles as my 78 spyder) (89k). Maybe then I'll get the brown sunbird going... maybe an scca car? V8??

[marco_1978_spyder]

2 more good things going on at storage.

1st.. I dove into a long awaited, yet long dreaded, re-organization project.

I had procured all these cheap metal shelves from garage sales and needed to rip out a pile of totes and boxes to get them installed.

To do this I had to back the white formula out of its parking space... to do that I had to move a bunch of shelves and misc. items out of the way.

I finally had some time this past Sunday so I ripped into it just after noon.

It was about 90* outside, and must have been *100 inside. Within a few hours of shoving things around the place like a puzzle, I had some shelves in place and fastened to a wall.

I got creative along the back wall with some spare countertop and some 8 foot 2 x 10s. I installed 3 identical short shelving units in sideways as far apart as the countertop and boards would let me.

Doing this enabled me to retain the shelf space, PLUS have a space underneath for 2 trannies and an engine.
It also gave me extra space ABOVE , utilizing space available at the peak of the roof.
6 totes went up there.

Also seats, which are a pain to store are now up off the ground.

Overall I gained a massive amount of floorspace back. The best part is the Formula has nothing stored behind it, or on top of it....So it's much less buried and forgotten than it was last week.

Now for the Monza.....Once storage was set back up I got around to trying the stock springs out (for the edelbrock carb)... I'm comfortable with the way it's been running for a few days...so it was time to see if going to the stock springs made any difference..

I found I had a set of Orange jobs in there.. I changed one step leaner to the stock yellow ones.

The carb feels perfect. Love getting into the 4bbls now, performance is stellar.

Thats it for now...late for an appointment

[marco_1978_spyder]

Drove the car around 1-1-11.

We had an unusal break from the fierce cold of the last few weeks.. and while it was a little damp and drizzly, I decided to take the monza for a short drive.

I do have to say.. I hate watching the miles click up on the odo.
It was awesome to be able to tell people -for a time-I have a '78 monza with only 62k miles on it!
Now it's more like 82k and clicking.

All that being said, I also don't like to let good car's sit around for month's unused.
So I get in the monza whenever possible, and run it around the block.

I started out in the AM which was super cool, as there wasn't anyone else on the road's.

Later on got very daring and drove through the drizzle into a nearby town to get some oil for the Aveo.




Since I was going right passed it, I decided to stop at the dealership my car was delivered to...

[marco_1978_spyder]

The Ownership history of my monza. From Delivery to me:

Here is the history of my Red 1978 Monza Spyder as I understand it.

It begins like this. Sometime in the Spring of 1978. A Female in her 20's, an employee of Kodak, stopped by Mulkin Chevrolet in Brockport NY. She placed an order for this well optioned Red Monza Spyder. A custom order.

On June 6th 1978 the car received it's Pre Delivery inspection from the above mentioned dealership.

So it's presumed the original owner took posession of the car on or just after this date.

She drove the car, presumably to work and back from then until sometime early in 1981. 22,500 Miles on the car.

Thats where my paper trail starts, with some dealership paperwork sales slips to the 2nd owner in 'mid 1981.

There's a hint of some unusual and unfortunate history with the car around this time.

The 2nd ownder, whom I purchased the car from was sketchy about the car's history. He knew the previous owner having worked with her at Kodak. And thats how I got those details.

I have reason to believe that this car was stolen from the mall parking lot , from one of those owners in 1981.
I guessing the first owner, bringing her to the reason she wanted to trade it in, but the 2nd owner acted like he knew something had happened to the car, but didn't want to remember. ... see next reply...

[marco_1978_spyder]

Apparantly a group of 3 teens, stole the car from the "Greece Towne Mall" parking lot one day in 1981. They car spent a horrific 2 weeks in there possession. At during this time it was subjected to wild joy rides, resulting a many minor collisions. They were eventually caught. My car was repaired under insurance and returned to the rightful owners. ( the body lines do indeed reveal repairs of this nature made to the car sometime in the cars life).

So aside from this the 2nd owner says he'd pass the car sitting at the dealership on his way to work and decided to make a deal on it. In 1981 he signed over his Kodak Bonus check to Durfee Chevy Olds of Spencerport, NY to the tune of about 3,500 bucks. He claims the dealership was tucking the dealer plate under the spoiler for customer rides and that ended up warping the spoiler like it did.

From him there's a paper trail of receipts for tire purchases and oilchanges from '81 thru about '89.

The car didn't get a whole ton of miles on it. A total of only 33k while he owned it.

There's receipts from a body shop in 1986. Seem's some sort of refreshing work was done to the car, including receipts from the dealership parts department for all new decal's.

Sometime around this time the car was treated to an IECO or Addco suspension kit. 4 new springs lowered the car by one inch...

[marco_1978_spyder]

Thicker sway bars locked the car down from the generous amount of factory sway. 205/60-13s on the stock rally wheels and a grant GT steering wheel, all upgraded the factory suspension and steering system.

2 (probably good at the time) Sparkomatic era speakers were added to the jack cover at the rear of the hatch.
A mid level 'craig' FM stereo replaced the factory AM unit at some point.
He also replaced the factory clock with a real digital clock, but it looked a little to cheesy at night. So I've converted back to a non functioning but original odometer style 70's "digital" clock.

