I'll have to dig up more pics later and fill in details but this car was a ground up build I did for a DD that turned out to be an effective daily that not only performs well(13.5 in the quarter) but knocks down around 35 mpg highway. And never gets below 25 city. For now I'll leave it as it was a base 3100 car I swapped a high compression series 3 3800 into with an updated m90 supercharger. Probably my favorite all around car I've had
Few more pics. Story behind this car. I bought it completely bone stock when I started working as a dealer mechanic at a small Arkansas used car lot. 3100, 15" steel wheels, sitting 5' off the ground. Didn't originally intend to do much to it but it kinda snow balled..... especially after I realized how cheap and easy these cars are to modify. Dropped it 5", installed a fast ratio rack, heavier front and rear sway bars, swapped to 05 monte ss seats and console (stock 95-99 monte seats are horrible lol), digital police speedometer, 18x9" wheels, flared wheel openings, and of course a powerful stereo. In 2014 I snuck around and borrowed a neighbor's cherry picker so I could swap to the bigger supercharged 3800 in my apartment parking lot (should mention I carried the engine in the trunk for the previous three weeks lol) overnight before my landlord caught wind. First pic is about an hour before doing my first burnout with the bigger engine lol. On the current engine that I installed in 2015 I terrorized everything between Kansas City and Houston lol. When I drove the ten hour drive to magnolia Texas from Clinton Arkansas it still amazed me how well the car highway cruises at 90 despite the fact with as much as I've done to the car it has not had an alignment since I've owned it lol.
Series two and three 3800 got even smoother running. Like you have to be making serious power before they start running choppy lol. My car is only in the sub 300 crank horsepower range but same bone stock bottom end has been proven reliable multiple times to 600 wheel hp. If you regap the rings they're good to 700+ wheel hp. I was more interested in ripping corners in the Ozark mountains than quarter mile so torque was more important to me. And the big power 3800s end up with a quirkier torque curve and less torque down low. Kinda a running joke about 3800s is the ****pier they sound the more powerful they are. Mine sounds nice and rumbly at idle thanks to the borla exhaust but under boost it sounds like a turbo charged 3.5 Nissan. A few times where I decided to see whether I or the car next to me was faster to the next stoplight the tone change came in handy when inquisitive police heard the loud exhaust. By the time they got there my car sounded nothing like what they heard lol
I have a 2005 Lesabre with the 3800. I tell people its like sitting on a pillowtop mattress strapped to a cruise missile. Smoother than a gravy sandwich, in other words... Anyway, is your monte still electronically governed? If not, how did you byp*** it and how fast is that mofo?
I believe it still shuts off at 127. Only actually ever had it to 122. Few times when I raced it I barely had to break 100. And 90 is such a nice cruising speed in this car lol
Ah. I think my buick is limited to 107. I was on the intestate with it last year and bumped it up to 90 for a few minutes to leave some erratic drivers behind and the onboard computer display bumped the mpg figure up another mile from what it said at 75mph.
Yeah naturally aspirated series II and 3 cut off between 105 and 107 unless police package. I had a 9c3 police lumina PCM that cut off at 140 from the factory. Side note on my digital police lumina speedometer......it's actually calibrated accurately to 255 mph.....even though this car will never go more than around half of that lol
So I tried to get the vin number off it so I could get a replacement ***le as it's been so long since it was tagged that while in system they can't just pull it up with my name. They need vin or tag number. Unfortunately apparently old paranoid habits were still dying hard when I started driving this car at 28. My teens and early 20s I was a bit of an outlaw and would antagonize police so I could outrun them for fun. This particular car is the first car I ever tagged. So an old habit of mine was to cover part of the vin to where it looked like an accident. So when I went to Arkansas last week (without the keys) I went to get the vin and there was a damn condom covering it lol. Luckily I remembered I had plenty of pics on my FB with the Missouri tag number clearly visible as I was always making fun of the people that cover the plate online. Lol. So I'll still be able to replace the ***le
The Jalopy Journal