The guy drove the car until about 1990 when it was parked in the garage and slated for a project involving the engine. He aquired a mix of new performance items for the car... cam, headers ,intake, 4bbl, nitrous kit, flat top pistons..
He also dismantled the entire car from the firewall forward...every last part, nut, and bolt was removed.

The outside frame was sanded clean down. A tiny section of the lower outer drip pan on the drivers side was cut out due to a rust hole. Nut's and bolts were put into about 10 lunch bags. Removed parts were scattered around the property. Fenders

The car sat like this over the next few summers. It was pushed outside and under a cover in about 1993 to make room for an MG project the guy accuired. Over the next 2 years a pine tree had begun to seriously cover the car with new growth. It was time to seal the driveway, and the guy now just wanted the car to gone.



Realizing

[marco_1978_spyder]

So that brings us to 1995 when the guy decides to place an ad in local paper for 2nd hand items called the "swap sheet" It was the craigslist of the 1980's,lol.

And I just happen, on a whim to decide to buy one and browse for monza's.

I almsot didn't even see the ad, there was an ad for a southern chevy monza near my house in the regular chevy section that stole my main attention. Then there was this small add in the parts vehicles section..

78 chevy monza. partially dissassembled. 55,213 miles $950.

I went to look at the Southern monza first. It was $1,900 and pretty cobbled together, so I decided to pass it up..
Called on the other one, and made arrangements to go see it the next day.

Somehow the picture I gathered in my mind, was much more dismal than what I found when I arrived.

I found the house, on a quiet road, not more than 10 miles from my parents house where I lived at the time.
I pulled up and turned into the driveway. Looking at the car cover partially covered by a very tall and large pine tree..I could see..."Hey yeah, there's a monza under there"

After meeting the owner out front and introducing myself, I lifted the car cover up for the very first peek...

[RONS PROVEGA]

Hey Marcos....I'm getting really bored reading this so I decided to pop open a beer and spark up a doobie just to relieve the tension!

[marco_1978_spyder]

Lol...I chose to lift the cover right ahead of the rear wheel well to instantly expose what I thought would be a rusty area

I had also expected the car to be light blue for some reason.

I was confused for a quick second to see a solid normal area in a smooth and glossy looking red color.. Then the some black bits caught my eye...both hands bringing to cover up now..." Oh..the spyder stripe...wow" ..and just the spyder stripe, but there's not a chip crack or fade mark to be seen yet... with the door's and lower rockers showing no sign of rust, it was time to rip the cover up and find out what the heck I was looking at here...

Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I'm entering into some kind of shock,lol.
Next comes the door glass...black spyder trim and mirror present...a peek into the interior..

Ok wow...Its tan, different, but not bad ... clean and...appears to be pretty nice!!! Seats are cloth and wow no rips or tears!

By this point I'm feeling a mix of disbelief, shock, and a fear that this one is gonna slip away..since I don't actually have the asking price on hand or available for at least a few weeks of working..

I walk to the front and see that the hood is sitting on top of both otherwise exposed frame rails. Lift the cover to see a perfect red hood with a perfect spyder decal! How it's existing under that pine tree is beyond me. But there it is. The front frame rails are propped up on some 4x4 peices of wood stacked up. At this point, I know I must must must snag this car... The front will need some assembly -great barganing chip, while the rest of the deal is a 55k mile gem...

[marco_1978_spyder]

So...I cross my fingers and ask the guy if he'll take my 20 bucks to hold this car and tell people it's sold...I made it sound like I could get the money in a day or 2.
The day or 2 turned into a week, and I'd call the guy and pray he wasn't going to tell me someone came and scooped up the car from under me...

A whole week of holding my breath and racking my brain, I caught my dad on a good moment...
Looking back I'm pretty sure he knew something was bugging me all week..
I happened to have a 78 brochure which has a centerfold picture of this spyder right on the 1st page.

I opened it up and said, Dad...what if I could get this exact car for $850?? That peeked his interest but he didn't have that to just hand over to me, but after a few minutes of asking and promising I'd clean the garage out...He said he'd be willing to cosign a loan for me....

Which he'd done a year before, for a black 79 spyder but that deal fell through and we repaid the loan the next day.

I had to accept a 2 year long payment plan on sum of money, but it worked out well , getting the engine rebuilt and the tow home.

The deal was sealed after a week of stressing, and it came time to pick the car up a Following Saturday afternon...

[marco_1978_spyder]

I knew of a guy with a flatbed that would tow classics for buddies for reasonable rates...

Gave him a call, and explained the situation of the front of the car being on wood blocks.

He said no-problem..he could handle it. And as far as loading it up goes, there wasn't a really problem at all.

-with the loading-

When I arrived to pick the car there was an amazing sight. There was an pile of monza parts in the front driveway.

Every part of everything off the front of the car was there. In complete dissassembly. Block, Pistons,Rod's, Fenders, Nosepiece. steering, springs, control arms, spindles. everything.

PLUS...Here's where the flatbed driver got a little green with envy... Boxes of all the new stuff he was gonna put on the car... Holley 600 dbl pumper, tourqer intake, Valvesprings, Cam, flat top pistons, NOS kit! < Flatbed guy made off with it in the tussle of things... Some other minor engine rebuild items, and wow, it was all going with the car!! What a super guy, he acted like no big deal please get it all out of here!!

So I start loading up the car Carefully, the interior is perfect. I soon see that the flatbed guy doesnt have the same care or concern as I do..